Former US President Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan for his alleged role in a plot to silence his alleged lovers before the 2016 election.
It will be historic; No former president of the United States has ever faced criminal prosecution.
It will be lascivious; The alleged lovers are a former adult film actress and Playboy model.
Although the former president appears in it, who denies any wrongdoing, It may or may not be the trial of the century.
Trump still faces three other criminal trials in federal court and in Georgia for possibly more serious crimes of election interference, conspiracy and mishandling classified documents after he left the White House.
In this courtroom sketch taken from a video monitor, former U.S. President Donald Trump, center, listens as defense attorney Todd Blanche, left, responds to prosecutors in Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday, April 15 2024, in New York (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
All of these lawsuits and the characters involved create a complicated legal mess, particularly when the four criminal cases are added to Trump’s civil liability for defamation and sexual misconduct and for commercial fraud.
Here’s what you need to know to catch up on this first criminal trial:
What is the general outline of the secret money case?
Two women who said they had affairs with Trump years before he ran for president received six-figure sums in the months before the 2016 election.
The first woman, Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, received $150,000 from the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., for the rights to her story. AMI quickly did nothing with the story. It’s a process known as “catch and kill.”
AMI also paid to capture and kill a former Trump Tower doorman’s story alleging that Trump had an unacknowledged son, but that allegation has never been corroborated by any reports. Trump’s friend David Pecker, who was then executive director of AMI, approved the payments.
The second woman, who was born Stephanie Clifford but built a career in the adult film industry as Stormy Daniels, received $130,000 from Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, to sign a confidentiality agreement about her meetings with Trump. Cohen took out a line of credit on his house to make the payment just before the election.
The Trump campaign was particularly concerned about allegations of sexual misconduct in the final days of the 2016 election, when the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump described how he grabbed women by the genitals, dominated news coverage.
After the election, Trump’s company refunded Cohen for the payment to Daniels.
How did these payments and alleged affairs come to light?
He Wall Street Journal actually reported on AMI’s capture and death plot and that Daniels had been in talks to share their story days before Election Day 2016. McDougal and Daniels shared the same attorney.
But things didn’t really explode until January 2018, when the newspaper reported on the payments Cohen did to Daniels.
Were these hush money payments illegal?
Yes. While a hush payment is not necessarily illegal, Cohen and AMI have admitted that they violated laws by making these payments in an effort to conceal unflattering information before the 2016 election.
cohen pleaded guilty to two campaign finance counts in August 2018: causing an illegal campaign contribution for his role in orchestrating the AMI payment to McDougal, and making an excessive campaign contribution for the payment to Daniels.
AMI, now known as a360media, was not criminally charged by federal authorities but admitted to making the payment to McDougal. The company paid a $187,500 fine to the Federal Election Commission for making an illegal campaign contribution.
What did Trump know about these payments?
Cohen recorded at least one conversation with Trump that appears to be about the payment to Daniels in which they can be heard discussing whether to make the payment in cash.
Cohen also testified before the grand jury that indicted Trump. In 2018, Trump initially denied knowledge of the payments, but later admitted in a carefully worded tweet who made them to Cohen. Trump argued that they had nothing to do with the campaign.
What law is Trump accused of breaking?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Trump’s indictment by a grand jury in April 2023accusing the former president of “falsifying New York business records to hide damaging information and illegal activities from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”
Technically, Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a Class E Felony. Trump was charged with a felony because prosecutors accused him of falsifying business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime related to his 2016 campaign.
This is the least serious type of felony in New York, meaning that if Trump is convicted, the judge could sentence him to probation or a maximum sentence of up to four years in state prison for each count.
A protester demonstrates against Donald Trump amidst Trump supporters in front of the Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday, April 15, 2024, in New York (Stefan Jeremiah / AP Photo)
There is much more to this
This is a long and sordid storyand what’s in this review really barely scratches the surface.
The payments are almost beside the point, but there is the question of whether the alleged affairs occurred. Trump denies they happened. But both women, who have very similar stories, say they had sexual encounters with Trump in 2006. They both saw him at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Both have said they visited him in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
It took a long time to build this case. Trump was not charged by the federal investigators who pursued Cohen. It took years before the Manhattan district attorney finally presented the case to a grand jury. Now, in theory, it could end up being the only one of the four criminal cases against Trump to go to trial before the November election, in which he tries to win back the White House.
There will be drama in court. The judge overseeing the secret money case, Juan Merchán, extended gag order on Trump after the former president attacked Merchán’s daughter on social networks. However, Trump will likely still find a way to campaign from outside the courtroom, attacking New York officials like Bragg.
It is a Shakespearean drama. Cohen has gone from Trump’s fixer for his enemy. Daniels’ former attorney, Michael Avenatti, who once appeared on television, is now in federal prison for stealing clients’ money. AND the witness list for this secret money case includes former Trump assistants like Hope Hicks.
McDougal has largely stayed out of the public eye, but there is a documentary focused entirely on Daniels.
In many ways, this case seems like a throwback to an earlier era in American politics, when Trump was still the insurgent reality TV candidate and had not remade the entire Republican Party in his own populist image. He feels much smaller than the federal and Fulton County, Georgia, cases that accuse him of trying to fraudulently overturn the 2020 election rather than cover up some unflattering personal allegations before the 2016 election.
But all those other cases are slowing down. The Supreme Court is taking its time to consider Trump’s incredible claim which should be exempt from all federal prosecution. A federal judge in Miami is entertain Trump’s delaying tactics in the case of classified documents. And the Fulton County Prosecutor had to respond to accusations about his own private conduct. That’s why this New York case over money paid eight years ago to keep him quiet is the one that will go to trial first.