United States – Trump is back in a New York courtroom on Monday. He should feel comfortable as he will not be allowed to talk, but others will be. They will testify how he tried to cover up the news that he allegedly slept with a porn actress during the run for the 2016 presidential election.
The trial of Trump facing a criminal hush money charge entered its twelfth day, with testimony from his campaign chief of staff and a former publisher of a tabloid about measures taken during the campaign to suppress news about unbehavioral sexual affairs, as reported by Reuters.
The Allegations
New York prosecutors charged Trump with committing a falsification of business record in order to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have been involved in a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump has pleaded not guilty and contested that he never slept with Daniels.
Trump often posts messages that say the first criminal trial of a former US president was being conducted at a chilly Manhattan courtroom, wherein he should have been wooing voters around the country to pursue his comeback run for the highest office.
During the weekend, he solidified a series of people prospective for the vice presidential slot at a Republican Party event in Florida.
The lawsuit is full of nasty claims of adultery and secret streams of payments, but the other three criminal cases Trump is facing are considered more serious than it is. It is the only one that will definitely try the case before November 5, and the presidential election comes.
Other matters accuse him of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election results and of misusing classified information from the time he has been out of office. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all three crimes.
On Monday, it remains unknown who will testify. Prosecutors have kept the witness list as a secret as Trump may manipulate key players through it.
Legal Challenges
The US court fined Trump $9,000 for violating a gag order and making statements about the witnesses and families of the judge and prosecutors who might have influenced the case if the statements concerned those matters.
Merchan is now required to decide what penalty to establish if there are more violations, as the prosecution suggests.
However, they are yet to testify, including Daniels and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was the initiator of the payment to Daniels, whose actual name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump’s Defense
Just last week, the twelve jury and six alternates who will eventually decide whether or not Trump’s account is true heard testimony from former longtime aide to Trump, Hope Hicks, who claimed that she and the President engaged in a frantic effort to respond to stories of alleged affairs and sexual harassment that were going around during the last weeks of the 2016 campaign.
Hicks became more teary-eyed, saying the President told her the affair never happened, and he didn’t want Melania to hear anything about it. Perhaps that would be leverage for Trump’s defense, which contends that the payment was intended to protect his family rather than mislead voters.
Prosecutors claim that the disgusting payment received by Daniels to remain silent at a time when the candidate Trump’s attitude towards women was the key issue in the election between him and the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton corrupts the election, as reported by Reuters.
His lawyer asserts that he forged the records to mask his election and tax law breaches, which turned the 34 misdemeanors into felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.
Moreover, juries have also listened to testimonies of Daniels’ former attorney, Keith Davidson, who later handled the payment, and has also heard from the former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, who claimed he worked with Trump to suppress any news that might pose problems to Trump’s presidential campaign.