'Back to square 1': Legal expert breaks down jury deliberations in Trump hush money trial

30 May 2024

Wednesday, May 30 marks the second day of jury deliberations in former President Donald Trump's hush money/falsified business records trial. Jurors are being asked to determine Trump's guilty or innocence on 34 different counts, and a variety of outcomes are possible.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. alleges that Trump violated New York State election laws when, during the 2016 election, he asked Michael Cohen — his personal attorney and fixer at the time — to make hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and falsified Trump Organization business records. Daniels testified that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006, and Cohen testified that he made the payments to Daniels a decade later on orders from Trump.

The trial is often described in media reports as the "hush money" trial, but the charges in the case involve much more than the hush money payments themselves.

Attorney Caroline Polisi, during a May 30 appearance on "CBS Mornings," explained exactly what jurors are being asked to evaluate during their deliberations.

Polisi told co-host Tony Dokoupil and others, "Let me take you back to Square 1: 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. That's a Class E felony in New York. What prosecutors have to prove is the underlying misdemeanor crime of falsifying business records in the second degree, OK — which just is a regular intent to defraud."

Polisi continued, "In order to bump it up to that felony count here, they're adding a second misdemeanor; they're saying it was done — the falsification was done — in furtherance of a New York State election law conspiracy to influence the election through unlawful means."

The attorney went on to explain that jurors have different "options" in their deliberations.

Polisi explained, "Here's where it gets even more complicated: those unlawful means — they have three options. It's a smorgasbord of options for jurors. They can decide if those unlawful means were: (1) tax fraud…. Second one: more falsification of business records…. The third, which really is what the state is really going for, is this FECA violation: Federal Election Campaign Act violations, the object of which is this Stormy Daniels $130,000 payment."

The attorney added, "They're saying that is actually an in-kind campaign contribution because it was made just days before the election — the purpose of which was to influence the election. It wasn't for personal reasons; therefore, it's a crime."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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