oversaw a “planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election,” which included hush money payments to an adult-film actress, prosecutors told a jury Monday in the opening salvo of the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Trump’s crimes, the prosecutor said, arose out of his secret election-year deal with the National Enquirer to squelch bad stories about his sex life — a conspiracy launched in a meeting between Trump; the tabloid’s then-CEO David Pecker; and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer. “Unbeknownst to President Trump, in all the years that Mr. Cohen worked for him, Mr. Cohen was also a criminal,” Blanche said. “He cheated on his taxes, he lied to banks, he lied about side businesses.”
Trump will provide some of the evidence that will prove his guilt, Colangelo said, because jurors will hear “Donald Trump’s own words on tape, in social media posts, in his own books and in video of his own speeches.” charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records, for categorizing the reimbursement payments to Cohen as legal expenses.