Donald Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt” the 2016 election, a prosecutor said at the start of the former president’s historic secret trial.
Matthew Colangelo made the remarks during opening statements in the trial, marking the first time prosecutors have presented a criminal case against a former president to a jury.
Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he thought could harm his 2016 presidential campaign.
Colangelo told jurors: “The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. He then covered up this criminal conspiracy by repeatedly lying in his New York business records.”
trump said it was a “very sad day in America” as he spoke outside the New York courthouse before opening statements began.
He added that his trial is an example of “electoral interference”, describing it as “very unfair”.
“People understand what’s going on,” he said, describing the trial as a “witch hunt.”
Trump, who secured the Republican nomination for the 2024 US presidential election, said outside the court: “I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia and many other places campaigning and that’s very unfair.”
The former US president said that the trial is “in coordination with Washington” and “done with the purpose of hurting the opponent of the worst president in the history of our country”.
Trump will run against the grain US leader Joe Biden when elections begin in November.
Today’s opening statements set the stage for weeks of testimony about Trump’s personal life.
A panel of New Yorkers – 12 jurors and six alternates – was sworn in on Friday after four days of jury selection, and will hear what is the first criminal trial against a former US commander in chief.
At the heart of the allegations against Trump is a $130,000 (£106,000) payment made to a porn star. Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and mediator, to allegedly prevent his allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump from surfacing in the final days of the race.
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Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of such payments in internal business documents.
Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The silence case is the first of Trump’s four charges to come to trial.
In his comments outside court today, the former president also spoke about his civil fraud case in New York, where he was ordered to pay a fine of at least $453.5 million (£368 million) after it was discovered that he inflated his wealth in the financial statements provided. to banks, insurance companies and other institutions to do business and guarantee loans.
The sentence was won by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who challenged a $175 million (£142 million) bond provided to Trump by insurer Knight Specialty Insurance Co.
Donald Trump with his lawyer Todd Blanche, right, outside the courtroom. Photo: AP
The company is today trying to convince a state judge that it is financially strong enough to issue the guarantee, after Ms. James questioned whether the bond was backed by safe assets.
Trump said outside court today: “In the case of Letitia James, she is the worst attorney general in the country and keeps a lot of business out of New York.
“The companies that are here are leaving and that means jobs and a lot of revenue.”
Regarding his bail, he said: “The money was invested at $175 million and I don’t think (Ms James) is complaining about me for the first time, she is complaining about the company, but why would she be doing that? ? this when I put in the money?”
He added that the insurance company will present its case in front of an “extremely crazy judge” who is the “most overturned judge in the state of New York.”
Before entering the courtroom, Trump said: “A thing like (the civil fraud case) and a thing like (your silence case) should never happen.
“It’s a very sad day in America.”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
