Here are 5 'key points' in Manhattan DA’s hush money case against Trump

15 April 2024

On Monday morning, April 15, MSNBC showed images of former President Donald Trump sitting at the defendant's table in a New York City courtroom as jury selection in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsifying business records case was about to get underway. Cameras, however, would not be allowed in the courtroom once jury selection started.

April 15 marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president has gone to trial on criminal charges. Trump is facing a total of 34 criminal counts in Bragg's indictment.

Witnesses in the case include Michael Cohen (Trump's former personal attorney and fixer), adult film star Stormy Daniels, and National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker. Hush money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal will also be a part of Bragg's evidence.

In a listicle published by The Guardian on April 15, journalist Victoria Bekiempis lays out five "key points" that Bragg and his prosecutors will be making against Trump in the trial.

Bekiempis' points are: (1) "The Stormy Daniels allegation," (2) "The Karen McDougal accusation," (3) "The doorman's claim," (4) "The longtime agreement among Trump, Cohen and Pecker," and (5) "The Access Hollywood tape."

"Prosecutors charge that Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels' then-attorney just 12 days before the presidential election," Bekiempis explains. "Cohen funneled the money by making the payoff through a shell company, which was funded through a New York City bank, prosecutors say."

The journalist continues, "When Trump won the election, prosecutors continue, he repaid Cohen in a series of monthly checks…. Trump's alleged passing off hush-money payouts as remittance for legal work 'made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise,' prosecutors say in the counts of his indictment. This was done, they say, 'with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof .'"

In "Key Point #3, the doorman's claim," Bekiempis is referring to "an ex-Trump Tower doorman" who was "trying to peddle information about a child Trump allegedly fathered out of wedlock."

"Under Pecker's direction," Bekiempis notes, "AMI agreed to pay him $30,000 for the exclusive rights to his story, prosecutors claim. AMI, per Manhattan prosecutors, 'falsely characterized this payment in AMI's books and records, including in its general ledger.' The publisher brokered this deal without investigating it, and later learned the account was untrue."

Read Victoria Bekiempis' full Guardian article at this link.

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