In the hallway outside the courtroom, Trump denounced the case and other legal battles he is waging, with his usual bluster and vitriol against a system he says unfairly targets him for political reasons.
“I should be in Georgia now, I should be in Florida now,” Trump said.
Colangelo spent about 40 minutes Monday morning describing the evidence he said would show Trump broke the law. The prosecutor’s delivery was calm and measured throughout the speech – never raising his voice and keeping his hands in his suit pockets most of the time he spoke.
Trump’s crimes, the prosecutor said, stem from his secret election-year deal with the National Enquirer to suppress bad stories about his sex life — a plot launched during a meeting between Trump and then-CEO David Pecker from the tabloid, and Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and fixer at the time.
That deal ultimately led to Cohen paying $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from going public with an alleged sexual relationship she had with Trump years earlier, the prosecutor said.
Cohen is expected to testify that Trump deliberately misrepresented reimbursements to Cohen to conceal what the money was for.
Cohen’s testimony will be “overwhelming” and compelling, Colangelo said.
“I suspect the defense will go to great lengths to get you to reject his testimony precisely because it is so damning,” Colangelo said, while acknowledging that Cohen “made mistakes.”
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, countered, when it was his turn to address the panel, that the prosecutor’s case would fail because it was based on Cohen’s lies.
“Unbeknownst to President Trump, during all the years Mr. Cohen worked for him, Mr. Cohen was also a criminal,” Blanche said. “He cheated on his taxes, he lied to the banks, he lied about side businesses.”
Blanche said that when the FBI began investigating Cohen, it tried to “blame Trump for virtually all of his problems” and continues to do so.
“Michael Cohen was obsessed with President Trump, he still is today,” Blanche said.
Cohen took to social media later in the day, using profanity to refer to Trump and saying, “your attacks on me reek of desperation. We all hope you will speak up in your defense.
Cohen, a convicted perjurer and felon, is considered a central part of the prosecution’s case, and how jurors view him may ultimately decide whether they convict Trump. Colangelo said the jury will be convinced that Cohen is telling the truth about the hush money payments because his statements will be “supported by the testimony of other witnesses,” as well as bank statements, emails and text messages.
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 videos of his own speeches.” .
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records, for classifying reimbursements paid to Cohen as legal fees.
Cohen’s payment to Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, was made “at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald Trump, and he did so for the specific purpose of influencing the outcome of the election,” Colangelo said.
“No politician wants to have bad press. But the evidence at trial will show that this was not a manipulation or a strategy,” he said. “This was a long-planned and coordinated conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal spending, to silence people who had something negative to say on his behavior, using falsified company records. »
Trump’s lawyer, Blanche, countered that characterization, saying the prosecutor was trying to make the legal conduct look like a criminal conspiracy.
“There is nothing illegal about what happened between AMI, Mr. Pecker, Mr. Cohen and President Trump,” Blanche said, referring to American Media Inc., the parent company of Enquirer at the time. “This kind of thing happens regularly, when newspapers decide what to publish, how to publish. This happens all the time with famous people, rich people. It doesn’t matter if it’s a ploy, it’s not against the law.
Prosecutors said Trump was motivated to prevent Daniels from speaking publicly in part because in October 2016, the Washington Post revealed the existence of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump made explicit comments about the blithe seizure female genitals. Fearing the damage that more stories of sexual misconduct could do to his candidacy, Trump and his allies moved to prevent more scandalous stories from surfacing, Colangelo said.
washingtonpost
