Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial involving the adult film star Stormy Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougal is scheduled to start this morning, with jury selection in Manhattan supreme court.
The proceedings mark a momentous day in US history, as Trump is the country’s first president – present or former – to face a criminal trial. They also play out against a presidential race in which Trump is the almost certain Republican nominee who regularly bests Joe Biden in head-to-head polls.
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In room 1523 at the 100 Centre Street courthouse, where Trump will soon go on trial, journalists started taking their seats on wooden benches shortly after 8am. There are two large television screens where those in attendance will be able to watch video and listen to jury selection, which is in room 1530, just down the hall.
Before prospective jurors are brought into the courtroom, it is likely that both sides will confer briefly over outstanding issues. Whenever that wraps, Trump is poised to start facing potential panelists, who will be screened for potential biases in a selection process that will easily take at least one week.
The criminal case against Trump stems from an alleged scheme to cover up purported liaisons with Daniels and McDougal ahead of the 2016 general election.
Prosecutors say that Trump, who was indicted in spring 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records, participated in an alleged “catch-and-kill scheme” from August 2015 until December 2017 through his then lawyer, Michael Cohen. They said that he did so out of concern that the alleged extramarital encounters with Daniels and McDougal could harm Trump’s candidacy.
Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to federal charges for his involvement in that particular hush money scheme, wired $130,000 to Daniels’ then attorney only 12 days before the election. Cohen shuttled this money through a shell company, which he established and funded at a bank in Manhattan, prosecutors said.
After Trump won the election, he paid Cohen back with a series of monthly checks. At first these checks came from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust – which was set up in New York to hold the president’s namesake company’s assets during his presidency. Payments to Cohen later came from Trump’s bank account, prosecutors said.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said that Trump provided 11 checks under illicit pretenses – and signed nine of them. The Trump Organization, prosecutors said, processed these checks “disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement”.
By casting these payments as compensation for legal work, he “made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise”, prosecutors said. Trump did so “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof … ’
With the scheme involving McDougal, the National Enquirer’s publisher, AMI, paid her $150,000. AMI reached out to Cohen after McDougal’s lawyer contacted the National Enquirer, in the hopes of selling her story about Trump. AMI brokered a deal with McDougal to purchase her “limited life rights” to her account of a relationship with “any married man”, according to a non-prosecution agreement between AMI and Manhattan federal prosecutors.
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Trump, prosecutors said, told Cohen to repay AMI with cash. Cohen insisted that AMI be repaid via a shell company. In the end AMI, owned by Trump crony David Pecker – did not accept repayment after consulting with their counsel, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
In another concealment plot, Pecker came to learn that a former Trump Tower doorman was trying to sell information about a child Trump allegedly had out of wedlock. AMI paid him $30,000 for the story, prosecutors said.
The story did not check out – AMI did not investigate before issuing the payment – but Cohen told Pecker not to release the doorman from the agreement until after the election. Pecker said yes, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that the arrangement between Trump, Cohen and Pecker stemmed from a summer 2015 meeting at Trump tower some two months after the real estate mogul announced his candidacy. Pecker said he’d help with Trump’s run and promised to be his “eyes and ears” by keeping apprised of negative stories – and notifying Cohen before they surfaced.