NEW YORK –
A veteran tabloid editor was expected to return to the witness stand Tuesday in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys, in their opening statements Monday, painted opposing portraits of the former president: One depicting him as someone who sought to corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and another depicting him as an innocent, everyman who was being subjugated. to a case. the government “should never have brought.”
David Pecker, former editor of the National Enquirer and a longtime friend of Trump, was the only witness Monday. He is expected to tell jurors Tuesday about his efforts to help Trump quell unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors say Pecker worked with Trump and Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in a “catch and kill” strategy to buy and then spread negative stories. At the center of the case are accusations that Trump orchestrated a scheme to bury unflattering stories about his personal life that could torpedo his campaign.
Prosecutors say Trump concealed the true nature of those payments in internal business documents.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Although he faces up to four years in prison if he is convicted, it is unclear whether the judge would decide to put him behind bars.
Before testimony resumes Tuesday, the judge will hold a hearing on prosecutors’ request to sanction and fine Trump for social media posts they say violate a gag order barring him from attacking key witnesses. .
The case is the first criminal trial of a former US president and the first of four indictments against Trump to reach a jury.
Here’s the latest:
Opening statements show defense
Donald Trump’s lawyer used his opening statement to attack the case as baseless and to say the former president did nothing illegal.
The lawyer, Todd Blanche, disputed prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay porn actor Stormy Daniels to help his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”
Blanche indicated that the defense will argue that, after all, the goal of a presidential campaign is to try to influence elections.
“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told the jury. “They put something sinister to this idea, as if it were a crime. You will learn that it is not.”
Blanche also described the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions made by a Trump Organization employee. Trump “had nothing to do” with the allegedly false business records, “except that he signed the checks in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said.
And he argued that the records’ references to legal expenses were not false, since Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.
‘Electoral fraud’ versus an ‘accounting case’
Donald Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal business records of the Trump Organization. But prosecutors made clear they don’t want jurors to see this as a routine paper case.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said Monday that the heart of the case is a scheme to “corrupt” the 2016 election by silencing people who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories that Trump feared would harm his campaign.
“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not a communications strategy. “This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal spending to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.”
2 journalists expelled
Two journalists covering Donald Trump’s hush money trial were removed and expelled Monday for violating rules prohibiting recording and photography in the overflow courtroom, where reporters who cannot enter the main courtroom watch the proceedings. on giant screens, according to court officials.
One of the banned journalists had previously been warned for violating rules during jury selection.
Uniformed court officials have been making daily announcements reminding journalists of the rules. Signs posted in the overflow room and around the courthouse make it clear that photography and recording are not permitted.
Court will end early due to Easter
Donald Trump’s hush money trial will be suspended early Tuesday in observance of Passover. Judge Juan M. Merchán plans to end the judicial proceedings at 2:00 p.m. due to the holiday.
Prosecutors made history
Prosecutors made history Monday by delivering opening statements to a jury in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president, accusing Donald Trump of a money-hide scheme intended to prevent damaging stories about his life from becoming public. staff.
The competing statements painted very different portraits of the man who, before serving in the White House, was best known for being a major real estate developer and his reality television show, “The Apprentice.”
One described him as someone who sought to illegally corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and the other described him as an innocent, ordinary man who was being subjected to a case that the government “should never have brought.”