Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York is entering its third week on Monday with the most dramatic testimony very likely yet to come.

The first witness prosecutors called to testify on Monday was former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney to the stand. 

Prosecutors are building toward their main witness, former Trump lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen.

They spent last week edging closer to the people in his personal orbit.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels, who claimed she had sex with Trump, was paid for rights to her story to keep the information hidden from voters, prosecutors are arguing.

The hush money was recorded as Trump's business legal expenses, but was actually part of his campaign, according to the charges against him.

The former president has pleaded not guilty.

On Friday, Trump's former communications director Hope Hicks testified of the "crisis" his infamous "Access Hollywood" tape presented to his 2016 presidential campaign just weeks before the election.

Trump boasted off camera on the 2005 tape about his celebrity in his "Apprentice" reality series, and what that meant he could do to women.

"When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the p---- [genitals]," he bragged. "You can do anything."

Trump did not deny the tape after it was released, but merely dismissed his words as "locker room talk."

Daniels' story emerged in the wings almost immediately afterward just as Trump's attitude toward women was threatening the success of his campaign.