NEW YORK — Prosecutors began building their case Monday against Donald Trump in the first criminal trial against a former president, telling jurors he committed tax and election crimes to hush up bad press ahead of the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump and tabloid allies used “catch-and-kill” tactics to stiff-arm bad press and lied about it on business records “over and over and over again,” they told jurors.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team put former National Enquirer executive David Pecker on the witness stand and plan to question him again Tuesday about an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower that laid the groundwork for an alleged scheme to suppress bad press around Mr. Trump before the election.
The release of “Access Hollywood” audio, in which Mr. Trump spoke crudely about women, threw fuel on the scheme and led to payoffs to an adult-film actress, false business entries and ultimately 34 felony counts against Mr. Trump, according to an opening argument from prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,” he said in a drab courtroom in lower Manhattan, south of Little Italy and Chinatown.
Mr. Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021 and faces a rematch with President Biden, entered court with a throng of Secret Service agents to face a jury of seven men and five women, plus six alternates.
SEE ALSO: Trump is ‘not on the hook’ for alleged hush money misdeeds, defense says
“It is a very, very sad day in America. I can tell you that,” Mr. Trump said.
Dressed in a navy suit and blue necktie, Mr. Trump sat quietly between his attorneys at the defense table in a courtroom with wood panels along the lower half of the walls and fluorescent lighting overhead.
Mr. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the indictment secured by Mr. Bragg.
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump funneled payments to his attorney Michael Cohen through checks cut in 2017 to conceal hush money paid around the 2016 election and misled banks and others about the purpose of the payments by disguising them as legal services.
Mr. Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche told jurors that prosecutors were concocting a crime out of “34 pieces of paper” that Mr. Trump signed to pay his attorney many years ago.
He said Mr. Trump had nothing to do with the invoices, the checks and ledger entries that were filled out while Mr. Trump led the country as president in 2017.
SEE ALSO: Trump calls for his supporters to protest as trial begins in N.Y.
“President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office should never have brought this case,” Mr. Blanche said in his opening statement. “You will find that he is not guilty.”
Mr. Trump turned his body toward his attorney and the jury during opening arguments in the case that will determine whether he runs for president as a convicted felon.
Polls show Mr. Trump locked in a tight race with Mr. Biden ahead of their rematch in November. He pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and said Democratic prosecutors were trying to stop his presidential campaign.
Even if convicted of felony counts, Mr. Trump is unlikely to face prison time given his lack of criminal history and the nature of the charges. The facts in the case are eight years old and have been litigated in the court of public opinion.
Still, a felony conviction could dent Mr. Trump’s ability to increase support beyond his ardent base, and the salacious nature of the allegations in the case could be damaging.
State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan warned jurors, who showed little emotion and listened intently, not to discuss the case or visit any sites mentioned during the trial. He said they can take handwritten notes that must be kept at the courthouse for safekeeping and will be destroyed after the trial.
Mr. Colangelo said the facts that led to Mr. Trump’s day in court began with an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Trump, Mr. Pecker and Mr. Cohen.
Mr. Pecker had final say “over which stories to publish or not publish,” Mr. Colangelo said. “You had the agreement to run positive stories, you had the agreement to attack his opponents, and then the core of the conspiracy was getting Mr. Pecker to act as eyes and ears for the campaign.”
Mr. Colangelo said Mr. Cohen served as a go-between in some cases so Mr. Trump’s team could have a say in positive or negative stories, including one that claimed Republican rival Ben Carson was accused of medical malpractice and another linking the father of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to the John F. Kennedy assassination.
“They used a tactic called catch and kill,” he said. “It’s a way of buying damaging information.”
Mr. Colangelo said the first catch-and-kill deal involved a $30,000 payment to a doorman who claimed Mr. Trump had a child out of wedlock.
The second deal involved Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who claimed to have a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen ordered the Enquirer to buy Ms. McDougal’s story, with Mr. Pecker getting his company to front $150,000 for the long-term rights to that story.
During his first day on the stand, Mr. Pecker confirmed he had “final say” over stories that ran in his marquee National Enquirer magazine and other publications. He also described the inner workings of editorial meetings and how they secured stories.
“We used checkbook journalism, and we paid for stories,” Mr. Pecker said.
Prosecutors say Mr. Pecker grew impatient with the lack of repayment for the McDougal job, and Mr. Cohen recorded a conversation with Mr. Trump in which he concocted a plan to set up a shell company to deal with the reimbursement and own the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story. The jury will hear a recording of the conversation, including Mr. Trump’s voice.
Mr. Colangelo said a major flashpoint in the alleged scheme was the leak of “Access Hollywood” audio in which Mr. Trump seemed to chat with a television host about being able to do anything with women.
“Grab ’em by the p——, you can do anything — end quote,” Mr. Colangelo told the jury. He said the impact was “immediate and explosive.”
Mr. Colangelo said the Trump campaign was so concerned about the fallout of the tape that it went into “damage control mode” that led to a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Ms. Daniels claimed she had a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump nearly two decades ago. He denies the claim, but she was ready to go public with the story on the cusp of the election.
Mr. Blanche said there was a distinct firewall between Mr. Trump and the way payments were recorded and that prosecutors are creating crimes out of ordinary practices.
“Mr. Trump is not on the hook,” Mr. Blanche said.
Mr. Blanche said Mr. Trump had “communications” with Ms. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, nearly two decades ago tied to his hit television show “The Apprentice,” but the arrangements never worked out.
Ms. Daniels claims to have had a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, though the former president denies it.
More broadly, Mr. Blanche said nondisclosure agreements are commonplace and legal. He said there is nothing wrong with people around Mr. Trump trying to influence the election by hiding damaging stories.
“It puts something sinister on this idea as if it’s a crime,” Mr. Blanche said.
Prosecutors hinted that they would try to connect Mr. Trump to illegal acts, including falsifying records for tax purposes and covering up election expenditures that should have been reported.
“He did it to influence a federal election,” Mr. Colangelo said. “There was no retainer agreement. Mr. Cohen was not being paid for legal services.”
Mr. Cohen misled banks in opening the shell company to make the payments, and Mr. Trump hid the true nature of the payments by inflating the repayment amount to Mr. Cohen despite being a relatively frugal businessman, Mr. Colangelo said.
“This was not spin or communication strategy. This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people with something bad to say about this behavior.”
The trial should last about six weeks.
A group of anti-Trump protesters gathered near the courthouse with signs reading “Morally bankrupt” and “No one is above the law.”
Mr. Blanche presented a softer side of Mr. Trump to the jury, saying he may seem “larger than life” but is a normal person.
“He’s a man, he’s a husband, he’s a father, he’s a person,” Mr. Blanche said. “Just like you and just like me.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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