NORTH CAROLINA, USA (Nettavisen): It is the second week of the trial against Donald Trump in New York. Jurors did not arrive in court until 11 a.m. Tuesday morning US time.
The parties should first argue for and against whether Trump has broken the muzzle he has been given after speaking publicly about the parties involved in the bribery case.
This is the hush money thing
Donald Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business documents in the “hush money” case. The president is accused of having made three “hush money” payments when he was a presidential candidate in 2016. The most talked about and central payment is to Stormy Daniels through Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors believe Trump has booked false expenses or falsified the accounts to hide the “hush money” reimbursements to lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump, for his part, believes the expenses were legitimate legal expenses.
Prosecutors believe the refunds took place to prevent negative information about Trump from getting out and affecting his chances of winning the 2016 election.
The three payments:
- The payoff to Stormy Daniels
$130,000 was paid to Stormy Daniels by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter they allegedly had in 2006.
The money was paid two weeks before the presidential election in 2016. Trump has admitted that the payment took place, but denies having had an affair. He claimed in May 2018 that they paid Daniels money to stop the false accusations. She signed an NDA.
- The payout to Karen McDougal
Trump is also said to have paid a large sum of money to Playboy model Karen McDougal. She is said to have received $150,000 from the company American Media after she claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump. The media company would own the rights to the story, without ever publishing it. Attorney General Alvin Bragg claims Trump made lawyer Cohen repay the media company in cash. Trump denies the affair.
- The payout to Trump Tower employee
Trump also allegedly paid a former Trump Tower doorman. The man claimed he had information about a child Trump allegedly had out of wedlock. The payment is said to have taken place through the National Enquirer, a company linked to American Media, which is the company that paid money to McDougal. The doorman is said to have received NOK 30,000 to enter into an exclusive agreement with the media company.
Trump risks prison time. He believes himself to be innocent. The ex-president has tried repeatedly to postpone the trial, but without success.
Lawyer Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty in 2018 and served time in prison. The media company has admitted the payment McDougal. The newspaper considered the doorman’s story to be untrue.
Sources: Washington Post and Ap.
– A disaster for the defenders
Prosecutors believe Trump’s posts on social media threaten the ability to carry out this trial. They refer to ten different posts.
Several of the posts comment on Michael Cohen, a key witness in the trial. Cohen has stated that Trump’s attacks on him reek of desperation. Trump’s team claims Trump has the right to respond to political attacks.
During the hearing, Trump’s lawyers were reprimanded several times by Judge Juan Merchan. At one point, the judge raised his voice as he spoke to Trump’s lawyer. “I ask the questions”, was the message.
“This was a disaster for the defenders,” writes CNN’s chief legal correspondent Paula Reid after the hearing.
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The court went through every record, while Trump’s team would rather focus on “the big picture”, points out Reid.
She also points out that Merchan wanted to know at some point if Trump would take an oath that he did not think he had broken the oral cavity.
“Your client believes that he does not believe he broke the muzzle when he republished posts. I’d like to hear it. Or do you expect me to just accept it because you say so?” Merchan told Trump attorney Todd Blanche.
Trump’s lawyer claimed that Trump is trying hard to comply with the muzzle. Merchan replied that he loses all credibility in court.
The judge has not made a decision yet on the possible breach of the muzzle he has been placed on.
Trump’s man in the media industry
The trial continued with the jury present and key witness David Pecker just after 11 a.m. US time. Pecker was managing director and chairman of the tabloid newspaper National Enquirer when Trump was a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016. He is said to have known Trump since the 80s. In court, he says that they saw each other more often after Trump announced that he would run for office.
In court, he is portrayed as Trump’s man in the media industry. On Tuesday, he admits that whenever there was a negative story about Trump on its way to publication, he alerted Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen.
According to Pecker, they had an agreement that the paper would publish positive stories about Trump, negative stories about the competitors and warn about damaging information.
Pecker allegedly offered Cohen to notify him of women who tried to sell their stories so that Cohen could stop the stories from being published. It was not just about stories that were tried to be sold to Pecker’s newspaper, but also if he heard rumors in the “market”.
This was an agreement no one or very few knew about, according to Pecker. He was afraid of leaks.
– Criminal conspiracy
According to prosecutors, Trump, Michael Cohen and Pecker formed a criminal conspiracy to kill embarrassing stories that could tarnish Donald Trump in the presidential race. Trump has then booked false expenses to hide the hush money payments.
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It is referred to in the US as a “catch and kill” strategy. Pecker’s media company reportedly bought the rights to exclusive stories about Trump to kill them.
Both Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels were paid by the National Enquirer and its parent company American Media Inc. for the rights to their stories.
Testified about the payment to the doorman
A third payment to a Trump Tower doorman is also an item in the indictment. The doorman claimed that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. In court on Tuesday, Pecker first explained about this payment.
“If the story had been true, then we would probably have had the biggest turnover since Elvis died”.
The doorman was paid $30,000. Pecker claims he intended to publish the story after it was verified. But also only after the 2016 election.
“That was the conversation I had with Cohen and what we agreed on,” Pecker said in court. The newspaper concluded that the doorman’s story was not true.
Pecker also testified Tuesday about the payment to Karen McDougal. The model claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Trump denies this. The trial continues on Thursday.
David Pecker has been granted immunity in exchange for testifying in the case.
Trump must appear in court every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Every Wednesday the court takes a break.
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