Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office began the historic criminal trial of former president Donald Trump on Monday by laying out a “criminal scheme” that they say was intended to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Assistant district attorney Matthew Colangelo delivered the prosecution’s opening statement by describing Trump’s $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels through former attorney Michael Cohen ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo said, according to multiple reports. “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,” he added.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels. Cohen is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution during the trial. Judge Juan Merchan ruled last week Cohen’s separate guilty plea for campaign-finance violations cannot be used against Trump at trial.
The falsifying business records offense is typically a misdemeanor, but the prosecution is asserting Trump falsified the business records to cover-up campaign-finance violations. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, is typically a soft-on-crime progressive in matters not involving the former president.
Colangelo characterized the Stormy Daniels payment as a “catch and kill deal” and said paying Cohen back in increments was a “clever way to pay Cohen back without being too obvious about it” after the fact. Daniels has alleged that Trump had an extramarital affair with her in 2006, a claim the former president denies.
Colangelo argued that the Trump campaign wanted to shut down the Stormy Daniels allegation because of the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape where Trump graphically bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. Merchan ruled on Monday the tape cannot be played as evidence during the trial, but the prosecution read a portion of it to the jury during opening statements.
The prosecution brought up a separate affair allegation by former Playboy model Karen McDougal and accused Trump of trying to “silence” her. Trump has also denied McDougal’s allegations.
“Mr. Trump desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about its impact on the election,” Colangelo stated. He said Trump, Cohen, and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker paid her $150,000 to keep quiet.
In addition, Colangelo mentioned a $30,000 payment to a former Trump Tower doorman who falsely asserted that Trump fathered an unknown child.
“It was the first time that David Pecker had ever paid anyone for information about Donald Trump,” Colangelo said. All three of those payments were “catch and kill” schemes laid out in the prosecution’s opening statement.
Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche attempted to humanize Trump to the jury and defended his client’s payment to Daniels.
“The 34 counts, ladies and gentlemen, are really just pieces of paper,” Blanche asserted. “None of this was a crime.”
“The reality is Mr Trump is not on the hook — is not criminally responsible for something Mr. Cohen may have done years after the fact,” Blanche later added. He similarly defended Trump’s non-disclosure agreement with Daniels as a regular legal arrangement.
The defense portrayed Cohen as a Trump-obsessive and accused Daniels of making the false affair allegations to humiliate Trump.
“His entire financial livelihood depends on President Trump’s destruction,” Blanche said of Cohen, who turned into a prominent Trump critic after the pair had a falling out.
Trump often describes Bragg’s prosecution as a politically motivated witch-hunt and sang a similar tune on Monday morning before opening statements.
“These are all Biden trials. This is done as election interference,” Trump said. “I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and lots of other places campaigning.”
“This is a witch-hunt and it’s a shame and it comes out of Washington,” Trump added. He briefly left the courtroom following opening statements.
After opening statements, Pecker briefly took the stand as the first witness of the criminal trial. He described his role with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., as Trump looked on.
Pecker testified about how he oversaw major stories involving celebrities and had to give approval to reporters if they sought to spend more than $10,000 on a particular story. The prosecution gave Pecker criminal immunity and signed a non-prosecution agreement with AMI before his testimony. His alleged meetings with Trump and Cohen have not come up yet.
The trial wrapped during Pecker’s testimony. A hearing will be held tomorrow morning on Merchan’s gag order against Trump and the jury will reconvene at 11 a.m.