NEW YORK — Monday’s opening statements in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president provided a clear roadmap of how prosecutors will try to argue that Donald Trump broke the law, and how the defense plans to fight the charges on multiple fronts.
Lawyers presented dueling stories as jurors got their first glimpse of the accuser who accused Trump of falsifying company records as part of a scheme to suppress negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential campaign.
There are weeks to come 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.
Here are some key takeaways from the opening statements:
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal corporate records of the Trump Organization. But prosecutors made clear they don’t want jurors to view 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 election by silencing women who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories that he feared were would harm the campaign.
“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not a spin or communications strategy. This was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected. illegal spending to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.” He added: “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
The business documents charges stem from items like invoices and checks that were considered legal fees in Trump Organization filings, when prosecutors say they were actually reimbursements to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for a $100,000 hush money payment 130,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Daniels threatened to go public with claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump. He says it never happened.
The prosecutors’ characterizations appear intended to counter suggestions from some experts that the case — perhaps the only one to be tried before the November election — is not as serious as the other three prosecutions he faces. In the cases, Trump is accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden and illegally withholding classified documents after leaving the White House.
Trump, meanwhile, tried to downplay the allegations as he left the courtroom on Monday, calling it all an “accounting matter” and “a very small matter.”
Trump’s lawyer used his opening statement to blast the case as baseless and said the former president had done nothing illegal.
The attorney, Todd Blanche, disputed prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay Daniels to support his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”
Blanche indicated that the defense will argue that the purpose of a presidential campaign is to try to influence the elections.
“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told the judges. “They have given something sinister to this idea, as if it were a crime. You will learn that it is not.”
Blanche also portrayed the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions carried out by an employee of the Trump Organization. Trump “had nothing to do with” the allegedly false corporate records, “except that he signed the checks in the White House while he was running the country,” Blanche said.
The 34 counts in the indictment relate to the payment to Daniels. But prosecutors plan to present evidence of a payout to another woman — former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story talk about Trump having a child out of wedlock. Trump says it was all lies.
Prosecutors said they will show that Trump was central to the plan to silence the women, and that they would tell jurors they would hear Trump in his voice discussing the plan to pay McDougal. Cohen arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 but not publish the story in a practice known as catch-and-kill.
Colangelo told jurors that prosecutors will play for them a recording that Cohen secretly made during a meeting with Trump weeks before the 2016 election. In the recording, which first became public in 2018, Trump is heard saying: “What do we have to pay for this? Fifty one?”
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: trying to discredit Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic and expected key witness for the prosecution. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments in 2018 and has served prison time.
Or jurors believe Cohen, who says he arranged the payments to the women at Trump’s direction, can make or break the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
Trump’s lawyer highlighted Cohen’s criminal record and described him as a serial liar who turned on Trump after he was denied a job in government after 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 bashing his ex-boss.
“He has a goal and an obsession to get Trump,” Blanche said. “I’m telling you he can’t be trusted.”
Ahead of the defense attacks on Cohen, the prosecutor vowed to be candid about the “mistakes” Trump’s former lawyer made. But Colangelo said, “You can believe Michael Cohen’s testimony,” despite his past.
“I suspect the defense will do everything in its power to get you to dismiss his testimony precisely because it is so damning,” the prosecutor said.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is the first witness for prosecutors, who say Trump’s alleged scheme to hide potentially damaging information from voters began with a 2015 Trump Tower meeting between then-candidate Pecker and Cohen. Pecker took the witness stand Monday before court and his testimony is expected to continue Tuesday.
During the meeting, Pecker – a longtime friend of Trump’s – agreed to help Trump’s campaign by circulating positive pieces about him, smearing his opponents, exploring unflattering stories about him and flagging them to Cohen for ‘catch -and-kill” deals. That included claims made by Daniels, McDougal and former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin, prosecutors say. Trump says they were all false.
Pecker will likely be asked about any alleged efforts made by the Enquirer’s then-owner, American Media Inc., on Trump’s behalf. Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute the US media in exchange for their 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 McDougal deal a “prohibited contribution in kind”. ”
Pecker’s brief appearance on the stand Monday focused mainly on 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 as “the defendant” in his opening statement. Trump’s lawyer took a different approach and referred to him as “President Trump.”
“We will call him President Trump, out of respect for the office he held,” Blanche said. At the same time, Trump’s lawyer tried to portray Trump as an ordinary man, describing him as a husband, father and fellow New Yorker.
“He’s larger than life in some ways. But he is also here in this courtroom doing what any of us would do: defend himself,” Blanche said.
Trump sat quietly listening to the 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, spending his days in court rather than on the campaign trail.
“This is what they’re trying to get me off track for. Checks are made payable to a lawyer,” Trump said.
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Richer reported from Washington.