New York | Donald Trump claimed he was a victim of political persecution on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) and lashed out at the New York prosecutor leading the case against him, just hours after becoming the first former US president to appear in court on criminal charges.

A stoney-faced Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as prosecutors accused him of orchestrating payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their sexual encounters with him.