(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump will go on trial this month in Manhattan for his alleged role in a payment scheme to silence his alleged mistresses before the 2016 election.
The trial will be historic: no former president of the United States has ever faced criminal proceedings.
It will be lascivious too: the alleged lovers are a former adult film actress and a Playboy model.
Although the former president — who denies any wrongdoing — is the main defendant, it may or may not be the trial of the century. Trump still faces three other criminal trials in federal courts and in Georgia, for possibly more serious crimes such as election interference, conspiracy and mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
All of these lawsuits and the people involved create a complicated legal mess, particularly when the four criminal cases are added to Trump’s civil liability for defamation and sexual misconduct, as well as commercial fraud.
This is what you should know to stay up to date with 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. (AMI), for the rights to her story. AMI quickly dismissed the story. It’s a process known as “catch and kill.”
AMI also paid to “catch and kill” a former Trump Tower janitor’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 CEO of AMI, was the one who 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, in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement about her meetings with Trump. Cohen took out a line of credit on his house to make the payment just before the election.
Stormy Daniels
Trump’s campaign was particularly concerned about allegations of sexual misconduct in the final days of the 2016 election, when the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump described grabbing women by the genitals, dominated the news. news coverage.
After the election, Trump’s company refunded Cohen for the payment to Daniels.
How did these payments come to light?
In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported on AMI’s “catch and kill” plot and said Daniels had been in talks to share her story days before the 2016 election. McDougal and Daniels shared the same attorney.
But things didn’t really explode until January 2018, when The Journal reported on payments Cohen made to Daniels.
Were these hush payments illegal?
Yes. Cohen and AMI have admitted that they violated the laws.
Cohen pleaded guilty to two counts of campaign finance in August 2018: making 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 the subject of a formal criminal charge by federal authorities, but admitted to making the payment to McDougal. The company paid a fine of $187,500 to the Federal Election Commission for making an illegal campaign contribution.
How much 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 are 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 Twitter post that he made them to Cohen. Trump argued that they had nothing to do with the campaign.
Summer Zervos, former The Apprentice contestant; Stormy Daniels, adult film star, and Karen McDougal, former Playboy model, denounced Donald Trump for sexual harassment.
What law is Trump accused of breaking?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Trump’s indictment by a grand jury in April 2023, accusing the former president of “falsifying New York business records to conceal damaging information and illegal activities from American voters before and after the 2016 elections.”
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 campaign. of 2016.
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.
There is still much more
This is a long and sordid story, and what’s in this review really barely scratches the surface.
It’s almost irrelevant as to the payments, but there is the question of whether the alleged encounters 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 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 will try to return to the White House.
There will be drama in court. The judge overseeing the secret payments case, Juan Merchán, extended a gag order against Trump after the former president attacked his daughter on social media. 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 being Trump’s problem solver to 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 hush money payments case includes former Trump aides 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 rebuilt the entire Republican Party based on his own populist image. This case would seem much smaller than the federal and Fulton County, Georgia, cases where he is accused 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 that he should be exempt from all federal prosecution. A federal judge in Miami is considering Trump’s delaying tactics in the classified documents case. And the Fulton County prosecutor had to respond to allegations about his own private conduct. That’s why this New York case about secret payments allegedly made eight years ago to keep quiet is the one that will go to trial first.
2024-04-13 16:02:00
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