Donald Trump is the first president, sitting or former, to face a criminal trial in the history of the United States.
The historic ‘hush money’ trial of former US President Donald Trump has started in New York. The prosecutors have alleged that he indulged in fraud and corruption during the 2016 US presidential election.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records to pay ‘hush money’ to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors allege that Trump made the payment to secure her silence regarding an alleged extramarital affair between them leading up to the election.
Trump is the first sitting or former president to face a criminal trial in US history. He was present at the court during Monday’s trial.
Right from the onset, the prosecution said Trump orchestrated a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.” Trump’s defence team, however, maintained that the former president had not committed any crime and said the jury would find “plenty of reasonable doubt” in the prosecution’s case.
Prosecution charges Trump with ‘criminal scheme’ to corrupt 2016 election
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo laid out the case against Trump in the opening arguments. Instead of just a case of financial fraud, he framed the case as a criminal scheme to “influence the presidential election”. He dubbed it election fraud.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then, he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again. It was election fraud, pure and simple,” said Colangelo, as per CNN.
Then, Colangelo outlined the three-pronged ‘catch and kill’ technique adopted by Trump. Trump intended to kill unfavourable stories about him in the run-up to the voting in the 2016 election.
Colangelo said that David Pecker, the publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer at the time, used to buy rights to stories damaging to Trump and bury them. Yahoo News cited the prosecution as highlighting three such cases:
- The story about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate child out of wedlock from a former Trump Tower doorman
- The story about Trump’s alleged affair with actor and former Playboy model Karen McDougal
- The story about Trump’s alleged affair with adult film actor Stormy Daniels
The prosecution said the tabloid paid McDougal $150,000 as hush money. Similarly, Trump spent the doorman $30,000.
The case is related to the $130,000 hush money to Daniels. To buy her silence, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, made the payment himself. Later, it was alleged that Trump reimbursed Cohen the amount in a way that involved falsifying business records and violating election campaign finance laws.
According to CNN, explaining the alleged fraud, Colangelo said Trump, Cohen, and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg agreed that Cohen reimbursed in “monthly instalments by sending fake invoices to the Trump Organization each month.” The prosecution argued it was a “clever way to pay Cohen back without being too obvious about it.”
“Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, could have been devastating to his campaign with pressure mounting and Election Day fast approaching, Donald Trump agreed to the payoff and directed Cohen to proceed…So at Trump’s direction, Cohen negotiated a deal to buy Ms. Daniels’s story to prevent American voters from learning that information before Election Day,” said Colangelo regarding the Daniels payment.
The ‘Access Hollywood’ tape refers to a recording of Trump in which Trump was saying how he grabbed women by their genitals. In the tape, he made a series of vulgar comments about women and, at one point, said, “You can do anything” with women when you are a star.
‘President did not commit any crime’: Trump’s defence
On its part, Trump’s defence team argued that the former president did not commit any crime. Defence lawyer Todd Blanche said in his opening remarks that there was nothing wrong with influencing the election as the prosecutors had charged.
“President Trump did not commit any crimes. I have a spoiler alert: there’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy. The Manhattan DA should never have brought this case. President Trump is presumed innocent, and ‘Trump’s cloaked in innocence‘,” said Blanche, as per CNN.
The defence argued that none of the payments constituted a crime.
“The 34 counts, ladies and gentlemen, are just pieces of paper. None of this was a crime,” said Blanche.
Blanche further said that Daniels had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in 2016 in exchange for $130,000. He further said that the payments to Cohen “were not a payback”.
On his part, Trump has continued to claim his legal travails are “election interference” as the trial requiring his presence in the court is keeping him away from the campaign trail. While he is away, his rival, President Donald Trump, is carrying out his campaign.
“It’s a very, very sad day in America. I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and many other places campaigning,” he said. “This is a witch hunt,” said Trump to the media before the trial began on Monday.
