As the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president began, a New York attorney told a judge on Monday that Donald Trump’s quiet cash transaction to a movie star broke the law by deceiving electors shortly before the 2016 vote.
This event involves a scheme of fraud, according to counsel Matthew Colangelo. ” The accused, Donald Trump, orchestrated a legal system to corrupt the 2016 presidential vote. “
On recorded dialogues, he told the jury that they would discover Trump expressing his own opinions on the scheme’s specifics.
In what could be the only of Trump’s four criminal trials to go on trial before his Nov. 1 election, the Republican political candidate’s supporters will also make their opening statement. Political President Joe Biden and the fifth poll fight.
Colangelo claimed that Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen were behind a” catch and kill” plot to conceal troubling information about him and help him fight Democrat Hillary Clinton.
That included obligations to people who claimed to have had sexual contacts with Trump, including a$ 130,000 pay to porn star Stormy Daniels at a time when he was facing additional allegations of misconduct, he said.
Justice Juan Merchan granted the trial’s opening ruling that prosecutors could inquire about Trump’s testimony in relation to two additional court cases, one in which he falsely estimated the value of his real estate assets and the other in which he defamed author E. After she accused him of murder, Joan Carroll.
Additionally, Merchan added that judges will not be permitted to see the text of a strip from the” Access Hollywood” TV show in which Trump makes offensive remarks about grabbing children’s genitalia.
Trump glared at the judge while wearing a blue tie and a darker suit, and he often spoke with his attorney. A Secret Service agent sat straight in front of him while wearing an ear.
Trump has entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 works of falsifying business information, and he denies having slept with Daniels sexually.
Many legal experts believe that the event is the least damaging of the Trump trials. A criminal conviction did not bar him from taking office, but it could upset his election.
According to Reuters/Ipsos poll, one in four Democrats and third of independent voters would never support Trump if he is found guilty of a crime.
‘ Catch and kill’
Colangelo said Trump disguised his payouts to Cohen as lawful costs through 11 forged payments, 12 forged record submissions, and 11 forged checks.
” Those were lies. There was no retainer agreement, Cohen was not being paid for legal services,” Colangelo said. The defendant fabricated those business records because he wanted to keep his and others ‘ criminal behavior a secret. “
According to the New York Times and CNN, Petercker will be the first witness that the prosecution plans to summon following opening statements on Sunday. According to prosecutors, Pecker agreed during an August 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen to act as the campaign’s “eyes and ears” by looking out for negative stories about Trump.
” Pecker was not acting as a publisher, he was acting as a co-conspirator,” Colangelo said.
American Media, which published the National Enquirer, in 2018 admitted that it paid$ 150,000 to former Playboy magazine model Karen McDougal for rights to her story about a months-long affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. American Media said it worked “in concert” with Trump’s campaign, and it never published a story.
The evidence will demonstrate that the defendant vehemently did not want Karen McDougal’s information to be made public because he was concerned about its impact on the election, according to Colangelo.
A doorman who was attempting to sell a story about Trump allegedly fathering a child outside of wedlock, which turned out to be false, according to prosecutors, also received$ 30,000 from the tabloid.
Trump has stated that the payments were made for personal use and did not contravene electoral law. He has also denied the affair with McDougal.
Trump is accused of falsely putting Cohen’s 2017 reimbursement of Cohen for the Daniels payment on Trump’s real estate company’s books as a legal expense in the New York trial. According to the prosecution, Cohen used that to cover up the fact that Cohen’s payments were above the$ 2,700 cap on individual campaign contributions at the time.
Evidence from those payments may be able to support the prosecution’s claim that Cohen’s payment to Daniels was a part of a wider pattern.
Prosecutors plan to call at least 20 witnesses total, according to Trump’s defense team. The trial could last six to eight weeks.
Trump called for peaceful protests at courthouses” all over the Country,” but few people showed up to greet him when he arrived at the downtown courthouse on Monday. Trump claimed that the courthouse’s sparse turnout was caused by stringent security measures, but that the streets nearby are open to the public.
” Lower Manhattan surrounding the Courthouse, where I am heading now, is completely CLOSED DOWN. SO UNFAIR! ! ! ” he wrote on social media.
Trump is accused of attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his handling of classified documents after stepping down as president in 2021 in addition to three other criminal indictments.
Trump has entered a not-guilty plea in each of those cases, and he portrays each of them as a broad-based campaign ploy by Biden’s Democratic allies.
Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money trial, imposed a limited gag order on Trump after he criticized witnesses, prosecutors, the judge and his daughter. Prosecutors are pressuring Merchan to take legal action against Trump for breaking that law.
