NEW YORK: New York prosecutors on Monday began telling a jury why Donald Trump's alleged cover-up of a hush money payment to a movie star during his 2016 campaign broke the law, as the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president got underway.
"This case is about conspiracy of fraud," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury. "The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election."
Though Trump called for supporters to protest peacefully at courthouses "all over the Country," few were on hand to greet him when he arrived at the downtown courthouse. Trump suggested tight security measures were responsible for the sparse turnout, but the streets surrounding the courthouse were open to the public.
"Lower Manhattan surrounding the Courthouse, where I am heading now, is completely closed down. so unfair." he wrote on social media.
Prosecutors say Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged encounter with Trump a decade earlier deceived voters in the waning days of Trump's 2016 campaign.
As the trial opened, Justice Juan Merchan ruled that prosecutors would be able to ask Trump, if he testifies, about two other court cases: one that found he fraudulently misstated the value of his real estate assets, and another that found he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of physical assault.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsification of business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and denies having had assault encounter with Daniels.
Testimony about those payments could help prosecutors establish that Cohen's payment to Daniels was part of a broader pattern.
Prosecutors plan to call at least 20 witnesses total, according to Trump's defense team. The trial could last six to eight weeks.
Trump faces three other criminal indictments stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in those cases, and he portrays all of them as a broad-based effort by Biden's Democratic allies to undercut his campaign.
Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money trial, imposed a limited gag order on Trump after he criticized witnesses, prosecutors, the judge and his daughter. Prosecutors are pressing Merchan to penalize Trump for violating that order. — Reuters
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