NEW YORK (AP) — It was the kind of sordid story Donald Trump might have liked to read before politics. It was a porn actress who claimed to have had sex with her.
But on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Trump feared the story – which he called false – could cost him votes. There, prosecutors allege, he arranged for hush money to be paid to Stormy Daniels.
After years of struggle leading up to his indictment last year, Trump is now scheduled to go on trial in New York on Monday on state charges related to the very sex scandal that Trump and his aides sought to cover up.
Barring a last-minute delay, this will be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial. This is an unprecedented event in U.S. history and the first criminal trial against a former president.
It was not always clear whether the hush money allegations would lead to a trial, let alone an indictment. This is perhaps the least dangerous of the charges against President Trump, as the others involve government secrets and threats to democracy.
But this case is almost certainly the most sordid, with allegations of marital infidelity, complicity in a supermarket tabloid cover-up, and support for the former Trump, who now considers one of the former president’s enemies. Testimony is expected to be made regarding the remuneration planned by the suspect.
Many of the details of the case relate not only to Daniels’ allegations, but also to a plan by federal prosecutors to bury other potentially damaging stories from Trump’s playboy past. -This has been public knowledge since 2018, when Cohen was indicted for campaign finance crimes.
They later suggested that Trump directed Cohen’s efforts, euphemistically identifying Cohen in court documents as “Individual-1.” Justice Department policy prohibits charging sitting presidents with crimes, but nothing happened.
In the years that followed, tantalizing stories of sex, politics, and cover-ups largely faded from the headlines. It was overshadowed by the investigation into Russian election interference, Trump’s second impeachment, and allegations that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election and hoarded classified documents after he left office.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has declined to take the politically explosive step of investigating Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Mr. Daniels and seeking to indict Mr. Trump.
Prosecutors were so unsure about the hush money case that it became known among prosecutors as the “zombie case.” As they pursued Mr. Trump on various fronts over the past five years, they revisited the law and then abandoned it again — going to the Supreme Court twice to obtain tax records; He indicted his company and its executives for tax evasion.
Vance’s successor, Democrat Alvin Bragg, who took office in January 2022, took a different view of the hush-money scandal.
A grand jury was convened in January 2023. Others, including Mr. Cohen, who is now an outspoken critic of his former boss, and the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, which helped Mr. Trump by buying up negative stories and suppressing them. Heard from witnesses. A practice known as “catch and kill.”
On March 30, 2023, a grand jury indicted President Trump on charges that he falsified the company’s internal records to hide the nature of payments he made to Cohen to reward him for covering up potentially embarrassing stories. It was decided to prosecute. This charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison, but there is no guarantee that he will be sentenced to prison even if he is convicted.
President Trump has denied the allegations and said prosecutors are conducting “election interference” and a “witch hunt.” He pleaded not guilty.
In a court filing, Mr. Bragg’s office framed prosecutors as another election interference case against Mr. Trump, alleging that the Republican Party engaged in “an extensive and corrupt criminal scheme to conceal harmful information from voters.” He accused the party of orchestrating a plan that “damaged the integrity of the 2016 presidential election.” ”
Prosecutors said in the indictment that the charges trace back to multiple schemes dating back to the early days of Trump’s 2016 campaign to suppress articles alleging that Trump had extramarital sexual relationships.
Before making the payment to Daniels, prosecutors said, Cohen ordered former Playboy model Karen McDougall to pay $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougall, who claims she had a month-long affair with Trump, according to the National Enquirer. It is said that the arrangement was made on paper. The tabloid also paid $30,000 to a doorman at Trump Tower who it claims gave birth to a child out of wedlock.
President Trump, upset over the unreleased 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in October in which he brags about grabbing a woman’s genitals, tells Cohen to arrange payment to Daniels. did. According to the indictment, the sexual encounter occurred in 2006 during a golf outing between the celebrities in Lake Tahoe, California.
Trump’s arraignment, held five days after his indictment, was a captivating spectacle for the media, supporters and protesters. His trial will take place in the same courtroom and in the same cauldron.
After Trump’s indictment in New York, others followed suit.
Within 70 days, Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted President Trump in Florida for storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion. Fifty-four days later, Smith indicted Trump in Washington, D.C., for attempting to subvert the 2020 election ahead of the January 6, 2021, riot. Two weeks later, Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Trump on racketeering and other charges in a similar election-subversion case.
While the New York case is moving quickly, it seems increasingly unlikely that Trump’s other criminal cases will go to trial before the November election.
The Atlanta case has been slowed by corruption allegations against top prosecutors, the Washington case by a Supreme Court appeal over legally untested immunity issues, and the Florida prosecutor’s office by a large number of unresolved allegations.
“This case is a simpler case, perhaps in part because there are fewer practical obstacles to proceeding,” said Alex Reinert, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. ” he said. city.
Trump has also repeatedly tried to delay the trial in New York. His lawyers tried to ask the state Court of Appeals this week to delay the case three times, but were denied three times.
The case, which alleges hefty payouts to suppress sexual talk during an election year, is the latest in court for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who was charged with campaign finance crimes related to secret fundraising of nearly $1 million. It shows some alarming similarities with the Department’s failed prosecution. It came from two wealthy donors who helped hide his pregnant mistress during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
His defense argued that the money was intended to hide his affair from his wife, who had cancer, and not to improve his electoral chances. Edwards was ultimately acquitted on one charge, but the jury deadlocked on five other charges.
Jeremy Saland, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who now works as a criminal defense attorney, said Mr. Bragg must believe he has a better chance against Mr. Trump because of the size of the case.
“He must have entered the courtroom believing he had the items,” Saland said. “Otherwise, it would be catastrophic for the American psyche that the case in which the former president was indicted turned out to be a complete failure and to appear to be a sham, even if it was not true. It might become.”
But even if the allegations were proven, he said, it would still amount to “gross misconduct on the part of someone who was vying to be the leader of the free world at the time.” To those who say, “Hey, it’s just hush money,” he said, “We hold our elected officials to higher standards and subject them to more scrutiny, and rightly so. “I believe that,” he said.
___Tucker reported from Washington.
