Prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney's office have arrived in the courtroom.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not present at this point.

Former President Donald Trump has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of today's proceedings.

Court is scheduled to get underway at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Stormy Daniels, one of the state's star witnesses, is scheduled to take the stand today, according to sources.

The decision to call Daniels as a witness allows the jury to directly hear from the woman at the center of Trump's criminal trial.

Prosecutors argue that Trump -- still reeling from the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in October 2016 -- orchestrated a last-minute $130,000 hush money payment through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for Daniels' silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which the former president has denied took place.

When Trump repaid Cohen in 2017, prosecutors allege Trump falsified business records to hide the hush money payment from voters.

While the alleged criminal conduct centers on the falsification of business records, Daniels' alleged encounter with Trump and negotiations through her former lawyer Keith Davidson are likely to be discussed during her testimony.

In a post to his social media platform this morning, former President Trump wrote, "I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare."

He then deleted the post a short time later.

Prosecutors at the start of the trial asked for and received permission from Judge Juan Merchan to not reveal the identity of witnesses in the case until just before they're scheduled to appear, in order to avoid them being targeted by remarks from Trump, who is under a limited gag order not to make statements about witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case.

"The defendant has been violating the order restricting extrajudicial speech, and we don't want to have the next witnesses' names out there," prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said yesterday about Trump, who was fined an additional $1,000 by the judge for violating the limited gag order for a tenth time.

Trump once told McConney, "You're fired" -- but it was just a "teaching moment," the former Trump Organization controller testified.

McConney shared an anecdote from early in his tenure at the Trump Organization, in the late 1980s -- which might have foreshadowed the iconic catchphrase Trump later brandished on his reality TV show, The Apprentice.

"I would hand-deliver the [cash position] report to him once a week," McConney explained.

On one of those occasions, McConney said he entered Trump's office while Trump was on the phone. After he dropped off the report, McConney said he turned to leave. Trump asked whoever he was on the phone with to "hold on."

"Jeff, you're fired," he said Trump told him, before turning back to his conversation on the phone.

McConney said he waited until Trump rang off. When he did, he said, "Jeff, you're not fired. But my cash balances went down since last week."

"It was a teaching moment," McConney said. "Just because someone is asking for money, negotiate with 'em, talk to 'em -- don't just do it mindlessly."

Trump, sitting at the defense table, appeared to flash a smile as McConney relayed the anecdote.