The People vs. Donald J. Trump, the first criminal trial against a former president in US history, is in its most dramatic phase as the cross-examination of former Trump attorney/fixer Michael Cohen continues this week in courtroom 1530 at the New York County Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan.
Trump is accused of a conspiracy to make alleged sexual affairs disappear during the 2016 campaign, an alleged tactic that became especially critical as he faced a backlash by female voters after his bragging about sexual assault in the now infamous ‘Access Hollywood Tape’.
Cohen was his point man to clear the road; he eventually paid porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged an affair with Trump in 2006, $130,000 to keep quiet. He was later repaid by then-President Trump. So much is clear, and no one doubts those events as they are documented and have been corroborated by a list of witnesses during the trial, which is already in its fifth week.
The 12 payments Cohen received were marked in his invoices as ‘legal services’. Of course, no one is surprised that they were not marked as ‘hush money for Stormy’…
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who obviously wanted to make a name for himself, alleged in the 34-count indictment the ‘falsification of business records’, usually a misdemeanor without any jail time. But Bragg elevated the charges to felonies with a maximum of four years in jail by claiming the hidden payments were made with the ‘intent to commit another crime’, namely to violate federal campaign finance limits, to unlawfully influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and to commit tax fraud.
Since those other crimes have only been vaguely documented, Trump has a chance to be acquitted or get off this time with a hung jury. All twelve jurors must, as always, come to an anonymous decision ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. The prosecution, though, has done a decent job of documenting Trump’s affair (even though lurid and, for the case, unnecessary sex details by key witness Stormy Daniels caused a backlash), protocolizing the events during the drama at the end of the 2016 campaign, and laid out in detailed documents how Cohen was repaid and what Trump’s motives were.
Especially according to Cohen’s account, Trump acted not out of fear of his wife Melania, but concerns about the campaign. This plays into the hands of the prosecution.
But the whole case hangs by a thread on ONE key witness, Michael Cohen, who himself was convicted, amongst other charges, of lying. Trump’s lawyer, therefore, wants to further destroy his credibility. He portrayed Cohen as vengeful because he did not get the job he wanted in the White House and is now making money as a fanatic Trump hater—$3.4 million alone with two books.
Also, most of the witnesses seemed like a motley crew from the underbelly of tabloid journalism. There was David Pecker, the publisher of supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer, who attacked Trump’s rivals with fake stories and shielded him from embarrassing ones (he bought and buried another alleged affair with Karen McDougal for $150,000). And Keith Davidson, the lawyer of Daniels and McDougal, who specialized in his career in negotiating ‘extortion payments’ from stars. And of course, Stormy herself, who changed her recollection of events in the witness stand to hint that the sexual encounter was the result of an ‘imbalance of power’, a ‘dog whistle for rape’, as Trump’s lawyer pointed out.
In the end, it comes down to this: Who does the jury believe?
So far, key witnesses like Daniels and Cohen have held their ground during cross-examination. But even if Trump is found guilty, a jail sentence is unlikely given his status and political implications as he runs for the White House again.
And a number of legal experts point out his chances of a successful appeal.
