On April 15th, for the first time in U.S. history, a former president was indicted in a criminal trial. Why did the case of the “hush money” involving former President Trump in New York go from a non-violative incident to 34 felony charges? And how was New York able to prosecute and try Trump even after the statute of limitations had passed?
The “hush money” case was first exposed in early 2018, involving allegations that on the eve of the 2016 election, then presidential candidate Trump orchestrated a payment to a porn star to keep silent about their extramarital affair.
The payment of “hush money” itself is legal in New York State, and the case has been referred to as a “zombie case.” However, after twists and turns through the offices of two New York prosecutors, multiple grand juries, and various levels of the court system, and even reaching the U.S. Supreme Court twice, New York has finally initiated a 6 to 8-week trial against Trump to determine his guilt.
Trump believes the case is a “political persecution” by Democrats trying to block his bid for the 2024 election and a return to the White House.
According to various media reports, let’s delve into how New York escalated the “hush money” case to serious charges against Trump.
In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 a month before the 2016 election to silence her about an extramarital affair she had accused Trump of having in 2006.
Although Cohen and Trump denied the affair, Cohen admitted to paying Daniels $130,000.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed she first met Trump in July 2006 at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. She alleged that Trump invited her to his hotel suite where sexual contact occurred, and Trump suggested she could participate in “The Celebrity Apprentice,” a famous TV show hosted by Trump at the time.
Trump repeatedly denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels. In May 2011, Daniels agreed to tell her story to In Touch Weekly, but the magazine reportedly did not publish the story after being threatened with a lawsuit by Cohen.
During the 2016 election, Daniels tried to tell her story again, prompting Cohen to pay her $130,000 in the final weeks before the election and both parties signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Later, Daniels sued Cohen in 2018 to invalidate the agreement. She also filed defamation lawsuits against both Cohen and Trump. The defamation lawsuits with Daniels ended in failure, with the Supreme Court refusing to hear the case, and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2021 for extortion.
Despite Trump’s and Cohen’s denials of various aspects of the “hush money” affair, the Justice Department quickly launched an investigation. By April 2018, the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges, including five tax evasion charges, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of making an illegal corporate contribution, and one count of excessive campaign finance contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign. Cohen claimed he paid hush money to two women “at Trump’s direction and coordination.”
In December, federal prosecutors hinted that Trump directed Cohen to commit campaign finance violations, resulting in Cohen being sentenced to three years in prison for paying $130,000 in hush money to Daniels (referred to as “excessive campaign contributions”).
Federal prosecutors believed they had gathered evidence of potential crimes by Trump, but they were unable to charge him, partly due to a long-standing Justice Department policy prohibiting federal authorities from bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.
In July 2019, federal prosecutors indicated that they had effectively concluded their investigation into the “hush money” case without further charges.
In May 2021, the bipartisan Federal Election Commission revoked its investigation into whether the $130,000 hush money payment violated campaign finance laws during the 2016 election.
After Cohen’s guilty plea, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, led by Cyrus Vance Jr. at the time, began investigating whether the “hush money” violated New York state laws. Due to the continued federal investigation of Cohen, Vance’s office requested a suspension of its probe.
When federal prosecutors announced the end of their investigation into the “hush money” case without charges, Vance’s office resumed its activities in August 2019, issuing subpoenas for Trump’s accounting firm to provide eight years of business and personal tax records. Vance also sought to investigate whether Trump may have committed tax, insurance, and bank fraud unrelated to the “hush money” issue.
Trump sued Vance in federal court to block the subpoena, arguing that a sitting president is not subject to investigation, charges, or prosecution by local prosecutors. After losing in a district court, Trump appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court.
In July 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against Trump, with Chief Justice John Roberts stating that no citizen, not even the president, is above the duty to provide evidence in a criminal case.
Trump continued to fight the subpoena, alleging that it was too broad. After further losses in lower courts, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final request to stop his accounting firm from releasing financial records.
In February 2021, Vance’s office obtained the documents they had been seeking.
Trump left office in January 2021 and is no longer president. Vance’s office accelerated its investigation from February onwards, hiring experienced prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to intensify the probe against Trump.
In the initial weeks of handling the case, Pomerantz focused on the “hush money” aspect extensively researched by local prosecutors.
Pomerantz later wrote in his book, “The People v. Donald Trump: Inside Report,” that revisiting the facts of the “hush money” as a potential basis for prosecution led to the case being nicknamed the “zombie” case because it came to life, died, and then resurrected.
However, by March 2021, Manhattan prosecutors were struggling to determine the legal theories to accuse Trump of problems with the “hush money.”
In New York, it is legal for private citizens to pay someone to bury their sex scandals. However, business owners are not allowed to lie in corporate financial records – Trump allegedly did so in 2017 by reportedly lying about reimbursing Cohen for “legal services” while actually paying hush money to Daniels.
Pomerantz expressed concerns that the felony charges against Trump for “falsifying business records” might not hold up in court. He wrote in the book that the case had “returned to the grave.”
On March 12, 2021, Vance announced he would not seek re-election and would leave office at the end of the year. Internally, he indicated that before leaving office, he would decide whether to bring charges against Trump.
In the following months, Vance’s office expanded its investigation into other areas related to Trump, including whether he inflated his property valuations – a matter that eventually led to a civil lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General’s office.
By May, prosecutors began providing information to a grand jury about Trump’s tax benefits, and in early July, the grand jury indicted the Trump Organization and its then CFO, Allen Weisselberg. Weisselberg eventually cooperated with Manhattan prosecutors under pressure.
In November 2021, Democrat Alvin Bragg was elected as Manhattan District Attorney. He was sworn in in January 2022, succeeding Vance’s position and becoming the first black person to hold the position in New York.
In the initial weeks of his tenure, Bragg hesitated on progressing with cases related to property valuations. Consequently, prosecutors paused providing evidence against Trump to the grand jury. Shortly after, Pomerantz and another lead attorney on the Trump investigation, Carey Dunne, resigned.
However, by the fall of 2022, Bragg’s office reignited interest in investigating Trump, with a focus on revisiting the “hush money” to Daniels. By January 2023, prosecutors began presenting the case’s evidence to a new grand jury.
Over the next two months, the grand jury heard testimony from witnesses, including Cohen and Daniels, with prosecutors hinting that the investigation had reached its final stages. They offered Trump the opportunity to speak directly to the grand jury, which he declined.
On March 30, 2023, the grand jury voted to indict Trump, alleging that he falsified business records for reimbursing Cohen’s hush money payment. Trump appeared at the Manhattan Lower Court on April 4th but did not plead guilty.
The indictment released on April 4th charged Trump with violating the New York Penal Code, comprising 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records, each carrying up to four years in prison. These felony charges involved various corporate documents, including:
– 11 invoices from lawyer Cohen
– 9 general ledger entries from Trump
– 3 general ledger entries from Trump’s revocable trust company
– 8 checks issued by Trump
– 2 checks issued by a Trump revocable trust company
All these documents date back to a range between February 14 and December 5, 2017.
Under New York state law, ordinary falsifying business records constitute a misdemeanor, known as second-degree falsifying business records. Trump was charged with first-degree falsifying business records, which is a felony.
The law stipulates that first-degree falsifying business records involve an “intent to defraud, including the intent to engage in another crime or assist or conceal criminal conduct.”
In subsequent documents, Prosecutor Bragg identified three alleged intentions of Trump’s “falsifying business records”: violating federal campaign finance restrictions; unlawfully influencing the 2016 election, thereby violating state election laws; and violating state tax laws regarding reimbursement issues.
Regarding the five-year statute of limitations, prosecutors argued that the time Trump resided outside of New York did not count as part of the limitation period. Trump primarily resided in Washington, DC, during his presidency and later in Florida’s Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office. Additionally, the shutdown during the COVID pandemic delayed the limitation period.
On April 15, 2024, Trump returned to the Manhattan Lower Court, observing the jury selection that would determine his guilt on the 34 felony counts.
The trial is expected to last 6 to 8 weeks, with breaks on Wednesdays. Trump, like all defendants in criminal cases, is required to be present from the initial jury selection to the final jury verdict. He will be seated at the defense table.
This means that for almost every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday over the next two months, Trump will be unable to meet with donors at Mar-a-Lago, play impromptu golf at his New Jersey club, or campaign in swing states.
Trump expressed anger in the hallway on the 15th, stating: “I’ll have to sit through a trial here for a few months. I think it’s ridiculous. It’s unfair.”
New York will not broadcast the trial to the public via television or online live streaming.
If Trump is convicted, it does not legally prevent him from running for the 2024 presidential election. Even if Trump were to win the election, it would not bar him from assuming office.
However, if Trump were to be convicted, polls indicate that it may affect swing voters who would have supported him in the election, potentially reducing his chances of victory. Current polling shows Trump leading incumbent President Biden by several percentage points in various swing states.
Meanwhile, Trump faces three other criminal indictments, including an additional 57 felony charges, but those cases are reportedly somewhat stalled.
Whenever Trump faces legal challenges, his popularity surprisingly surges. It is expected that the trial process, outcome, and impact of the “hush money” case will garner widespread attention from across the United States and the international community.
责任编辑：李琳#