Lawyers paint competing portraits of Trump
NEW YORK • In opening statements in Donald Trump’s historic hushmoney trial, prosecutors said Monday that the former president “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt” the 2016 presidential election.
Defence attorneys countered, calling Trump “innocent” and saying the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office “should never have brought this case.”
The commencement of the proceedings set the stage for weeks of unsavoury and salacious testimony about Trump’s personal life and placed his legal troubles at the centre of his closely contested campaign against President Joe Biden.
A panel of New Yorkers — 12 jurors and six alternates — was sworn in last Friday and is hearing what is the first-ever criminal trial against a former U.S. commander-in-chief.
Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories that he thought might hurt his 2016 presidential campaign.
At the heart of the allegations is a US$130,000 payment made to porn actor Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from surfacing in the final days of the race.
Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of such payments in internal business documents. Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Prosecutors at the outset sought to emphasize the gravity of the case, the first of four criminal prosecutions against Trump to reach trial, by framing it as about election interference. The depiction seemed intended to rebut criticism that the case lacks the grievous allegations that define Trump’s other three cases, including plotting to overturn an election and illegally hoarding classified documents.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors.
Defence attorneys concluded their opening statements by emphasizing that prosecutors have not charged him with conspiracy despite describing the allegations against him as such in their opening statements.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars.