| |
| The first of four criminal trials involving former President Donald Trump is scheduled to start on Monday as New York prosecutors have accused him of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. |
| Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the 34-count indictment roughly a year before the trial, charging Trump with felony counts of falsifying records “to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.” |
 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump during a joint press conference with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on April 12, 2024. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) |
| Trump has denied all wrongdoing, as well as the alleged affair with Daniels. He also maintained that contrary to Bragg’s accusations, his payments were part of a legitimate retainer agreement with his former attorney Michael Cohen. |
| Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation in 2018 and said that he completed the payment to Daniels as part of an effort to prevent negative information from surfacing before the election. |
| The trial comes as Trump’s legal team is pressing the Supreme Court to rule he’s immune from prosecution in his federal election trial, wherein the Justice Department accused him of attempting to defraud the United States on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump attempted to halt the New York trial pending the Supreme Court’s decision but was rejected by Judge Manuel Merchan. |
| Merchan and the former president clashed in recent weeks as the latter highlighted work by the judge’s daughter at a political consulting firm that’s helped Democrats. An updated gag order by Merchan prevented Trump from speaking about his daughter. |
| It’s just the latest gag order Trump has encountered, raising questions about his free expression as a leading candidate for president. |
| Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Brien told The Epoch Times that “judges have been issuing gag orders for months. I haven’t seen too much of an impact on [Trump’s] conduct.” He added that Merchan “may have to hold him in contempt, and fine him substantially.” |
| The Trump campaign has raised multiple concerns about bias by Merchan, who donated to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and other left-leaning groups. Merchan refused to recuse himself from the case despite requests from the former president. |
| Bragg must convince a jury that Trump not only falsified the relevant records but did so with the intention of concealing another crime. It’s unclear whether Bragg will even need to specifically cite the second crime during the trial but has indicated he believe Trump may have violated a federal campaign finance law, a state election law, and one regarding tax fraud. |
| Jury composition could be the key to understanding whatever verdict results in the case. On Monday, an appeals court denied Trump’s attempt to move the trial out of Manhattan after he had raised concerns about his ability to get a fair and impartial jury in the city. |
| Three other attempts to delay the trial also failed this week. |
| Will Chamberlain, an attorney with the Article III Project was skeptical about a jury convicting Trump. Chamberlain said that “New York isn’t D.C. in the same way. There are there are still plenty of Republicans who live in New York. So, I don’t think it’ll be as straightforward to convict him as it would be in a jurisdiction like D.C.” |
| Even if Trump is convicted, it seems unlikely that he would face jail time and the associated impediments to his campaign. Each count carries a maximum sentence of four years but the Associated Press reported that newspaper archives have historically shown that defendants usually don’t receive prison time for the felony. |
| He could request that the jury receive the option to convict him of the lesser-included misdemeanor, instead of felony, offenses. In New York, Class A misdemeanors like this carry a maximum penalty of one year in prison. |
| Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahamani told The Epoch Times: “It’s certainly possible that Trump successfully reduces the charges to misdemeanors. The tax and campaign finance violations are a legal stretch, and juries could easily reject those arguments.” |
| Trump said yesterday that he would testify in this case. Constitutional law expert John Shu told The Epoch Times that he would be better off not testifying since Bragg could use it as an opportunity to pick him apart and charge him with perjury. |
| “The entire country will be watching the trial and if he doesn’t take the stand, people will think he is guilty,” Rahmani told The Epoch Times. |
| An acquittal, though perceived as unlikely, would mark a victory for Trump heading into the rest of his trials and the November elections. |
| To dig deeper into the subject, read the following original reporting by our journalists: | |
| |
| |
| |
Thank you for being a subscriber
If you enjoy what you’re reading, please consider forwarding this email to someone who might find it informative. Your Feedback
We'd love to hear from you. You can email us at topstory@epochtimes.nyc We may feature an exerpt of your response in the next newsletter.
| | |
