Trump has his day in court
FORMER US President Donald Trump is accused of orchestrating a hush money scheme to keep his affairs from voters and then covering it up from the White House in an extraordinary case that has rocked the United States.
The bombshell indictment – exposing Trump’s “catch and kill” operation to silence claims before the 2016 election about two affairs and a child born out of wedlock – sets the scene for a legal battle that will drag deep into next year’s presidential campaign.
In a stunning spectacle, the former president on Wednesday became the first to be charged with a crime, as he was arrested and fingerprinted at a Manhattan courthouse before pleading not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump sat stony-faced during the arraignment and kept mostly silent until he returned to his Florida home several hours later, when he declared it was a “ridiculous indictment”.
“Virtually everybody who has looked at this case … say there is no crime and it should never have been brought,” he said.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Trump – who is campaigning to be the
Republican nominee for the third election in a row – hid “damaging information from the voting public” with a scheme that covered up breaches of campaign finance laws.
“These are felony crimes in New York State, no matter who you are,” Mr Bragg said.
The indictment focuses on a $US130,000 payment made in the days before the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels, a porn
star who alleged she slept with Trump a decade beforehand, a claim he has always denied.
It accused Trump of falsifying business records throughout his first year in office as he paid back his fixer Michael Cohen – now Mr Bragg’s key witness – for delivering the money to Ms Daniels, including on cheques the then-president personally signed.
In a separate statement of facts, prosecutors alleged this
was part of a broader “catch and kill” operation, with a $US150,000 paid to shut down former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s claims of an affair, plus $US30,000 to stop a Trump Tower doorman, previoulsy named as Dino Sajudin, sharing information about Trump allegedly fathering a child out of wedlock.
After winning the 2016 election, Trump invited American Media boss David Pecker –
who acted as his “eyes and ears” to identify and shut down scandalous stories about the celebrity-turned-politician – to “thank him for his help during the campaign”.
Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina blasted the indictment, saying he was “surprised there were no facts in there”.
“The rule of law died in this country … If this man’s name was not Donald J. Trump, there is no scenario that we’d
all be here today,” Mr Tacopina said.
But Mr Bragg said his office was upholding the “solemn responsibility” of ensuring equality before the law, adding that “no amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring principle”.
“The trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that … violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws,” he said.