Trump is about to face trial on criminal hush money charges. Here’s what to know

Donald
Trump
has
used
every
legal
tool
at
his
disposal
to
try
to
dismiss,
diminish
or
delay
the
four
active
criminal
cases
against
him.

But
on
Monday,
barring
a
last-minute
court
intervention,
Trump
will
become
the
first
former
president
ever
to
be
tried
on
felony
charges.

The
trial
in
New
York
Supreme
Court
centers
on
allegations
that
Trump
falsified
business
records
as
part
of
a
scheme
to
conceal
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
in
2016
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels,
who
says
she
had
an
extramarital
affair
with
Trump
years
earlier.

Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg
accuses
Trump
of
using
a “catch
and
kill”
tactic
to
hide
damaging
information
from
voters
ahead
of
the
2016
presidential
election.

This
case
may
be
the
only
one
of
Trump’s
88
criminal
charges
across
four
separate
cases
to
make
it
to
trial
before
the
Nov.
5
presidential
election.

If
he
is
convicted
in
this
case,
the
77-year-old
ex-president
could
be
sentenced
to
serve
time
at
New
York’s
notorious
Rikers
Island
jail
complex
or
in
a
state
prison.

Here
is
what
to
know
about
the
historic
trial:

Trump
is
charged
with
34
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
in
the
first
degree.

Under
New
York

law,
a
person
is
guilty
of
that
crime
when
their
records
are
falsified
with
the
intent
to
commit
or
conceal
another
crime.

The
DA
alleges
Trump
and
others
violated
election
laws
to
carry
out
an
illegal
scheme
to
influence
the
2016
election,
by
buying
and
suppressing
negative
information
about
him.

Central
to
Bragg’s
case
is
Michael
Cohen,
Trump’s
former
personal
attorney.
In
2018,
Cohen
pleaded
guilty
to
campaign
finance
charges
related
to
hush
money
payments
made
to
two
women
before
the
2016
election.

Cohen
is
expected
to
be
a
key
witness
in
the
trial,
where
he
will
say
Trump
directed
him
to
make
those
payments.

To
pay
Daniels
covertly,
the
DA
alleges,
Cohen
opened
a
bank
account
for
a
shell
company
he
had
created
specifically
to
facilitate
the
payment.
He
then
transferred
$131,000
into
that
account
from
a
home
equity
line
of
credit.
On
Oct.
27,
less
than
two
weeks
before
the
2016
election,
Cohen
wired
$130,000
to
Daniels’
lawyer
in
exchange
for
her
silence
about
the
alleged
tryst
with
Trump.

After
the
election,
Bragg
says,
Trump
reimbursed
Cohen
for
the
payment
through
a
series
of
monthly
checks,
processed
by
the
Trump
Organization,
which
recorded
them
as
payments
for
legal
services
rendered
in
2017
through
a
retainer
agreement.

Those
records
were
false,
the
DA
alleges.

Trump
and
Cohen
were
also
allegedly
involved
in
a
2016
hush
money
payment
to
former
Playboy
model
Karen
McDougal,
who
received
$150,000
from
the
then-publisher
of
the
National
Enquirer
to
keep
quiet
about
her
own
alleged
affair
with
Trump.

Bragg
also
cites
a
$30,000
payment
by
that
publisher,
American
Media
Inc.,
to
a
former
Trump
Tower
doorman
for
the
rights
to
a
story
about
Trump
fathering
a
child
out
of
wedlock.
After
determining
that
the
story
was
untrue,
the
publisher’s
CEO
David
Pecker
wanted
to
end
the
deal
—
but
he
held
off
until
after
the
2016
election
at
Cohen’s
instruction,
the
DA
alleges.

The
trial
was
originally
scheduled
to
start
March
25,
but
it
was

delayed
until
Monday
to
give
Trump’s
team
time
to
look
at
some
recently
acquired
documents.

The
trial
will
begin
with
the
process
of
selecting
12
jurors,
plus
alternates.

Judge
Juan
Merchan
has
said
he
expects
the
trial
will
last
about
six
weeks.

Yes,
Trump
will
be
there.
New
York

law
requires
defendants
to
attend
their
trials,
with
few
exceptions.

Trump
has
voluntarily
attended
numerous
hearings
in
the
hush
money
case
and
his
other
criminal
cases,
generating
waves
of
mainstream
media
attention
that
his
regular
campaign
events
no
longer
muster.

Trump
had
also
been
scheduled
to
sit
for
a
deposition
Monday
in
a
separate
lawsuit
related
to
the
public
merger
of
his
media
company,


Trump
Media
&
Technology
Group,
but
that
appearance
was

reportedly
postponed.

Falsifying
business
records
in
the
first
degree
is
a
Class
E
felony
that
carries
a
maximum
sentence
of
four
years
in
prison.
But
the
sentence
a
defendant
ultimately
receives
is
often
far
below
the
maximum,
and
Trump’s
age
and
lack
of
a
prior
conviction
could
also
play
in
his
favor
in
any
potential
sentencing
decision.

His
antagonism
toward
presiding
Judge
Merchan
and
others
related
to
the
case
—
including
the
judge’s
daughter
—
may
work
against
him,
however.

“I
think
there
is
a
substantial
risk
that
he
will
be
convicted
and
that
he
will
face
a
sentence
of
incarceration,”
said
Norm
Eisen,
a
legal
analyst
who
aided
House
Democrats
during
Trump’s
first
impeachment,
in
a
press
briefing
Thursday
previewing
the
hush
money
trial.

“When
you
have
the
falsification
of
business
records
that
is
intended
to
aid,
conceal
or
commit
serious
crimes,
that
receives
sentences
of
jail
time
regularly,”
Eisen
said.

Trump
can
continue
to
run
for
office
even
if
he
is
convicted
and
jailed.

Cohen
and
Daniels
are
expected
to
take
the
stand
in
the
trial.
But
prosecutors
have
compiled
a
list
of
roughly
a
dozen
other
potential
witnesses,
including
McDougal
and
Pecker,
a
source
with
direct
knowledge
of
the
situation
told
NBC
News.

That
same
source
told
NBC
that
the
potential
defense
witness
list
could
include
Trump
himself.

Trump
has
not
yet
said
if
he
plans
to
testify
in
his
defense.
When
he
took
the
stand
in
November
in
his
New
York
civil
business
fraud
case,
Trump
angrily

lashed
out
at
the
judge,
the
state’s
attorney
general
and
many
other “haters.”

Bradley
Smith,
a
former
commissioner
with
the
Federal
Election
Commission,
is
another
potential
defense
witness,
NBC
reported.

Trump’s
attorneys
have
thrown
the
kitchen
sink
at
the
trial
in
hopes
of
a
delay.
They
have
made
more
than
10
attempts
to
push
it
later,
three
of
which
came
in
last-minute
appeals
filed
in
the
final
week
before
jury
selection.

Trump,
as
he
has
done
in
his
other
legal
battles,
has
wielded
his
public
following
as
a
weapon
against
the
case.

In
regular
social
media
diatribes
and
interviews,
he
has
railed
against
the
judge,
the
DA,
key
witnesses
and
various
others,
while
claiming
that
all
of
his
criminal
charges
are
part
of
a
Biden
administration
conspiracy
to
damage
his
presidential
bid.

Merchan
imposed
a
gag
order
on
Trump
and
then
expanded
it
after
the
former
president
repeatedly
criticized
the
judge’s
daughter
over
her
work
for
a
Democratic
political
consultant.
Trump’s
legal
team
has
repeatedly
demanded
that
Merchan
recuse
himself
due
to
his
daughter’s
political
activities.
Merchan
declined
to
do
so
last
year.

In
a
video
posted
to
Truth
Social
on
Thursday,
Trump
decried
the
gag
order,
falsely
claiming, “it
only
happens
to
me,”
and
asserting, “there’s
never
been
a
judge
more
conflicted
than
this
one.”