Trump first president in dock
Donald Trump was to become the first former United States president to face a criminal trial on Monday (US time) when he steps into a drab courtroom in Lower Manhattan to watch a judge begin picking the jury of 12 New Yorkers who could make or break his run for the White House.
A stone courthouse wrapped in scaffolding that dispenses justice to petty criminals will become the centre of Trump’s election campaign for the next month as he fights 34 charges of falsifying business records to hide payments to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Trump is expected to commute daily from Trump Tower to the courthouse, staging press conferences on Wall Street and weekend rallies outside of the city, while supporters mass in the small park across the street from the court.
Though the case against him has been brought by Alvin Bragg, a Democrat and a county district attorney, in a New York state court, Trump has repeatedly said that he is being prosecuted at the behest of US President Joe Biden, his opponent in the coming election.
“The world will witness the commencement of the very first Biden trial,” he said, at a rally over the weekend. “I will be forced to sit fully gagged. I’m not allowed to talk.”
A court order prohibits Trump from discussing possible witnesses and jurors and from speaking about the family members of Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan, after Trump levelled several attacks on the judge’s daughter.
He has continued to test the limits of that order, asking on his social media platform Truth Social if an expected witness, “disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen has been prosecuted for LYING?”
Cohen, his former fixer, faced federal prosecution in 2018 on charges including campaign finance violations, for a payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have slept with Trump in 2006. Prosecutors said Cohen was acting in co-ordination with his campaign “to deal with negative stories about Individual-1’s relationships with women”.
The state case against Trump treads similar ground, alleging Cohen paid Daniels US$130,000 and was then reimbursed with US$420,000 to cover a bonus, taxes and another expense, in a series of cheques signed by Trump. It was not illegal to pay off Daniels: instead Trump is charged with “falsifying business records” – a misdemeanour that becomes a felony if it is done to conceal another crime, such as a campaign finance violation.
Prosecutors are expected to frame this alleged crime as part of a broader effort in which Trump’s campaign worked with allies at the National Enquirer magazine to suppress other stories, by paying US$150,000 to a former playboy model, Karen McDougall, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, and US$30,000 to a doorman of a Trump building.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is expected to testify, as is Trump’s former press secretary Hope Hicks, and Cohen.
Trump told reporters he also planned to go on the witness stand. The 77-year-old could face up to four years in prison, if convicted, though a custodial sentence is unlikely.
It would not bar him from the presidency, though as the trial is in a state court he would not have the power to pardon himself if elected. – The Times