Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is expected to be withdrawn from the campaign trail for at least two months starting next week, as he stands on trial in New York, the first criminal trial of a former president in American history.
Trump was accused of falsifying business records in an attempt to hide money paid to an adult film actress to prevent her from going public with allegations that she had sex with Trump.
It is the only one of the four criminal cases Trump currently faces that has a trial date and could be the only one completed before Election Day. Jury selection begins April 15.
What are the charges?
The trial revolves around whether Trump falsified business records to cover a $130,000 payment his lawyer Michael Cohen made in the final days of the 2016 campaign to adult film actress Stormy Daniels over her silence about a 2006 sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. He pleaded not guilty. Trump also denies Daniels' claim that a sexual encounter occurred.
According to the New York indictment, Trump sent Cohen $420,000 in 12 installments during his first months as president in 2017 and falsely recorded the payments in internal Trump Organization documents as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. This amount includes $130,000 in compensation for paying Daniels and additional funds for Cohen.
Prosecutors say there were no legal expenses or retainer agreement at the time.
The main thing is the Manhattan neighborhood. Atty. Alvin Bragg must prove to jurors that Trump ordered Cohen to pay Daniels in an attempt to influence the 2016 election by preventing damaging stories about him from being published.
Trump said he sought to silence Daniels to prevent his wife, Melania Trump, from learning about the accusations.
Should Trump attend the trial in person?
Yes. Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said he expects Trump to be in the courtroom every day the court is in session. The trial will be held on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for six to eight weeks.
Trump is subject to a gag order prohibiting him from making public statements or directing others to make public statements about attorneys and court staff in this case.
Merchan last week expanded his gag order to prevent the former president from attacking the judge's family members, lawyers and staff involved in the case after Trump shared a barrage of social media posts about the judge's daughter, claiming that her past work for Democratic clients makes her father biased.
Trump said Saturday on social media that going to prison for violating a gag order would be a “great honor for him.”
“If this partisan wants to put me in the awkward position of speaking the truth openly and unambiguously, I will gladly become a modern-day Nelson Mandela,” Trump said Saturday in a post on Truth Social.
Merchan did not threaten to imprison the former president for ignoring the gag order. Alternatively, Trump could lose access to jurors' names “if he engages in any conduct that threatens the safety or integrity of the jury or the jury selection process,” Merchan said. This would prevent Trump's legal team from researching jurors' general attitudes or political preferences before the trial. Merchan has already ordered the jurors' names to be hidden from the public.
What punishment does Trump face?
All 34 charges are class E felonies, the lowest class of felonies in New York. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of four years.
Merchan noted that he takes white-collar crimes seriously and could put Trump in prison, potentially serving his terms at the same time if the former president is convicted of more than one count. Merchan could also sentence Trump to probation instead.
What would it mean politically?
Trump will be limited to campaigning only on weekends, evenings and Wednesdays for the duration of the trial.
A ruling could come in late June or early July, before Trump accepts his party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July.
During the Republican primary campaign, Trump used the four indictments to his advantage, portraying himself as a victim of politicized justice and effectively alienating his rivals. It is unknown whether this narrative will continue when Americans see images of him in the courtroom day after day.
Three polls conducted by The Associated Press and the National Center for Research last year asked respondents how they viewed the legality of Trump's actions in the four indictments against him. Only a third of respondents said they believed hush money payments were illegally covered up.
Adult film actor Stormy Daniels in 2018.
(Marcus Schreiber/Associated Press)
Who will testify?
Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and longtime aide, is expected to be the prosecution's main witness. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations related to facilitating the payments of bribes to Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, among other crimes. He spent more than a year in prison.
Daniels could also be called to testify along with McDougal, who told CNN in 2018 that she had a 10-month extramarital affair with Trump that began in 2006. Trump also denies the affair occurred.
McDougal was paid $150,000 from American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer, in August 2016 for the rights to publish her story about the alleged affair. The payment to McDougal and a $30,000 payment from the company to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed Trump fathered a child out of wedlock with a female employee are not part of the case, but Bragg is expected to present them to show the breadth of the case. Concerning the alleged scheme to influence the 2016 elections.
American Media Inc. signed a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department in which it admitted to paying McDougal to avoid disclosure of her alleged relationship and influence the 2016 election. It is possible that David Pecker, publisher of the Inquirer, will be called to testify.
Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director who was the Trump campaign's press secretary in 2016, could also testify for the prosecution, potentially relevant to conversations about what Daniels' allegations could do to the campaign.
Are these felony charges?
In New York, falsifying business records can be a misdemeanor or can be raised to a felony if prosecutors prove that the records were falsified in an attempt to conceal another crime.
Bragg accused Trump of concealing three crimes: a federal campaign finance violation, a state election law crime, and tax fraud. Bragg does not have to accuse Trump of committing these crimes, or even prove that these crimes occurred. He only has to prove an intention to commit a second crime or to conceal it.
What about the other charges against Trump?
Trump has been charged in three other criminal cases.
The federal case accusing him of subverting the 2020 presidential election is on hold awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on whether Trump can claim presidential immunity for acts committed while in office and avoid prosecution. The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on April 25. She is expected to wait until the end of June to issue a written ruling, although she may issue her ruling at any time after oral argument.
The Florida-based federal case, which accuses Trump of refusing to return classified documents he took upon leaving the White House, does not have a trial date. Trump has asked for a trial to be held in August or postponed until after the election, while prosecutors have asked for it to begin in July, shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.
The statewide case in Georgia, in which Trump is accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, has been delayed for weeks because of an attempt by Trump and his co-defendants to remove Fulton County. Atty. Fanny Willis was removed from the case due to a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee recently ruled that either Willis or Wade must recuse himself from the case, and Wade resigned. Trump's lawyers have appealed the decision, and a trial date has not yet been set.
