Donald J. Trump is on trial for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York, but the prosecutors are focusing on the salacious details of the case rather than the boring paperwork. The prosecution believes that by highlighting Mr. Trump’s alleged coverup of a sex scandal with a porn star and other scandalous activities, they can show his motive for falsifying the records to protect his 2016 presidential campaign from scandal. Although the defense argues that the records are innocuous paperwork and not a crime, prosecutors aim to connect the dots between the scandal and the falsified records convincingly.
The prosecution began the trial by presenting witnesses who testified about the hush-money payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and how Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying records to reimburse his fixer, Michael Cohen, who made the payment. The records, including checks and invoices that disguised the payment, were alleged to be false documents created to cover up the illegal transaction, prosecutors claimed. While Mr. Trump is not charged with making the payment, he is accused of being involved in the scheme to conceal the payment through falsifying the records.
Prosecutors have focused on proving that Mr. Trump caused someone, like Michael Cohen, to falsify the records related to the hush-money payment. Cohen, expected to be the prosecution’s star witness, is likely to testify that Mr. Trump was aware of and involved in the scheme to reimburse him for the payment. However, Mr. Trump’s defense has attacked Cohen’s credibility, calling him an admitted liar and felon, in an attempt to discredit his testimony. The prosecution must show that Mr. Trump orchestrated the falsification of the records to conceal another crime, in this case, the election conspiracy.
The prosecution has brought in witnesses like David Pecker, former publisher of The National Enquirer, and Keith Davidson, a lawyer involved in the hush-money deal for Stormy Daniels, to testify about the “Trump Tower conspiracy” to protect Mr. Trump’s campaign from damaging stories. Testimony from these witnesses has revealed the inner workings of the purported cover-up, with details about buying and burying stories that could harm Mr. Trump’s campaign. While the defense has attacked the credibility of these witnesses, the prosecution is building a case to show that Mr. Trump was the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
Prosecutors are expected to pivot to focusing on the accusation that Mr. Trump falsified the records related to the reimbursement to Michael Cohen in the coming days of the trial. They plan to call employees from Trump’s company who handled the payment and have Mr. Cohen testify about his involvement and the former president’s role in falsifying the records. The prosecution believes that the evidence they have presented so far, along with the upcoming testimonies, will lead the jury to conclude that Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records. As the trial continues, both sides will present their arguments and witnesses, and the jurors will ultimately decide the former president’s fate.
