Courtesy of Liam Enea via Flickr.
By Sydney Wiser ʼ27
Staff Writer
The first-ever criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president is underway. On April 15, former president Donald Trump entered the New York courtroom where he will be tried in the first of four criminal trials.
The former president is facing 34 felony charges related to his attempts to cover up relations with adult film star Stormy Daniels, The New York Times reported. During the last few days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence about the alleged affair, according to the New York Times.
Cohen claims he was acting under Trump’s discretion. After Trump was elected, his company reimbursed Cohen $420,000 for legal expenses, which prosecutors say were “legitimate expenses,” according to indictment documents acquired by The New York Times.
Trump is being accused of falsifying business records of his reimbursement to Cohen. According to Politico, this charge is typically a misdemeanor in New York but can be elevated to a felony if the records were falsified to conceal another crime.
The prosecution is arguing that Trump violated federal and state campaign laws with the payoff to Daniels, and that he intentionally falsified the payment records to Cohen for tax purposes, Politico reported. However, according to The New York Times, the prosecution only has to prove that Trump attempted to conceal these crimes, not that he committed them.
In 2018, Cohen received a three-year prison sentence for his role in covering up Trump’s alleged affair with Daniels, among other crimes, AP News reported. Now, he is set to be a key witness for the prosecution. Prior to Trump’s criminal trial, the Associated Press reported that Trump had made numerous attacks on Cohen’s credibility, referencing the former attorney’s alleged perjury in either his 2018 trial or a more recent civil trial over the hush money payment.
Trump’s attacks on Cohen are not the only instances of friction in the run-up to the beginning of the court case. According to AP News, Trump attempted to delay the trial for 90 days after last-minute evidence was added to the case. He succeeded in pushing the trial back by 30 days.
According to AP News, the judge presiding over the trial, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, also placed a gag order on Trump, preventing him from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors. After Trump made comments about work the judge’s daughter had previously done for Democratic party campaigns, Merchan expanded the gag order to include his family and the Manhattan District Attorney’s family, AP News reported.
It was difficult to find jurors for the case. According to NPR, many potential jurors
were excused due to their inability to remain impartial in a case involving a well-known and polarizing figure. Others were anxious about being a part of such a high-profile case. For the jurors’ safety, Merchan has required their identities be kept anonymous. Four days after the trial began, 12 jurors and six alternates were selected.
Should the jury find Trump guilty, there are several sentences Judge Merchan could assign him. He may face probation or up to four years in prison for each charge, according to The New York Times.
Even with a guilty verdict, Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee, would still be able to run for president, and it’s possible that a guilty verdict could further mobilize his base. According to The Hill, many Trump supporters have banded together around the idea that Trump is a victim of a “politically motivated” trial.
Adam Hilton is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College. “[Trump supporters] are likely to depict the verdict as a conspiracy against the former president. This can have the effect of further delegitimizing our legal checks and balances and encourage fringe extremists to resort to political violence,” he said.
However, Trump might also lose key moderate voters if found guilty. In a survey conducted by Bloomberg News/Morning Consult, 53% of voters in swing states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, would be unwilling to vote for Trump if he were convicted in one of his criminal cases.
Should Trump be found not guilty, Hilton predicts his campaign will get a major boost at a crucial time. “[A not-guilty verdict will] galvanize his base, revitalize his campaign, and potentially even pull some swing voters off the fence and into the Trump camp,” Hilton said.
A verdict is expected within the next few months, though if Trump is found guilty, he could appeal, which would delay his sentencing, The New York Times reported.
Regardless of the outcome, Hilton says having a major presidential candidate amid four criminal trials “is about as troubling an indicator as we can imagine for the state of American democracy.”
“It speaks to the inability of our institutions to function properly, the bankruptcy of the contemporary Republican Party, and the legacy of past oversights of the framers that we have a political system that is unable to repel anti-democratic forces.”