Donald Trump attempted to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing the publication of incriminating revelations about his personal life. That’s what the prosecutor in the case told jurors Monday as the historic trial began against the former president accused of paying to remain silent.
The payment of hush money is “purely election fraud,” the indictment said.
The former president’s lawyer countered that his client had committed no crimes and that he was completely innocent.
Trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before he won the 2016 election.
“Defendant Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to taint the 2016 presidential election. He then covered up this criminal conspiracy by lying on his business records in New York over and over and over again,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business documents and has denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels.
In his opening statements, the prosecutor called on the jurors to isolate themselves from the trivial and the side of the case. “Shut out the noise, focus on the facts,” he said.
The defense argues that Trump had no personal involvement in the payments — and that it’s still not illegal to try to influence an election
The prosecution’s first witness is David Packer, a former publisher of the National Enquirer who bought and distributed damaging stories about Trump.
This is the first criminal case of its kind against a former US president.
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 that half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they will not vote for Trump if he is convicted, BTA reported.
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.
Peker is the first witness the prosecution plans to call after its opening statements.
According to the indictment, in August 2015 the publisher agreed to meet with Trump and Cohen to serve as the campaign’s “eyes and ears,” looking for stories that would damage the Republican nominee.
American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer 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 months-long story affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007.
American Media said 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.
Tags: Trump trial Buying silence pure election fraud prosecutor
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