Opening statements begin Monday morning in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York as prosecutors and the defense begin their arguments. stating his case for the jurors.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a “hush money” payment during his 2016 campaign. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that Trump has been impeached on weak evidence from an unreliable key witness.
Arriving in court, Trump claimed the trial was “election interference” and part of an effort to keep him out of the election campaign. He called the case a “witch hunt” and “a disgrace.”
Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office will have 40 minutes to present their opening statements. Trump's lawyers will then have 25 minutes. The proceedings are not being televised, as New York law does not allow the recording of criminal proceedings. CBS News has reporters in the courtroom and in a nearby overflow room watching the trial.
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The timing is nearly eight years old, dating back to just days before the 2016 election, when that witness, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, paid the adult film star $130,000. Stormy Daniels to buy their silence about an alleged sexual encounter.
Prosecutors say Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment in 12 monthly installments during the first year of his presidency, presenting them as checks for ongoing legal services in a scheme to hide “hush money.” Trump was collected last year with 34 crimes of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies having a sexual encounter.
He gushed about the case last week as the trial began jury selection. Trump attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in public appearances and posted about Bragg, Judge Juan Merchan and Cohen on social media. But inside the room, Trump was reserved, speaking rarely and even seeming to nod from time to time as they were whittled down to 192 potential jurors a dozenplus six alternates.
This panel is the first panel of juries in US history to try a former president in a criminal case.
After opening statements, prosecutors are expected to call as their first witness David Pecker, the former editor of the National Enquirer, according to a source familiar with the plan.
He is expected to testify that he, Cohen and Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” plan, in which Pecker's publication bought the rights to negative stories about Trump and deleted them, while publishing unflattering stories about opponents Trump's
