US prosecutors made their opening statement Monday in the historic trial of Donald Trump, arguing the former president was engaged in a “criminal” scheme and coverup related to a pre-election hush money payment in 2016.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a coverup,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors in a Manhattan court where Trump was seated for the case in the middle of his election campaign to retake the White House in November. After prosecutors alleged the former president falsified business records,
Trump’s defence team delivered its opening statement at his New York criminal trial Monday, saying he was “cloaked in innocence”. “President Trump is presumed innocent. He’s cloaked in innocence,” his lawyer Todd Blanche told the court. This trial comes shortly after Trump arrived at a New York courthouse to hear prosecutors explain why his alleged cover-up of a hush money payment to a porn star during his 2016 campaign broke the law.
‘SO UNFAIR’
Though Trump called for supporters to protest peacefully at courthouses “all over the Country,” few were on hand to greet him when he arrived at the downtown courthouse. Trump suggested tight security measures were responsible for the sparse turnout at the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president. “Lower Manhattan surrounding the Courthouse, where I am heading now, is completely CLOSED DOWN. SO UNFAIR!!!” he wrote on social media.
‘Trial before Nov. 5 election’
Lawyers for the Republican presidential candidate will also make their opening statement in what may be the only one of Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to go to trial before his Nov. 5 election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Prosecutors say Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier deceived voters in the waning days of Trump’s 2016 campaign, when he was facing other revelations of sexual misbehavior.
As the trial opened, Justice Juan Merchan ruled that prosecutors would be able to ask Trump, if he testifies, about two other court cases: one that found he fraudulently misstated the value of his real estate assets, and another that found he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of rape. Merchan also said prosecutors would be able to show jurors a transcript of a tape from the ‘Access Hollywood’ TV show in which Trump makes vulgar comments about grabbing women’s genitals, though jurors will not be allowed to see the tape itself.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsification of business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and denies having had a sexual encounter with Daniels. A guilty verdict would not bar him from taking office, but it could hurt his candidacy. A recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos shows half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for Trump, opens new tab if he is convicted of a crime.
(With agency inputs)
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