Topline
Former President Donald Trump is on trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from hush money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign—which prosecutors allege was a broader scheme to kill negative stories about Trump in the run up to the 2016 election.
Stormy Daniels attends the opening of the adult entertainment fair 'Venus' in Berlin, Germany, on ... [+]
Key Facts
Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006, which prosecutors allege in a statement of facts was done at Trump’s direction and in coordination with the Trump Organization.
Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks, which prosecutors allege were falsely labeled as being for legal services as part of a retainer agreement, paid first through the Trump Organization and then through Trump’s personal funds—which forms the basis for the charges against Trump.
Prior to Daniels’ payments, former American Media (AMI) CEO David Pecker—whose company owned the National Enquirer—allegedly paid $150,000 to “catch and kill” a story from former Playboy model Karen McDougal alleging an affair with Trump in the mid-2000s, which prosecutors allege was done as part of a broader agreement with Trump to silence any stories that could be damaging to his campaign.
Cohen had a conversation with Trump about reimbursing Pecker for the payment to McDougal—which prosecutors allege was captured on an audio recording—and subsequently created a shell company for those purposes, though prosecutors allege AMI canceled a deal to transfer the rights to McDougal’s story to the shell company.
A former Trump Tower doorman was also paid $30,000 by AMI in late 2015 after it learned he intended to share a story about Trump having a child out of wedlock with a former employee, as first reported by the New Yorker, which prosecutors allege was done as part of Pecker’s agreement with the Trump campaign—and AMI continued to suppress the story at Cohen’s direction even after learning it was false.
AMI falsely characterized that payment in its books, as well as the payment to McDougal, and both AMI and Cohen have admitted guilt in the hush money payments, with Cohen previously testifying his actions in the payments to McDougal and Daniels were “in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office.”
What To Watch For
Trump’s criminal trial began in earnest with opening arguments on Monday, following a week of jury selection, and proceedings are expected to last for approximately six weeks. Pecker is the first witness who’s been called to testify at the trial, and he’s expected to tell the jury about AMI’s alleged deal with Trump and payments to the doorman and McDougal. He’s expected to continuing testifying Tuesday after first taking the stand for only a few minutes on Monday. Cohen’s payment to Daniels is the only one that’s at direct issue in the indictment—as the charges are based on Trump’s reimbursement checks—but prosecutors have argued the other payments illustrate how Trump was motivated to silence negative stories about himself.
Big Number
$420,000. That’s how much Trump allegedly repaid Cohen for his $130,000 payment to Daniels, prosecutors allege, which was paid out in 12 monthly installments of $35,000 throughout 2017. In addition to the $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels, Trump and the Trump Organization also reimbursed Cohen $50,000 for a separate charge he had made, and that $180,000 amount was then doubled to $360,000, because Trump assumed Cohen would have to pay 50% income tax on the payments. The Trump Organization’s CFO then allegedly added an additional $60,000 as a year-end bonus.
Chief Critic
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the crimes against him and denied having affairs with Daniels and McDougal or illegally covering them up, calling the case against him a “witch hunt” designed to harm his presidential campaign. In his opening arguments Monday, Trump attorney Todd Blanche maintained that his client was “innocent,” distancing Trump from any of the allegedly falsified business records at issue and maintained there was nothing illegal about the arrangement with Daniels.
What We Don’t Know
What punishment Trump will face. Each count Trump has been charged with is a class “E” felony under New York law punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine—meaning he could be sentenced to a maximum of 136 years in prison and a $170,000 fine if he were convicted on every count. That’s unlikely, however, as legal experts largely believe the court wouldn’t sentence Trump to prison as a first-time offender.
Key Background
Trump was indicted in March 2023 for the felony offenses against him in connection to the hush money payments, which mark the first time a former or sitting president has faced criminal charges. He would later be indicted in three additional criminal cases, though the hush money case is the first to go to trial. The indictment followed a yearslong investigation by the Manhattan DA’s office into the Trump Organization’s financials, which turned back to the hush money payments after the company and its former CFO Allen Weisselberg were convicted on unrelated tax fraud charges. Cohen served a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to crimes that included campaign finance violations stemming from the hush money payments, and after serving as his longtime “fixer,” the ex-attorney has now become outspoken against Trump, serving as a key witness for prosecutors in their investigation. The Manhattan charges against Trump come after federal prosecutors had previously declined to indict Trump over the hush money payments in 2018, while he was still in the White House. According to the New York Times, prosecutors at the time feared that doing so would violate a government directive against indicting sitting presidents, and after he left office, continued to have doubts about Cohen’s credibility as a witness.
Further Reading
