Donald Trump orchestrated a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” then tried to hide it, prosecutors told jurors Monday, as the landmark first ever criminal trial of a former president kicked off in Manhatttan.
Trump’s own lawyers countered he is “cloaked in innocence” and said the charges he is facing for falsifying business records should never have been brought.
“President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office should never have brought this case,” his lawyer Todd Blanche told the Manhattan Supreme Court.
“There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy,” he added during his opening statements.
The former president — wearing a navy blue suit, blue tie and white shirt — listened intently as prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office laid out for jurors their “hush money” case.
They claimed Trump had set up a scheme with his then-lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen and magazine publisher David Pecker to buy up and hide negative stories about him.
They then “covered up that conspiracy by lying in his New York business records,” and “by lying over and over again,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the 12-person jury.
Colangelo explained that Trump, 77, instructed Cohen to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the lead up to the 2016 election in order to keep her quiet about claims she once had a one-night stand with Trump when he was married.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee then illegally lied on business records when he logged the reimbursement money to Cohen as legal expenses, Colangelo alleged.
In fact, Trump along with Cohen and ex-National Enquirer publisher Pecker “carried out three different catch and kill deals to get him elected,” the prosecutor said, explaining how that involved buying the exclusive rights to a story but not publishing it.
In addition to the payment to Daniels, the real estate tycoon was “desperate” to silence Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal from coming forward about an alleged affair she had with him while he was married, Colangelo alleged.
“Mr Trump desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about its impact on the election,” the assistant district attorney said.
So Trump, Cohen and Pecker worked out a deal to pay McDougal $150,000 in exchange for her silence, the prosecutor claimed.
And the first “catch and kill” deal Trump was ever involved in, was a $30,000 payment to a former Trump Tower doorman to keep him from going public about the fact Trump allegedly fathered a child with a former housekeeper.
The National Enquirer paid off the doorman — also marking “the first time that David Pecker had ever paid anyone for information about Donald Trump,” Colangelo said.
All of these payments coupled with the cover-up amount to “election fraud. Clear and simple,” Colangelo claimed, while Trump shook his head in response to the accusation.
“We’ll never know — and it doesn’t matter — whether this conspiracy was the difference maker in a close election,” the prosecutor added, referring to the 2016 presidential election which Trump won.
Colangelo read the jurors a portion of the transcript of the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump said: “You can do anything — grab them by the p—y, you can do anything.”
“I’m quoting defendant’s words,” the prosecutor said adding that Trump “bragged about sexual assault.”
He noted that the release of the tape, just one month before the 2016 election had an “immediate and explosive” impact on the outcome.
And Colangelo seemed to try to get ahead of one of the core defenses expected from Trump’s side, that the jury shouldn’t credit testimony from Cohen since he’s an ex-con and admitted liar.
“Michael Cohen has made mistakes in the past,” Colangelo said. But he simply lied to “protect his boss.”
Meanwhile, in his opening statement, Blanche humanized Trump to the jury by saying he is “a person, just like you and just like me.”
The lawyer added Trump is a family man, although none of his family members were present for the start of trial Monday.
Trump’s lawyer also didn’t waste any time in attacking Cohen claiming he “cannot be trusted” and pointing out “he has an obsession with getting Trump.”
Blanche also went after Daniels — a likely witness at trial — insinuating she may have “extorted” Trump for the $130,000 payment and that “her testimony, while salacious, does not matter.”
During a break in proceedings, one of Trumps civil lawyers who is not involved in the hush money case Alina Habba spoke, calling the trial “a disgrace to the American judicial system.”
She said: “The fact that we have two courts not one, criminal and civil, being used against one man because they cannot beat him in the polls is a disgrace.
“You should not have two teams of lawyers here today. You should not even be here today, [this] is the epitome of a witch hunt.”