#Opening #statements #underway #Donald #Trumps #hush #money #criminal #trial
Donald Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt” the 2016 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial.
The opening statements marked the first time that prosecutors have presented a criminal case against a former president to a jury as they accuse Trump of a scheme aimed at preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public.
“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,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors.
The statements from prosecutors and later from Trump’s lawyers are expected to give the 12-person jury and the voting public the clearest view yet of the allegations at the heart of the case, as well as insight into Trump’s expected defense.
Attorneys will also introduce a colorful cast of characters who are expected to testify about the made-for-tabloids saga, including a porn actor who says she had a sexual encounter with Trump and the lawyer who prosecutors say paid her to keep quiet about it.
Trump arrived at the courthouse shortly before 9 a.m., minutes after castigating the case in capital letters on social media as “election interference” and a “witch hunt.”
He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars. A conviction would not preclude Trump from becoming president again, but because it is a state case, he would not be able to attempt to pardon himself if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Unfolding as Trump vies to reclaim the White House, the trial will require him to spend his days in a courtroom rather than on the campaign trail, a reality he complained about Monday morning after his arrival when he lamented to reporters that he was “here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia and lots of other places campaigning, and it’s very unfair.”
Just as Trump sat through a jury selection process in which multiple prospective jurors expressed negative opinions about him, he’ll be forced to remain in court as salacious and potentially unflattering details about his personal life are shared with the jury.
Trump has nonetheless sought to turn his criminal defendant status into an asset for his campaign, fundraising off his legal jeopardy and repeatedly railing against a justice system that he has for years claimed is weaponized against him.
Hearing the case is a jury that includes, among others, multiple lawyers, a sales professional, an investment banker and an English teacher. As court began Monday, Judge Juan Merchan disclosed that one of the jurors selected for the case had conveyed reservations about participating, apparently because of the intense media attention. The juror was questioned privately but will remain on the case.
The case will test jurors’ ability to set aside any bias but also Trump’s ability to abide by the court’s restrictions, such as a gag order that bars him from attacking witnesses. Prosecutors are seeking fines against him for alleged violations of that order.
The case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg revisits a chapter from Trump’s history when his celebrity past collided with his political ambitions and, prosecutors say, he sought to prevent potentially damaging stories from surfacing through hush money payments.
One such payment was a $130,000 sum that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, gave to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from emerging into public shortly before the 2016 election.
Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution.
Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
To convict Trump of a felony, prosecutors must show he not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely, which would be a misdemeanor, but that he did so to conceal another crime.
The allegations don’t accuse Trump of an egregious abuse of power like the federal case in Washington charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, or of flouting national security protocols like the federal case in Florida charging him with hoarding classified documents.
But the New York prosecution has taken on added importance because it may be the only one of the four cases against Trump that reaches trial before the November election. Appeals and legal wrangling have delayed the other three cases.
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Trump 2024
This is such a bs case ..
Hope people can sue DA and the judges . This system is so rigged .
Like to know who found the scheme of faults narrative for his own business?
U can post f trump but yootoob erases everything against bidumb !!
Fyt fjb
Fjb
Lock his butt up
Years ago, President Obama appointed dozens and dozens of far left judges throughout the judicial system, and far left radical thinking appointees in high places in our government. Dems we’re OK with it, Republicans complained, the media lauded it and life went on. Now, we are seeing the damage that has caused. When an Administration in power is so corrupt that is can distort the legal system to crush opponents, and the crooked courts…..judges, prosecutors go along with, we have no freedoms any longer. If the media, and our Congress were honest, they would put a stop to this abomination, but they are more concerned with their own skin.
We are doomed.
AND DEMOCRAPS FORMED EPSTEIN ISLAND
Let's not forget that Mitch McConnell is directly responsible for Trump not being convicted by the Senate in his J6 impeachment trial which is the very reason Trump is using the "election interference" as an excuse. McConnell intentionally scheduled the impeachment trial for February, then used the delay as an excuse claiming Trump was "no longer in office and it was too late to impeach him." While sabotaging the vote by asking the GOP Senators to "do him a favor and vote against conviction". The Republican controlled Supreme Court also failed their own oath to protect, uphold and enforce the Constitution and the law by deliberately dragging their feet on Trump's claims of immunity and their failure to immediately disqualify him.
Trump's MAGA thugs and nutcase should wonder why Trump is trying so hard to delay or prevent the trial since he claims to be innocent. Instead his MAGA thugs treat him like their favorite TV bad guy. They enjoy the drama he creates and the excitement of what he will say or do next. Its like watching their favorite TV show they stubbornly ignore every shred of evidence; excuse every crime he committed; claim "fake news" for every witness testimony because they are stubbornly determined to keep their favorite show running.
Is it hush money if the bish dont stfu?
OMG!!! TRUMP IS HUMAN? Everyone can go to jail FOOL$!!!!!!
It is a “witch-hunt, they caught the witch”
The liar in trouble …
God bless America 🇺🇸
The white wealthy needs to be held accountable for their crimes, too. Good job, AG Bragg.
It’s NOT Hush money! It’s a bribe to steal the 2016 election!!!
This is an absolute embarrassment of our judicial system all of these corrupt judges must be disbarred and kicked out of our system
Thank you for just stating the facts of what's happening and not playing the lies that Trump tells over and over.
Disgusting.
LOCK HIM UP NOW!!!!!
He’s saying what he paid to Cohen was an atty’s fee but we have again a GAAP, you know when you are an accountant that there’s always a journal entry for all the transactions that occurred in business. You cannot just call it legal expense. There’s always an explanation as to what is the nature and the effect to the business. You are toast Donald. You have so many nails in your coffin that you may as well build a coffin made of nails.
They nitpic TRUMP while dismissing majorkus of the atrocities he has committed, not to mention the child rapist Joey.
The crime is the persecution of Trump and other Americans.
TRUMP for PRESIDENT❤🇺🇲
No criminal should be President
I'm so sick and tired of this bull shit!
Legal fees when Micheal Cohen had a retainer. Trump amout same as Stormy amount, checks signed by Trump even as president. Where did trump sign those checks in the WH. There has to be WH video, Oval Office ??
Cohen is a liar and can’t be trusted…until he testifies for the prosecution.
All a crock of democrat shit!!
Hush money. Hahahah. How many times has a politician paid somebody else to shut up?
I vaguely remember Chris Hansen cashing one politician on live TV. Didn’t that man kill himself? And rightfully so?
Clown case..waste of money..where's the laptop bitches!
Do you suppose Ole Stormy paid taxes on the Hussshhhh money, hope fully Trump will investigate
The voters that believe in they 0:29 sugar daddy the master of the plantation this treasonous traitor Benedict Arnold Joe Biden understands this, the real D A Vince that retire the FBI the department of Justice said that this is no case all of a sudden we get an ignoramus F A 0:29 in New York City and the statue of limitation path and he come up with the case again, it is true what they say there's a sucker born every day and it seems like all the ignorant people that voted for they master Benedict Arnold Joe Biden don't understand all of this,😭😅😃😁🤣😂
Clown case..waste of money..where's the laptop bitches!
Hoooooooo, doggy! We got him now! tRump will be tied up for MONTHS with this trial. He can't even campaign!
Embarrassment to the United States of America 🇺🇸 😕
You can’t stop Teflon Don ! #Trans4Trump 🏳️⚧️🇺🇸🏳️⚧️
So why are these filthy bastards going against Trump… No s*** we already know…
damn… you smell sumn?…
lol “THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE” D Trump. lol 😎 “…Lies…”. 😂😂😂😂 Who Grandpa is this😅
what's wrong with the fkin volume? fix your videos
Set Trump free
Trumps persecution continues. Odd that Democrats think these baseless cases will earn Biden votes?
Our justice system is alive and well. Trump is no better than a garbage collector. He will be tried by 12 of his peers. Meeting his maker. Innocent until proven guilty, however, so much damaging evidence is against this rude loud obnoxious cry baby, I think he is doomed. God is making him pay a dear price on his life to go through all of this stress at such an old man age. “We make the bed we sleep in.”
This is BS leave the man alone.
Absolute election interference
Interesting how Bill Clinton got away with paying hush money
I dont understand this trial…there was obviously no hush money agreement because everyone on the planet knows about the affair. So if anything this should be a breach of contract trial AGAINST Stormy Daniels. She was paid money to shut up, and she didnt….Trump did absolutely nothing wrong