Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, will stand trial starting this week on charges related to allegations that he paid hush money to prevent a sexual scandal ahead of the 2016 presidential election. This is the first time in U.S. history that a former president will stand before a jury in court as a criminal defendant, and the outcome of the trial is expected to have a significant impact on the direction of the presidential election in November.
According to US media reports, including NBC broadcast on the 14th, Judge Juan Mercan of the Manhattan District Court in New York will begin the schedule for the criminal trial in which former President Trump will be the defendant, starting with jury selection on the 15th. Former President Trump was indicted on 34 counts, alleging that he paid hush money through his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to block revelations of his past sexual relationship with former adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election, and then falsified company records related to the payments. It was handed over to trial in March last year. This case is one of four criminal trials facing former President Trump.
To date, this is the only criminal case scheduled for trial before the November presidential election. Former President Trump’s side made an all-out effort to postpone this trial until after his election, but this was not accepted. Former President Trump denies the charge of manipulating the company’s books and that he had a sexual relationship with Daniels, and claims that the incident was politically motivated ‘election interference’ by the Democratic Party.
Former President Trump, a defendant in a criminal case, must appear in court throughout the trial schedule, which is expected to last about six to eight weeks. Jury selection is scheduled to take place during the first week starting on the 15th. Trial times are expected to be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and will be held four times a week, excluding Wednesdays.
As former President Trump, who is running for president, he must spend weekly time in court for about a month or two at a critical time when he must travel around the country and focus on election campaigning. The criminal facts contained in the indictment are that former President Trump paid $130,000 to Daniels right before the presidential election through his personal attorney, Cohen, to prevent the public from revealing extramarital sex, and that in the process of repaying the money to Cohen, it was disguised as legal consulting fees in the company’s books. That’s the key.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted former President Trump, plans to focus on proving during the trial that former President Trump committed a serious crime by falsifying corporate documents with the intent to conceal and deceive other crimes. Prosecutor Bragg argues that although falsifying corporate documents alone is only a misdemeanor, it is a serious crime as it is an illegal act done with the intention of hiding unfavorable information that could interfere with the presidential election. To this end, the prosecution is expected to highlight that, in addition to the crimes related to Daniels listed in the indictment, former President Trump used the ‘catch and kill’ method of purchasing information unfavorable to the election and then burying it so that it would not be revealed to the public. do. A representative example is when Playboy model-turned-actress Karen McDougall tried to reveal that she had once had an affair with former President Trump ahead of the presidential election, the tabloid National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 to buy exclusive reporting rights and then buried the story.
The prosecution sees this. David Pecker, CEO of National Enquirer parent company AMI, is a friend of former President Trump. However, former President Trump denies having an extramarital affair with McDougall. National Enquire also paid $30,000 to a doorman at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, and bought the exclusive right to report on allegations that former President Trump had an extramarital affair, which he claimed. US media predicts that Cohen and Daniels, who are key figures in this case, as well as Pecker and McDougall, will testify at the trial as key witnesses.
Meanwhile, former President Trump is also scheduled to testify in court. At a press conference on the 12th, when asked by reporters whether he would stand as a witness in this trial, he announced, “I will testify and tell the truth.”