Trump tried to 'corrupt' the 2016 election, prosecutor alleges as hush money trial gets underway
Donald Trump «orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt» the 2016 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president's historic hush money trial.
The opening statements marked the first time that prosecutors have presented a criminal case against a former president to a jury as they accuse Trump of a scheme aimed at preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public.
«The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,» prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors.
The statements from prosecutors and later from Trump's lawyers are expected to give the 12-person jury and the voting public the clearest view yet of the allegations at the heart of the case, as well as insight into Trump's expected defense.
Attorneys will also introduce a colorful cast of characters who are expected to testify about the made-for-tabloids saga, including a porn actor who says she had a sexual encounter with Trump and the lawyer who prosecutors say paid her to keep quiet about it.
Trump arrived at the courthouse shortly before 9 a.m., minutes after castigating the case in capital letters on social media as «election interference» and a «witch hunt.»
He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in
