Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday held a press briefing following the arraignment of former President Donald Trump, and claimed that Trump "repeatedly made false statements" on New York business records and made others do the same.

“Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” said Bragg.

“Trump then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity,” he added.

"These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are," Bragg said. "We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct."

Bragg said the case, "like so many of our white-collar cases," alleges that "someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable."

"The evidence will show that Trump lied … to cover up crimes related to the 2016 presidential election," he continued.

The payments to Michael Cohen were meant to "hide damaging information from the voting public," he stated.

When asked why his office was pursuing the case now, Bragg said there is more evidence in hand than his predecessor had.

Trump earlier on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy for allegedly paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his presidential 2016 campaign.

Following the arraignment, Trump flew back to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.