Absent a last minute plea deal between Defendant Donald Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg or a pardon from Gov. Hochul (that will not come), at 9 a.m. this morning Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan sitting in New York Supreme Criminal Court Part 59 (that’s courtroom 1530 at 100 Centre St. in English) will commence the trial.
One of Bragg’s assistant district attorneys will make the opening statement and thus begin the prosecution of the ex-president and all but certain GOP nominee.
The charge is 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a class E felony. But it’s really if Trump conspired to illegally influence the 2016 election by hiding evidence of extramarital sexual encounters with a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, and a Playboy centerfold, Karen McDougal. Trump is only indicted for the $130,000 payments to Daniels, not the $150,000 funneled to McDougal by the National Enquirer.
It’s no crime to cheat on your wife and have sex with someone else (New York’s ancient and never enforced adultery crime, a class B misdemeanor, was just repealed by the Legislature and is awaiting Hochul’s signature). It’s also no crime to lie and hide the trysts. And it’s no crime to pay a porn actress to stay quiet. What constitutes the crime is to phony up business accounting records to disguise the payments.
Expect both Daniels and McDougal and the then-boss of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, and Trump bagman Michael Cohen all to testify. What a charming crew. Trump, as a criminal defendant, has a Fifth Amendment right not to be called by Bragg, but he may very well demand that his own lawyers put him on the stand, giving Bragg a chance to cross-examine him.
Trump is represented in this case by Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, two pros with excellent reputations in criminal matters and both hopefully for Trump’s sake much better than the bumbling Alina Habba, who didn’t help Trump much in his civil case brought by state Attorney General Tish James.
Coincidentally, just other day a New York attorney recounted to us that long ago Trump was a client and Trump, of course, stiffed the lawyer on the bill. That’s the Trump we’ve all known for decades, who routinely wouldn’t pay for services rendered. But that was before Trump could get suckers nationwide to send in money for his legal expenses.
Those suckers, and millions of others, have also voted for the man in 2016 and 2020 and will do so again this fall. Should Bragg be able to convince all 12 jurors of Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, perhaps some of them may change their minds, or maybe it will reinforce their belief that the system is out to get Trump.
As we’ve written whenever we have the opportunity, the best way for all Americans to decide about this trial would be to watch it on TV, but this is New York, so that’s not happening. Second best is to have a chance to read the daily transcripts from each day’s arguments, witness testimony, summations and Merchan’s instructions to the jury.
But those transcripts are kept secret by the court stenographers to anyone who doesn’t pay them personally. We hope that this insane transcript situation is resolved by the end of today’s first session of court.
Judgment day has arrived: Donald Trump on criminal trial
11
11
23.04.2024
Absent a last minute plea deal between Defendant Donald Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg or a pardon from Gov. Hochul (that will not come), at 9 a.m. this morning Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan sitting in New York Supreme Criminal Court Part 59 (that’s courtroom 1530 at 100 Centre St. in English) will commence the trial.
One of Bragg’s assistant district attorneys will make the opening statement and thus begin the prosecution of the ex-president and all but certain GOP nominee.
The charge is 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a class E felony. But it’s really if Trump conspired to illegally influence the 2016 election by hiding evidence of extramarital sexual encounters with a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, and a Playboy........
© NY Daily News
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
