Former US President Donald Trump will be charged with a crime over allegations he covered up hush money payments to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Ms Daniels claims she and Mr Trump had sex, and that she accepted $130,000 (£100,000) from his former lawyer before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence on the encounter.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, was later jailed on multiple charges.

The former president has denied he had any sexual involvement with Ms Daniels since the allegations surfaced in 2018.

Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said in media interviews that she met Mr Trump at a charity golf tournament in July 2006.

She alleged the pair had sex once in his hotel room at Lake Tahoe, a resort area between California and Nevada. A lawyer for Mr Trump “vehemently” denied this at the time.

“He didn’t seem worried about it. He was kind of arrogant,” she said in response to an interviewer’s question asking if Mr Trump had told her to keep quiet about their alleged night together.

Mr Trump’s wife at the time, Melania Trump, was not at the tournament and had just given birth.

In 2016, days before the US presidential election, Ms Daniels said Mr Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 in “hush money” to keep her quiet about the affair.

She said she took it because she was concerned for the safety of her family.

Ms Daniels said she was legally and physically threatened to stay silent.

In 2011, shortly after she agreed to give an interview to In Touch magazine about the alleged affair, she said an unknown man had approached her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas car park and told her to “leave Trump alone”.