The prosecution’s opening statement has just started. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo says:
This case is about a criminal conspiracy and fraud. The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election then, he covered up that conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over, and, over, and over again.
Trump “invited his friend, David Pecker, to a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan”, he says. Pecker, Cohen, and Trump met “as part of that agreement, Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to an adult film actress named Stormy Daniels … to silence her, and to make sure the public did not learn about a sexual encounter with the defendant”.
The defendant said in his business records that he was paying Cohen for legal services pursuant to a legal agreement but those were lies: there was no retainer agreement Cohen was not paying for legal services, the defendant was paying him back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election … he wanted to conceal his and others’ criminal conduct.
