Denison Forum
Dr. Jim Dension
The first seven jurors were selected yesterday to serve on the first criminal trial of an American president in US history. The courtroom is dark today, as is expected for the duration of the six-week trial against Donald Trump, but jury selection will resume tomorrow.
What are the charges in the case?
What is at stake in the trial?
What is the larger significance of this historic event?
What are the charges against Mr. Trump?
Donald Trump faces a thirty-four count felony indictment alleging that he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information before the 2016 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty.
The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed they had extramarital sexual encounters with Mr. Trump years earlier. Mr. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters ever occurred.
His former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer to pay McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story with no intention of publishing it. Prosecutors say Mr. Trump’s company reimbursed Mr. Cohen and gave him bonuses and extra payments, all of which were falsely logged in Trump Organization records as legal expenses.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must show that Mr. Trump falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely, which would be a misdemeanor. But to win on the felony charge, he must also show that the former president did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime. Mr. Bragg has claimed that evidence shows these actions were meant to conceal state and federal campaign finance and tax crimes.
