Prosecution: Trump Hush Money was ‘Pure Election Fraud’

Prosecution: Trump Hush Money was ‘Pure Election Fraud’

A hush-money payment was “election fraud, pure and simple”, the prosecution alleges in Donald Trump’s historic New York trial.

But the former president’s lawyer says his client did not commit any crimes, adding “he is cloaked in innocence”.

Trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 (£104,500) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before he won the 2016 election.

He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and also denies having an alleged sexual encounter with Daniels.

In opening statements, the lead prosecutor urged the jury to avoid sideshows. “Tune out the noise, focus on the facts,” he says.

The defense argues that Trump had no personal involvement in the payments – and that it’s not illegal to try to influence an election anyway.

David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer who bought and buried damaging stories about Trump is the first witness for the prosecution.

What did we hear in court today?

Day one (officially, last week was jury selection) of Trump’s historic criminal trial has been interesting, but a relatively brief court day.

• Justice Merchan started by reminding the 12 members of the jury that they “promised to be fair” in the trial
• The prosecution said the Trump campaign panicked when the infamous Access Hollywood tape, where Trump brags about trying to have sex with a married woman, was revealed by the Washington Post
• “It was election fraud, pure and simple,” the prosecution said of Trump’s alleged scheme to hide the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels. This scheme involved Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer, creating a shell company to funnel money to Daniels, the prosecutor said
• Michael Colangelo of the prosecution also said there was a second crime – election fraud – by trying to conceal the payments and therefore interfering in an election
• Trump’s lawyer, in his opening statement, said the former president is “cloaked in innocence” and “did not commit any crimes”
• In regards to the alleged election fraud, Todd Blanche said: “I have a spoiler alert… There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
• The defense also worked to discredit Cohen, a star prosecution witness, saying “he’s a convicted felon… and has an obsession with getting Trump”
• Blanche also said that Stormy Daniels’ testimony “doesn’t matter”, because she knew nothing about the financial documents at the heart of this trial
• The first witness to be called, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, was only on the stand for about 30 minutes, before the judge called an end to today’s proceedings because a juror had a dentist appointment – he’ll resume tomorrow

Prosecution: Trump Hush Money was ‘Pure Election Fraud’