Good morning from New York. It’s been over a year since Trump's indictment and we’ve seen quite a bit of legal wrangling, but opening statements are slated for this morning in the hush money trial of Donald Trump here in Manhattan, barring any last minute delays.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a payoff to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about their alleged extramarital affair, in order to keep it from damaging his standing in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Before we get underway, Justice Merchan issues a ruling from the bench, concerning the so-called Sandoval hearing on Friday, which was convened to address what prior legal woes that prosecutors can question Trump about should he choose to testify.
1, Trump being found liable in the NY AG’s case for violating NY law by overvaluing his assets. 2, Trump violating court orders in that case by posting disparaging things about the judge’s law clerk, and 3, that Trump was found liable in E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits for defamation.
Should he take the stand, those are fair game.
Judge Merchan is going through some initial jury instructions. More fulsome instructions will be read to jurors at the end of the case, before they begin deliberations.
Here we go.
Matt Colangelo begins his opening for the gov't.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy. Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 pres election, then he covered up the criminal conspiracy by lying in his business records, over and over and over again.”
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy. Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 pres election, then he covered up the criminal conspiracy by lying in his business records, over and over and over again.”
“It was election fraud. Pure and simple,” Colangelo tells the jury.
Colangelo tells jurors about a 2015 meeting Trump had with David Pecker, head of AMI, which owned the National Enquirer, among other publications, and Trump’s former attorney Micheal Cohen.
They agreed that Pecker would use his media empire to help the Trump campaign, he says.
They agreed that Pecker would use his media empire to help the Trump campaign, he says.
“Together they conspired to influence the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo says. “Pecker would act as eyes and ears of the campaign...to gather information that might be harmful to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign...and feed it to Michael Cohen.”
The first problem they encountered was a former doorman at Trump Tower, who was shopping around a story that Trump had a child out of wedlock, Colangelo says. Cohen and Pecker made arrangements to pay the doorman $30k to keep him quiet.
AMI later determined it wasn't true, but no matter.
"That was just the first of the catch and kills," Colangelo tells the jury.
"That was just the first of the catch and kills," Colangelo tells the jury.
Next up was Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, who was thinking of going public with her story about having an affair with Trump for nearly a year.
“The evidence will show that the defendant desperately did not want this information to become public..[and] influence the election,” Colangelo says.
So they arranged for AMI to pay her off. There was a deal worked out to sell the rights to the story to Trump as payback and disguise the funds as "advisory services," but Pecker got cold feet an backed out, the jury hears.
Pecker ate the loss, Trump never repaid the debt, Colangelo says.
Then the infamous Access Hollywood tape dropped, in which Trump was caught bragging about sexual assault.
One day later, Pecker learned of Daniels' story, Colangelo says, and immediately got in touch with Cohen.
One day later, Pecker learned of Daniels' story, Colangelo says, and immediately got in touch with Cohen.
"Another story, about sex with a porn star...could have been devastating to the campaign," he says.
Colangelo says eventually Cohen and Weisselberg figured out a way to pay Daniels $130k with Cohen's money through a shell company.
“Cohen made that payment for Donald Trump’s benefit, and he did it with the specific goal of influencing the election,” Colangelo says.
Repayment to Cohen was disguised as payment for legal services rendered, with checks signed by Trump, including several while he was in the White House, the jury hears.
Colangelo warns the jury that they're going to hear a lot of unsavory stuff about Cohen, including that he pled guilty to several crimes, but he said Cohen's story will be backed up by other witnesses.
At the end of the case, Colangelo says the jury will see that “Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election.”
Colangelo steps down.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche gets up, and tells jurors that the Manhattan D.A.’s office should never have brought this case, and that Trump did not commit any crimes.
Blanche said at the time, Cohen was Trump’s personal attorney and sent invoices to Trump for legal services, which Trump paid.
“None of this was a crime,” Blanche told jurors.
“None of this was a crime,” Blanche told jurors.
Moreover, Blanche said there’s nothing illegal about Cohen paying Daniels $130,000 in exchange for not spreading “false, false claims” about Trump.
In case this wasn't obvious, team Trump is going to spend a lot of this trial trashing Michael Cohen.
Blanche said Cohen was “obsessed” with Trump, both before Cohen turned on him and after it happened.
He noted that Cohen has spoken extensively about his desire to see Trump go to prison, and has previously pled guilty to lying under oath.
“I submit to you, he cannot be trusted,” Blanche told the jury.
“I submit to you, he cannot be trusted,” Blanche told the jury.
Blanche steps down and the first witness in the trial is Pecker. But he's on the stand for like 20 minutes before the trial wrapped up early today.
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