According to a legal expert, reports indicate that former president Donald Trump is taking his trial for fabricating corporate records seriously since he is expected to attend a hearing in court.
This lawsuit concerns the facts surrounding a 2016 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and Trump was present at a preliminary hearing on Thursday. On March 30, 2023, a grand jury decided to indict Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying company records. Trump has entered a not-guilty plea and denied any wrongdoing. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has been accused by him repeatedly of using the case for political benefit.
On Thursday, a court in New York denied Trump’s request to dismiss the charges against him, setting March 25 as the date for the first-ever criminal trial in the United States involving a former president. The Manhattan district attorney is bringing the case against Trump.
Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, has speculated that the lack of media coverage of Trump’s trial—in which he has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts—could be because the charges are not particularly serious and a conviction would not necessarily result in jail time, as opposed to the three other criminal cases in which the former president is embroiled.
According to Bragg’s office, Trump lied about his financial dealings with Stormy Daniels (an adult film actress) and Karen McDougal (a former Playboy model) to cover up his claimed encounters with both women before the 2016 election. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, facilitated the payments.
After determining that Merchan would not postpone the trial, Blanche and Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, discussed possible questions to ask prospective jurors. Most inquiries concerned their news consumption habits and whether they were affiliated with extremist organizations, such as the Proud Boys or Antifa. Several questions were lifted word for word from the jury selection procedure in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against Trump, which the prosecution admittedly used.
The fact that Trump wanted to attend the hearing personally indicates that he is now giving the New York case his full attention, according to Vance’s Civil Discourse blog.
Trump denied having had a sexual relationship with Daniels a decade ago, but the Manhattan case is about a payment that ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid to Stephanie Clifford, whose actual name is Daniels, to keep her from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about the incident.
Cohen entered a guilty plea in 2018 for violating federal campaign rules.
