NEW YORK (AP) — donald trump Prosecutors told jurors at the start of his trial Monday that he tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his private life from becoming public. Former president's historic hush money trial.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said: “This was an attempt to influence the 2016 election and help get Mr. Trump elected through illegal spending to silence people who had anything bad to say about his actions.'' “It was a long-planned conspiracy.” “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
What you need to know about Trump's hush money trial:
Defense attorneys countered by attacking the integrity of the former President Trump confidant and now the government's star witness.
“President Trump is innocent. President Trump committed no crime. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office should not have brought this case,” attorney Todd Blanche said.
In his opening statement, he stated: 12 jurors – and the general public who are voters – A radically different road map of events unfolding against the backdrop of not only President Trump but also a fierce battle for the White House. Presumptive Republican candidate But they are also criminal defendants who can be convicted of a felony and sent to prison.
The case is the first criminal trial against a former U.S. president. First of Trump's four indictments To reach the jury. Befitting its history, prosecutors aimed to elevate the severity of the case from the beginning, saying the case was primarily about election interference, and that this was reflected in hush money payments to police. . Porn actor who said he had sexual contact with her With Trump.
“Defendant Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. He then covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying over and over again in New York business records,” Colangelo said. he said.
The trial could last up to two months, a reality Trump complained on Monday that he would have to spend his days in court rather than campaigning.
“I'm the front-runner…and this is what they're trying to throw me out of the way. Checks are being paid to lawyers,” he lamented to reporters after leaving the courtroom.
Nevertheless, Trump has turned his status as a criminal defendant into a campaign asset, seeking to raise money from his legal crisis. repeatedly criticize the judicial system He has long argued that it is being used as a weapon against him. In the coming weeks, the case will test not only the jury's ability to fairly try Mr. Trump, but also his ability to abide by court protocol, including a gag order that prohibits attacking witnesses.
trump face 34 felonies for falsifying business records The charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison, but it is unclear whether a judge will decide to send him to prison. A conviction would not prevent Trump from becoming president again, but since it was a state case, he would not be eligible for a pardon if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Former President Donald Trump and his attorney Todd Blanche leave the courtroom after their trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. (Pool photo via Mark Peterson/AP)
Prosecutors will make history in their opening statements in the hush money case against Donald Trump, Associated Press correspondent Julie Walker reports.
The case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg The film revisits chapters of Mr. Trump's biography from many years ago, in which his celebrity past clashed with his political ambitions and left Mr. Trump panicking, fearing it would derail his campaign. Prosecutors say the report was suppressed.
The opening remarks served as an introduction to the colorful characters who figured prominently in that sordid tale. Porn actor Stormy Daniels says she received hush money; Michael Cohen A lawyer who claims prosecutors paid her. and tabloid publisher David Pecker, who agreed to serve as the campaign's “eyes and ears” and served as the prosecution's first witness on Monday.
Colangelo said in his opening statement that President Trump's alliance to prevent three separate reports (two from women alleging past sexual encounters) from surfacing during the 2016 presidential campaign. This paper outlines the comprehensive efforts being made by the government.The effort was particularly urgent Following his appearance late in the race for the 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording. In it, President Trump can be heard bragging about sexually grabbing women without their permission.
“The impact of that tape on the campaign was immediate and explosive,” Colangelo said.
Within days of the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, Mr. Colangelo told jurors that the National Enquirer's allegation that Stormy Daniels had sexual contact with Mr. Trump in 2006 He said he warned Mr. Cohen that he was inciting him to publish the book.
“At Mr. Trump's direction, Mr. Cohen negotiated a deal to buy Mr. Daniels' story in order to ensure that American voters would not hear his story before Election Day,” Colangelo told jurors. said.
However, prosecutors pointed out that “neither Trump nor the Trump Organization could have written Cohen a check with a memo line that read “Reimbursement of Porn Star Fees,'''' adding, “They cooked the ledgers.'' and agreed to make it.” It appears that this payment was actually income, a payment for services rendered. ”
These alleged falsified records form the basis of the 34 indictments against Trump.
Defense attorney Blanche has proactively undermined the credibility of Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his role in the hush-money scheme, as someone who is “obsessed” with Trump and cannot be trusted. I tried to He said Trump did nothing illegal when his company recorded checks to Cohen as legal fees and that it was against the law for candidates to try to influence elections. He said he had not.
President Trump has denied having sexual contact with Daniels.
Blanche claims that Trump did nothing illegal when Trump's company recorded the checks to Cohen as legal fees, and that Trump made the payments to Daniels to protect his campaign. refuted the idea that he agreed with the Rather, it characterized the deal as an attempt to quash an “evil” effort to embarrass President Trump and his loved ones.
“President Trump fought back, as he always does and as he has every right to do, to protect his family, his reputation and his brand. That is not a crime,” Blanche told jurors.
Efforts to suppress stories are known in the tabloid industry as “catch-and-kill,” in which a potentially harmful story is caught by buying the rights to it, and then the paid person The idea is to kill the article through a contract not to tell anyone about it. other than that.
In addition to the payment to Daniels, Colangelo also described an arrangement in which he paid the former Playboy model $150,000 to suppress allegations of an almost year-long affair with the married Trump. Colangelo said President Trump “was anxious for this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about the impact on the election.”
He said jurors will hear a recording of Cohen explaining to Trump his plan to buy McDougal's story in September 2016. This recording was released in July 2018. Colangelo told jurors that they could hear President Trump saying in his own voice: One-fifty? ”
Pecker was the first and only witness Monday. The then-publisher of the National Enquirer and a longtime friend of President Trump, according to prosecutors. met with Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower in August 2015 and agreed to help the Trump campaign identify negative stories about him.
Mr. Pecker described the tabloids as practicing “checkbook journalism,” or paying people for their stories.
“I gave the editors a number that they couldn't spend more than $10,000 on a story without their approval,” said Pecker, who is scheduled to return to the stand Tuesday.
The New York case takes on added significance because it could be the only of the four cases against Trump to go to trial before the November election. appeal and legal dispute Three other cases were also postponed.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
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