Monday’s opening statements at the first criminal trial of a former US president provided a clear roadmap of how prosecutors will attempt to present the case that donald trump violated the law and how the defense plans to fight the charges on multiple fronts.
Lawyers presented conflicting narratives as jurors got their first look at the prosecution accusing Trump of falsify business records as part of a plan to silence negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential campaign.
There are still weeks of what will likely be dramatic and embarrassing testimony about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s personal life as he simultaneously campaigns to return to the White House in November.
Trump is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records Trump Organization insiders. But prosecutors made clear they don’t want jurors to see this as a routine paper case. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo repeatedly told jurors that at the heart of the case is a plan to “corrupt” the 2016 electionssilencing women who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories that he feared would harm his campaign.
“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not a communications strategy. “It was a planned and long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal spending to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.” And he added: “It was electoral fraud, pure and simple.”
The business records charges arise from things like invoices and checks that were considered legal expenses in the Trump Organization’s records when prosecutors say they were actually reimbursements to Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a payment of $130,000 to keep the porn actress silent Stormy Daniels. Daniels was threatening to go public with claims that she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump. She says it never happened.
Prosecutors’ characterizations appear designed to combat suggestions by some experts that the case — perhaps the only one to go to trial before the November election — is not as serious as the three other prosecutions he faces. Those cases accuse Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden and illegally withholding classified documents after leaving the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump tried to downplay the allegations as he left the courtroom on Monday, calling it all a case of “accounting” and “a very minor thing.”
Trump’s lawyer used his opening statement to attack the case as baseless and to say the former president did nothing illegal.
Lawyer, Todd Blanchedisputed prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay Daniels to help his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”
Blanche indicated that the defense will argue that, after all, the goal of a presidential campaign is to try to influence elections.
“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told the jury. “They put something sinister into this idea, as if it were a crime. They will learn that it is not.”
Blanche also described the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions made by a Trump Organization employee. Trump “had nothing to do” with the allegedly false business records, “except that he signed the checks in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said.
All 34 counts of the indictment are related to the payment to Daniels. But prosecutors plan to present evidence about a bribing another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, as well as a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. Trump says it was all lies.
Prosecutors said they will prove Trump was at the center of the plan to silence women and told jurors they will hear Trump in his voice talking about the plan to pay McDougal. Cohen arranged for the tabloid’s editor National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 but did not publish the story in a practice known as “catch and kill.”
Colangelo told jurors that prosecutors will play them a recording that Cohen secretly made during a meeting with Trump weeks before the 2016 election. In the recording, which was first made public in 2018, Trump is heard saying: “How much do we have to pay for this? One fifty?”
Trump “desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about its effect on the election,” Colangelo said.
Trump’s opening statement previewed what will be a key defense strategy: try to discredit Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic and long-awaited star witness for the prosecution. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges related to hush payments in 2018 and served prison time.
Whether the jury believes Cohen, who says he arranged the payments to the women at Trump’s direction, could make or break the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
Trump’s lawyer highlighted Cohen’s criminal record, describing him as a serial liar who turned against Trump after he was not given a job in the administration following Trump’s 2016 victory and found himself in legal trouble. Blanche said Cohen’s “entire financial livelihood depends on destroying President Trump,” noting that he hosts podcasts and has written books criticizing his former boss.
“He has a goal and an obsession to get Trump,” Blanche said. “I assure you, he cannot be trusted.”
Anticipating the defense’s attacks on Cohen, the prosecution promised to be honest about the “mistakes” the former Trump lawyer has made. But Colangelo said “credence can be given to Michael Cohen’s testimony” despite his past.
“I suspect the defense will do everything possible to get you to reject his testimony precisely because it is so damning,” the prosecutor said.
The former editor ofl National Enquirer, David Pecker is the first witness for prosecutors, who say Trump’s alleged scheme to hide potentially damaging information from voters began with a meeting at Trump Tower in 2015 between then-candidate Pecker and Cohen. Pecker took the witness stand Monday before court closed and his testimony is expected to continue Tuesday.
At the meeting, Pecker, an old friend of Trump, agreed to help Trump’s campaign by publishing favorable articles about him, slandering his opponents, investigating unflattering stories about him and flagging them to Cohen for “catch and kill” deals. They include claims made by Daniels, McDougal and former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin, prosecutors say. Trump says it was all false.
Pecker will likely be asked about all the alleged efforts made by the then-owner of the Enquirer, American Media Inc., on behalf of Trump. Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute American Media in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen’s guilty plea, and the Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, calling the deal a McDougal as a “prohibited in-kind corporate contribution.” “
Pecker’s brief appearance on the stand Monday was mostly about his background and other basic facts, although he did say that the Enquirer practiced “checkbook journalism” (paying for stories) and that he had the final say on any story about a famous person.
The prosecutor referred to Trump throughout his opening speech as “the defendant.” Trump’s lawyer took a different tack and called him “President Trump.”
“We will call him President Trump, out of respect for the position he held”said Blanche. At the same time, Trump’s lawyer sought to portray Trump as an everyman, describing him as a husband, father and fellow New Yorker.
“He is, in some ways, larger than life itself. But he is also here in this courtroom, doing what any of us would do: defend himself,” Blanche said.
Trump sat quietly as he listened to opening statements, occasionally passing notes to his lawyers and whispering in their ears. But outside the courtroom, he continued his pattern of trying to gain political advantage from the case, which will require him to spend his days in a courtroom rather than on the campaign trail.
“This is why they are trying to get me out of the way. The checks are paid to a lawyer,” Trump said.
(With information from AP)
