New York: Donald Trump’s Hush Money Trial will be continued on Monday. This will be followed by the start of the witness testimony. A jury of seven men, five women and six alternates were picked last week.
The main focus of the trial is the accusation that the former president fabricated internal company documents to conceal the actual nature of reimbursement payments made to Michael Cohen, his former fixer and attorney, who set up hush money payments to suppress critical reports about him during his 2016 presidential campaign.
A former tabloid editor, a porn star, and Cohen—who served time in federal jail for lying to Congress and his involvement in the hush money scandal—are among the witnesses. Potential jurors were cautioned by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass that they have “what you might consider to be some baggage.”
Let Us Take A Look At The Key Players Of This Trial Against Former President Donald Trump:
1) Defendant-Donald Trump
The 45th president of the United States, the former president, is the likely Republican nominee. He used his fortune as a reality television star and celebrity businessman to win the 2016 presidential election. Allegations are made in the trial that he fabricated corporate documents to conceal the true nature of payments made to Cohen, who assisted in dispelling unfavorable reports about him during the 2016 presidential campaign. He entered a not-guilty plea.
2) Witnesses
a) Michael Cohen
Trump’s former fixer and attorney. He was previously a fervent supporter of Trump, but he is now a crucial prosecution witness against his former employer. Cohen spent six years as an employee of the Trump Organization. Subsequently, he entered federal jail after entering a guilty plea to charges of violating campaign finance laws in connection with the hush money deals and associated offences.
b) Stormy Daniels
Cohen paid the adult star $130,000 as a part of his Hush Money endeavors. Daniels claims that she had a sexual experience with Trump before, but Cohen paid her to stay quiet about it. Trump refutes this accusation.
c) Karen McDougal
A former Playboy model who claimed to have dated Trump for ten months in the middle of the 2000s. The National Enquirer’s parent company paid the woman $150,000 in 2016 for the rights to her tale about the alleged connection. Having sex with McDougal is denied by Trump.
d) David Pecker
A longtime Trump ally and former publisher of The National Enquirer. At their August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, according to the prosecution, he promised to assist Trump’s campaign in locating unfavorable press about the president.
e) Hope Hicks
Trump’s former director of communications in the White House. According to the prosecution, she had a phone conversation with Trump amid a desperate attempt to suppress reports of his extramarital affairs following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood Tape” a few weeks prior to the 2016 election. In the 2005 recording, Trump spoke about snatching women without consent.
Prosecutors in the case
a) Alvin Bragg
Currently serving as Manhattan’s district attorney for the first time, Democrat Bragg was previously a civil rights attorney and a law professor. When he assumed the president in 2021, he inherited the Trump probe. Before proceeding with the indictment of Trump last year, he managed the prosecution of Trump’s business in a separate tax fraud case.
b) Matthew Colangelo
In 2022, Bragg appointed a former senior Justice Department official to head the Trump probe. They have previously collaborated on Trump-related projects in the attorney general’s office in New York.
c) Joshua Steinglass
Over his more than 25 years as a Manhattan prosecutor, he has worked on some of the office’s most well-known cases, such as the tax fraud conviction of the Trump Organization in 2022 and instances involving serious crimes.
d) Susan Hoffinger
After spending more than 20 years in private practice with her sister Fran, she rejoined the district attorney’s office in 2022 as the chief of the Investigation Division. She collaborated with Steinglass on the prosecution of tax fraud by the Trump Organization.
