Former President Trump’s trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush-money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election is set to begin Monday with jury selection.
The trial in New York City is the first of the election year for the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over the trial. Trump’s legal team had filed a motion requesting that Merchan be recused from the trial due to his daughter’s Democrat-affiliated political work and the judge’s alleged “hostility” against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Bragg, last April, charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The DA alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
“During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged in the indictment last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”
According to New York state law, a charge of falsifying business records in the first degree alleges that the defendant committed a crime of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to commit another crime.
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York investigated the matter and opted not to charge Trump related to the alleged payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
Bragg alleged that Trump, from August 2015 to December 2017, “orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.”
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Bragg further alleged that American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child whom Trump had out of wedlock.
The DA also alleged that American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged a sexual relationship with Trump. Bragg appeared to refer to McDougal.
Bragg also alleged that Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer,” an apparent reference to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to “reimburse” American Media Inc. in cash. He alleged that Cohen, “12 days before the presidential general election,” wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress — an apparent reference to Daniels.
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Cohen, in 2019, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for violating campaign finance laws related to the payments, among other federal charges. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the payments but maintains that Trump directed them.
Bragg alleged that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks “first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose.”
“Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charged. “Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.”
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“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. … Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.”
Bragg, who stepped in as district attorney in the middle of the investigation first led by then-DA Cyrus Vance, initially signaled that he would drop the case and not bring charges against Trump. Prosecutors in the office resigned from their posts due to his stance on the matter and launched a public pressure campaign.
The trial was set to begin on March 25 but was delayed due to new materials turned over to the prosecution and Trump’s defense by the Department of Justice. Those materials were used during the federal investigation into the matter in 2018 and 2019.
Trump’s legal team sought to further delay the case, and even toss it altogether, arguing that the trial should not take place until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the issue of presidential immunity.
Merchan denied Trump’s request and deemed it “untimely.”
Lawyers for the presumptive Republican nominee had asked to adjourn the New York trial indefinitely until Trump’s immunity claim in his Washington, D.C., election interference case is resolved. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments this month and issue a ruling in mid-June.
Trump contends that he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers argue that some of the evidence and alleged acts in the hush-money case overlap with his time in the White House and constitute official acts.
An appeals court upheld Merchan’s denial.
Meanwhile, Merchan, who the Trump legal team has argued should recuse himself from the case, granted Bragg’s request and imposed a gag order on the former president and 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump’s lawyers have said Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, “has a direct financial interest in these proceedings by virtue of her ownership stake and leadership role at Authentic Campaigns, Inc.” They said she “services exclusively Democrat clients” and is the “#21 ranked vendor in the country in connection with the 2024 election.”
“In 2019, Ms. Merchan made public statements during a podcast regarding a conversation with Your Honor that reflect bias against President Trump from both speakers in that exchange,” Blanche wrote Friday. “Consistent with that conversation, President Biden and Vice President Harris are long-term clients of Authentic and Ms. Merchan, along with many other politicians and entities who are actively campaigning and advocating against President Trump right now.”
Trump’s attorney also said that at least six of Authentic’s clients “used fundraising solicitations that referenced this case around the time of the Indictment, President Trump’s arraignment, or following the Court’s denial of President Trump’s recusal motion.”
Bragg, last year, was the first to indict Trump. His trial is the first of four indictments facing the former president and presumptive nominee.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges in all four cases against him – one led by Bragg; two led by Special Counsel Jack Smith; and one led by Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis.
