In the first-ever criminal trial against a former US president, which begins today in New York, the accused Donald Trump will listen to the prosecution’s explanation of why he broke the law by allegedly paying a porn star to remain silent during his 2016 presidential campaign ., reported Reuters.
Attorneys for the Republican presidential nominee will also make their opening statements on the first of possibly four criminal charges Trump must face before facing Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Prosecutors say the $130,000 Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged sexual contact with Trump may have misled voters in the final days of the 2016 campaign, when the candidate of the Republican Party has also struggled with other revelations about sexual relationships.
Before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump pleaded “not guilty” to all 34 counts of falsifying business documents and denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels.
That case is seen by legal experts as the least significant of the charges against Trump. A conviction would not prevent him from becoming president, but it would hurt his candidacy.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed half of independent voters and one in four Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted.
According to prosecutors, the payment to Daniels was part of a larger cover-up scheme masterminded by Trump, Cohen and David Packer, a former executive at publishing company American Media, in which they paid off insiders. , which could hurt Trump ahead of the November 2016 election, when he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Packer is the first witness the prosecution plans to call after its opening statements, The New York Times and CNN reported. According to the indictment, in August 2015, the publisher agreed to meet with Trump and Cohen to serve as ” eyes and ears’ of the campaign, looking for stories that would hurt the Republican candidate.
American Media, which publishes the National Inquirer tabloid, admitted in 2018 that as part of a deal to avoid criminal prosecution, it paid former Playboy model Karen McDougall $150,000 for the rights to her story about the long-running months of an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. American Media reported that it worked “in concert” with the Trump campaign and never published the story.
The tabloid reached a similar agreement to pay $30,000 to a bouncer who wanted to sell the story about Trump’s alleged illegitimate child that turned out to be false, prosecutors said.
Trump said the payments were personal and did not violate election law. He also denied having an affair with McDougall.
According to the GOP presidential nominee’s indictment, in 2017 he falsified documents about Cohen’s payment to Daniels to record it as a legal expense on his real estate company’s books.
According to prosecutors, Trump did this to cover up the fact that Cohen’s payment exceeded the $2,700 limit on individual campaign contributions at the time.
Testimony about the payments to McDougall and the doorman could help prosecutors identify Cohen’s payment to Daniels as part of a larger payment scheme in which Trump sought to suppress certain facts.
Peker’s testimony could also help support the claims of Cohen, who is the main witness in the trial. Prosecutors have acknowledged that Cohen may face credibility problems since he was convicted and jailed on federal campaign finance charges for his role in the scheme.
The prosecution plans to call at least 20 witnesses, Trump’s defense team said. The process will take between six and eight weeks.
A close race
Trump’s legal troubles won’t hurt his political ambitions overall. His approval rating has risen among Republicans since the impeachment in New York in April 2023, and polls have shown him in a close race with Biden.
Trump faces three other criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss and the withholding of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
Trump has pleaded “not guilty” to the charges and described them as a massive effort by Biden’s Democratic allies to undermine his campaign.
Judge Juan Murchan, who is overseeing the hush money trial, imposed a restraining order on Trump sharing information after he criticized witnesses, prosecutors, the judge and his daughter. Prosecutors are pressing Murchan to punish Trump for violating that order.
According to BTA
Tags: Opening statements Trumps buysilence case
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