Former US president Donald Trump engaged in “election fraud” by paying hush money to a porn star just days before the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors said on Monday at the first ever criminal trial of a former president.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said. “He orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.”
Laying out the prosecution’s case for the jury, Colangelo said Trump falsified business records to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels over a 2006 sexual encounter that could have impacted his presidential bid.
Photo: AFP
“It was election fraud, pure and simple,” he said.
Trump, 77, dressed in a dark blue suit and blue tie with an US flag pin on his lapel, sat at the defense table flanked by his lawyers, staring straight ahead as the prosecutor delivered his opening remarks.
The case poses substantial risks to the Republican presidential candidate, coming less than seven months before his November election rematch with US President Joe Biden.
Prosecution witnesses are expected to include Daniels and Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, who arranged the alleged payment to the actress.
“President Trump did not commit any crimes,” Todd Blanche, one of his attorneys, said in his opening statement. “The Manhattan DA [district attorney] should never have brought this case.”
“I have a spoiler alert — there’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election,” Blanche said. “It’s called democracy.”
David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, was the first witness called by prosecutors, who allege he was used to bury negative stories about Trump, a policy known as “catch and kill.”
Pecker was only briefly on the stand before court was adjourned for the day by Judge Juan Merchan. It was to resume yesterday.
Trump, speaking to reporters in a hallway after the court session, again insisted that he had done nothing wrong and claimed the case was brought to derail his White House bid.
“This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail,” he said.
The trial would keep Trump in court for four days a week over possibly six to eight weeks.
He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records for reimbursements made to Cohen, his lawyer, for the US$130,000 “hush money” payment to Daniels.
Blanche attacked the credibility of Cohen, who served prison time for tax evasion and campaign finance contraventions, and Daniels in his opening remarks.
“He’s a convicted felon and he also is a convicted perjurer” Blanche said of Cohen.
Daniels “saw her chance to make a lot of money, US$130,000, and it worked, and since this story came out in 2018, became public, she’s made hundreds of thousands of dollars because of it,” he said.
Trump has separately been indicted on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Biden and for hoarding secret documents after leaving the White House.
Those cases have been repeatedly delayed due to his strategy of challenging every legal step.
Merchan, on the other hand, has run the New York trial on a tight schedule.
Trump has railed against the case, particularly a partial gag order imposed by Merchan to prevent him from publicly attacking witnesses, prosecutors and relatives of court staff.
A hearing was to be held yesterday at which Merchan would decide if Trump was already in contempt of court due to outbursts during jury selection.
The identities of the 12 jurors and six alternates are being kept secret for their own protection.
A unanimous verdict would be required to convict Trump, who has been ordered to attend each day of the trial.
Security was tight on Monday after a man set himself on fire last week outside the courthouse in an unrelated, but gruesome incident.
In a previous case this year in New York — in civil court — Trump was ordered to pay US$355 million, rising to US$454 million with interest, after being found liable for inflating his assets to benefit from favorable loans and insurance terms.
The demand was frozen pending an appeal — on condition that Trump secure a bond that would be executed if he lost his legal challenge. That bond was later set at US$175 million.
The New York attorney general’s office on Monday said that it had resolved the issues over the money, which would be held as cash in an account controlled by an underwriter.
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