A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?

it's 6:21 a.m. on. Monday I'm walking past City. Hall. Downtown just a couple blocks away from. the courthouse where openings are going. to begin today. and Trump's. trial one thing that's really striking. to me about today is that we've all. known the story that's about to be told. for a long time now.

and I can tell you it gets a little. dull writing the words stemming from a. hush money payment to a porn star in. each story stemming from a hush money. payment to a porn. star but now it's really happening this. is a case a criminal case against Donald. Trump and today it's going to be. presented to a. jury it's gone from. story to reality. [Music].

from New York Times I'm Michael babbaro. this is the. daily today the prosecution and the. defense lay out their case in the first. criminal trial of Donald. Trump we turn once again to my colleague. Jonah Bromwich who watched from inside. the. courtroom it's it's Tuesday April.

[Music]. 23rd oh hello you're wearing a uh. courtroom tie that's right first step. very handsome thank you okay you ready. I'm ready okay well Jonah welcome back. thank you I want to start with kind of. credit where credit is due you last week. when you came and spoke about jury. selection in this trial predicted.

Against All Odds that it would take a. single week which I was pretty skeptical. of you were right and I wonder if you. can. just I mean you know sometimes we get it. right sometimes we get it wrong when you. get it right you get some points just. describe the final jury that we ended up. getting given as you had told us the. huge importance of the jury to this case. sure so five of them are women seven of. them are men they are from all over. Manhattan as we knew would happen we.

also know that this is a really Highly. Educated group we've got a lot of. advanced degrees we've got people who. work in technology in business in the. law very stereotypical white collar. professions MH and you'll remember when. we talked last that we were talking. about how being an interesting juror is. a little bit of a downside if you want. to get picked because if you're. interesting you probably posted. something on Twitter or Facebook that. meant that you weren't going to get on a. jury yeah that's exactly right and. that's what we saw happen is that the. defense picked up on people who had old. posts attacking Trump and they got them.

dismissed in any way possible Right but. that doesn't mean that jurors on this. panel that we have seated don't have. strong opinions about trump it just. means we don't know so right we got the. uninteresting people now on this jury. and so in a sense their views are far. more of a black box than the jurors who. were dismissed black box is exactly. right it feels like the speed with which. this jury selection. happened tells us something about the. personality of the judge in this case is. that right exactly right and I think.

it's a really key Point here so the. judge is named Juan Maran he's 61 years. old he has presided over several trials. involving Trump or his associates most. prominently the trial of the Trump. organization Trump's company in 2022 in. which the company was convicted of a. crime Maran knows that Trump's favored. tactic is delay he's dealt with it. before and he almost seems to be. countering that by speeding the along as.

much as he can so we saw that last week. as he swore in groups of jurors Whenever. there was a free moment it seemed like. and we saw it today too how do we see it. today today we thought we were only. going to go until 2 p.m. because of the. Passover holiday but early in the. morning the judge gets onto the bench. and he says actually a juror has a. dentist appointment so we need to stop. even earlier we need to stop at 12:30. and those of us in the Press look around. and we say oh well we'll be lucky to get. even through opening statements today.

not only did we get through opening. statements prosecution and defense but. we also got our first witness today. David pecker so I want to start with the. first thing that happened which is the. opening arguments from the prosecution. from in this case the District. Attorney's office in Manhattan tell us. about that starting with opening. arguments means starting with a guy. named Matthew Colangelo and we haven't. seen him that much yet during jury. selection he's been pretty quiet overall. and remember listeners are not going to. be able to hear from him at all because.

there's no recording in the courtroom so. we're just going to have to kind of. retell you what he said and quote him as. much as possible and luckily you're very. good at that thank you but he stands up. he walks to the podium and he begins to. explain to the jurors in very clear. precise language what they will see. during trial MH and what he describes is. this fascinating tale of political. conspiracy he says that Trump met with. his former fixer Michael Cohen and David. pecker former publisher of the Inquirer.

and the three came to an agreement a. conspiratorial agreement Colangelo says. to promote positive stories about Trump. and more importantly suppress negative. ones and so then Colangelo begins to. talk about some of those stories such as. what so there are three stories at issue. here the first is from a former doorman. at a trump org building who was seeking. to sell a story of trump allegedly. fathering a child out of wedlock which. turns out not to be true yes that one is.

not true but nonetheless the national. Inquirer to use a phrase that people. have been familiar with for a while now. they caught and they killed that story. mhm they took that story which was. available for sale and they made sure. that no one would hear about it by which. we mean they paid somebody to give them. the story that they then never ran. that's exactly right the second of these. transactions involves a woman named. Karen McDougall and she was selling a. story of an affair with Trump so again.

the national Inquirer stepped in they. bought the story the story never saw the. light of day and then finally Colangelo. describes something that's become very. familiar to us which is the hush money. payment to Stormy Daniels who also had a. story to sell about having had sex with. Trump but in this case there's a wrinkle. the national inquir had an awful lot of. trouble getting paid back for the Karen. McDougall payment paid back by paid back. by theum TR Camp ah they expected the.

Trump Camp to basically reimburse them. for the catch and kill that's right so. when they had trouble getting paid it. increased their reluctance to get. involved in yet another one of these. catch and kill stories and so when. Stormy Daniels comes through with her. story of having had sex with Trump. Michael Cohen himself Trump's fixer. ultimately after Heming and Hauling a. bit goes and pays her himself and then. importantly Trump pays him back from the. White House and prosecutors say that.

Trump disguises those payments there's. 34 records of payments and instead of. saying these are payments for a hush. money to Stormy Daniels they say Legal. Services these were for Legal Services. because we have Michael Cohen he's a. lawyer he's working for Trump and that's. what he's getting paid for okay well. what is the point of the prosecutor here. laying out this conspiracy between Trump. the guy from the national Inquirer and. Trump's fixer Michael Cohen what's the.

kind of larger Legal Foundation he's. building I would say there's two things. he's doing that are really really. important the first is this is. scintillating it's payoffs it's politics. it's porn starts it's everything that. makes this case as dazzling and. interesting as you could possibly. imagine and we see the jurors are taking. notes kind of frantic notes on what he's. saying interesting but legally speaking. what's important here is that you'll. remember that Trump is charged with. falsifying business records.

not any of the stuff that we've just. been talking about right and the reason. that the conspiracy that Colangelo is. talking about is important is because. falsifying business records is only a. felony if it was undertaken to help. commit or conceal another crime the. prosecutors here are focused on. concealing a crime and for months and. months we've been asking well what crime. was concealed here today we get our. specific answer what Matthew Colangelo. says in his opening statement is that.

they falsified business records to. conceal the crime of entering a. conspiracy to promote an election and. that the people who entered that. conspiracy were Trump Cohen and David. pecker I just want to recap this because. it's a little bit complicated what we. learn from the opening statement here. from the prosecution is that the way. that falsifying business records which. is what Trump is accused of becomes a. felony is if it's used to conceal a. different alleged crime that alleged.

crime is an election crime and what the. prosecutor is saying here is that all. those conspiracies you just described. that is evidence of this second crime. that's how you get to felony charges. that's how you get to the very fact of. this trial that's right this crime is. like Fusion right falsifying business. records fuses with something else now we. see that that something else seems to be. this state election crime conspiracy to. promote election so Fusion of conspiracy.

to promote election and falsifying. business records before we move on I. want to ask you potentially a slightly. annoying question you mentioned that the. second concealed crime here might be a. violation of a state law surrounding the. promotion of an election how do you. violate that law and do the prosecutors. say how Trump violated it so this is. what's so interesting about what. prosecutors did today they don't. actually have to prove it why they've. gotten to the stage of their case where.

it's just baked into the charges they. are felony charges and so all they have. to do to win is to convince the jury. that their story makes sense and that. Trump falsified business records and so. on the front end if they show you that. he was trying to win the election by. suppressing these stories then on the. back end once they show you the records. being disguised they say that the jury. will be persuaded of why they said he. did it okay now that that complicated. legal business is squared away what else. should we know about. the prosecutor's opening statement.

Colangelo then just walks the jurors. through each witness they're going to. hear from and how it builds back into. the case they're trying to make got it. one of those Witnesses is Michael Cohen. of course who was a prominent member of. what prosecutors said was a conspiracy. and one of the things that Colangelo. does is he kind of cleans up for the. prosecution what Cohen is going to be. like what do you mean he says that you. can expect that the defense lawyers will. say Cohen is not credible and that he.

can't be trusted because he's this guy. who's been convicted of federal crimes. which is true who's changed his story. many many times and what Colangelo says. is look this is a guy who worked with. Trump and his story makes sense when as. a whole you look at how Trump operated. he needed someone like this to go around. and fix his problems and so Cohen is in. fact regardless of what the defense.

might say about his credibility the. exact type of person you'd expect to see. in Trump's orbit and he says that Cohen. by telling the truth now when he used to. work for Trump and tell lies is. redeeming himself is redeeming himself. in a way that the defendant has not I'm. curious if you think this tactic seemed. to kind of work in the moment in the. room to try to preemptively defend. against the attacks the prosecution. expects will be leveled against star. witness Michael Cohen it's a pretty.

common tactic so I think there's a. reason prosecutors do it and prosecutors. have a really difficult task with Cohen. they have to make him look like a. criminal too but they also need him to. testify for them so they need to hold. him close and hug him tight while also. making him look like the kind of guy who. would have made a payoff to a porn star. to keep her silent right all of this. suggests that prosecutors are going to. be very reliant on Michael Cohen. and his testimony how much of what they.

hope to get from him and his problematic. background is also available to them in. the form of documents and other. corroborating evidence that's exactly. how Colangelo transitions away from. talking about Cohen he says the phrase. extensive paper trail he's saying. exactly what you're asking Michael they. do have documents they have a recording. with Trump on it talking about one of. the hush money Deals they have things. that will make Cohen's story add up is.

what he says got it so how does the. prosecution ultimately end this opening. statement Colangelo comes back to the. beginning he says again quote this case. is about a criminal conspiracy and a. coverup he acknowledges the bigness of. the case he encourages jurors to tune. out the noise you mean the media this. conversation all of it exactly and then. he looks at them and he says quote we. are confident you will have no. Reasonable Doubt that Donald Trump is.

guilty and he's done and he sits down. and it's time for the. [Music]. defense we'll be right. back so Jonah tell us about the. defense's opening arguments because as. you hinted at the prosecution's case is. kind of familiar the defense's arguments. all feel much more novel the defense's.

opening statement is delivered by Todd. blanch who's defending Trump not only in. this criminal matter but in some of the. other ones too he's a former Federal. prosecutor and he gets up to the podium. you'll remember that we said that the. last words that Colangelo spoke were. Donald Trump is guilty well blanche's. first words are President Trump is. innocent so what is blanche's Central. defense I think I think the defense.

opening statement can be split into two. separate parts okay the first is no. crime here there's nothing to see they. say that a candidate trying to promote. himself to win a presidential election. is not a crime and that everything Trump. did that prosecutors have just described. the conspiracy exactly is part of the. normal course of running for office one. meets with Publishers one promotes. stories about oneself one perhaps tries. to put out opposition research to. promote negative stories about one's.

opponent this is standard practice the. defense says for a presidential. candidate okay here I just want to point. out that it does not seem to be. traditionally speaking normal standard. practice to try to catch and kill and. potentially even reimburse a media. company for a catch and kill when it. comes to the story of a sexual affair. right I mean I think we should just be. clear about that yeah I nodded. frantically while you said that because. you're 100% right this is an unusual. situation for a presidential candidate. what does the defense lawyer have to say.

about this concept that what Trump was. doing was trying to essentially keep. essential information from the public. paying off people to deny voters. essential information he doesn't weigh. into that territory deeply enough to. have to counter each and every of the. prosecution's points and this is a. classic defense thing you seize on the. stuff that makes sense to seize on and. you kind of try and shush away the. elements that you don't want jurors to.

focus on because think about it if you. were a juror and you were listening to. this case and you just heard Todd blanch. say he was trying to run for president. how can it be a crime to try and run for. president especially if you were. sympathetic to Trump you might think. well that makes sense and what the. defense hopes will happen is that these. little seeds will stick in juror minds. and when it comes to deliberations weeks. and weeks from now the jurors will get. stuck on one of the points that they. made and the biggest of all seeds seems. to be blanche's argument that when you.

run for president you do almost anything. you can to try to win right they want to. make what the prosecution is describing. look a lot more normal and a lot less. seedy than prosecutors want them to. think and so the other example of that. the other kind of not crime here. according to the defense is the. falsification of business records the. defense says these business records. weren't falsified Michael Cohen was a. lawyer for Trump he was paid by the. Trump Organization for Legal Services.

AKA his job Trump had nothing to do with. it anyway and Todd blanch looks at these. documents these all-important documents. the prosecution's case and he just. dismisses them as quote unquote 34. pieces of paper H so in their telling. even reimbursing Michael Cohen for. paying off stmy Daniels potentially can. be legally construed as him performing. Legal Services that's right Todd blanch. wants the jury to believe that this. repayment was just the normal course of.

business nothing to see here again what. if anything does Trump's lawyer here. have to say about the witnesses the. prosecutors plan to call especially of. course Michael Cohen Todd blanch has a. lot to say about Michael Cohen and I had. thought that blanch would maybe try and. slow walk his criticism of Cohen because. there's a little bit of danger here you. don't want to seem so embittered and so. angry that you convince the jury that.

you're the one who has an ax to grind. but blanch ramps up pretty quickly he. calls him a criminal he calls him a liar. he accuses Cohen of being completely. obsessed with Trump he says quote he's. obsessed with President Trump even to. this day Cohen is out for Revenge wants. to see Trump in prison and Cohen. actually had given the defense a real. gift because as recently as last night. the defense said he had called Trump a. quote despicable human being and said he.

wanted to see the former president. convicted wow so if blanch is trying to. argue to jurors hey this guy Michael. Cohen hates my client Michael Cohen. helpfully chimes in for the defense and. says hey I hate president Trump and I. want to see him go to jail and I want to. see him convicted H so like the. prosecution of the defense is putting a. lot of emphasis on Michael Cohen. reinforcing the idea that he's very. essential to this trial yeah I think. there would be no dispute between the. prosecution and the defense that Michael.

Cohen has the key story here H okay so. how does the defense and its opening. argument blanch ends in a very simple. straightforward way he asks the jurors. to use their common sense and he says. that if they decide the case based on. the evidence there will be a very Swift. not- guilty verdict and he sits down and. at this point it's just before noon M. and we're all looking at each other. thinking oh my gosh opening statements. in this trial are already done we're.

going to get a witness okay so take us. into this very first witness so as you. might imagine witness sequence is. incredibly important you're trying to. tell the story you told in your opening. through the testimony of others and this. is the prosecution witness so this is. the first prosecution witness and it's. David pecker the former publisher of the. national Inquirer and what is Pecker's. testimony pecker doesn't get too far. into his story story but he does start.

to lay out the way that the national. Inquirer worked and one thing he says. and I think this is a bit of a problem. for the defense is he says that the. national Inquirer operated through quote. unquote checkbook journalism and just. explain that which is a neat way of. saying they paid people for stories but. remember we talked about this jury is. highly educated there's a good chance. they're quite media literate media Savvy. they're going to know that this is not. the way that normal newspapers operated. and so this is a great thing for the. prosecutor and this is why it's their. witness already David pecker is laying.

out a modus operandi at the national. Inquirer that just isn't that normal and. the day ends shortly after that but we. can already see where pecker is going. when he returns to the stand on Tuesday. he is going to describe how this form of. quote unquote journalism this checkbook. journalism mattered to Trump and. mattered in Trump's campaign and that's. the way that prosecutors will begin to. illustrate the story that they told with.

opening statements and eventually what. they hope that they'll have is this cast. of characters these Witnesses who will. bring the conspiracy that they accused. Donald Trump of participating in to. Vivid life Jonah we haven't talked much. about Trump he's in the room this entire. time he's sitting there at the defense. table I'm curious if you or our. colleagues captured any notable. reactions from him I mean after all he's. beginning the process of watching those. he once entrusted with helping him get.

elected turn on. him I become used to seeing Trump. minimized in the courtroom because he's. just there day after day because he's. not the center of attention right and I. think that was really true today I can. describe a couple of reactions for. instance he shook his head when. prosecutors said he was guilty that was. one of the main things that he did that. caught our attention and then the thing. that caught my eye is finally we're done. for the day and Trump stands up and he.

looks really angry he looks really. really angry. Trump and he walks out of court I get. indicted I'm the leading candidate I'm. beating Biden I'm beating the. Republicans now I have the. nomination and this is what they try and. take me off the trail for and he gives. an angry speech but they call the. payment to a lawyer a legal expense in. the books. they didn't call it construction they.

didn't say you're building a building. called with a familiar kind of language. and when are they going to look at all. the lies that. Cohen did in the last trial he got. caught lying in the last trial attacks. on people attacks on Cohen because the. public understands that it's a Witch. Hunt thank you very much Mr Trump what. was it like heing and then he gets in. his SUV and he leaves the day in which. prosecutors accused him essentially to. his face of commit 34 felonies right.

Jonah it would seem very hard to draw a. lot of meaningful Impressions from just. oral arguments but in this single day. you have the prosecution and the defense. lawyer standing up and developing a. rapport with the jury and introducing. what they would regard as the strongest. versions of their case and I'm kind of. curious as a longtime court reporter if. you felt after today a strong sense of. which team seems like it's a little bit.

more on top of their game and is. presenting a stronger version of events. to the jury or if it's just too early to. say what I'll say is the. prosecution has a very clear very. structured narrative MH the defense has. a lot of things to say about that story. and they're picking off little elements. they're saying well Cohen's a liar. Stormy Daniels is an opportunist and by. the way there's no crime here there's no. crime in terms of trying to win the. election there's no crime in terms of. falsifying any documents so those kind.

of individual blows that they're trying. to land one of them can work or many of. them could work what the defense didn't. seem to have today was an alternative. narrative and so of course their burdens. are different the defense is just trying. to seeed Reasonable Doubt the. prosecution has to prove their case but. the prosecution is telling a story and. the defense is saying that story's not. quite right the defense is not. necessarily telling a competing story. got it I wanted to just end Jonah with a.

reminder of the stakes of this case. which I think tend to get lost in the. day-to-day coverage of it there are as. we've been talking about 34 felony. charges and this is the first criminal. case to go to trial before the election. and we think perhaps the only criminal. case to go to trial before the election. if Trump wins this case it's quite. clearly a huge Vindication for him and. he can go around saying as much if he. loses what what are the actual legal.

consequences so the legal consequences. those are easy to talk about it's an. indeterminate prison sentence but we. know it could be up to four years right. but the political consequences which I. think are of great interest to a lot of. people are very very difficult to talk. about when Trump was indicted his poll. numbers actually went up right and this. was the first indictment that's right. and so there's no clear indication that. being convicted here would necessarily. hurt him politically. I think a lot of people who dislike.

Trump were hoping that these criminal. cases would just kind of take him out of. the picture but we don't know that. that's going to happen and so even as we. start to get into the heart of this case. and to hear the evidence and hear the. testimony and to see what the jurors are. seeing and try and predict whether Trump. is going to be found guilty or not. guilty we still have no idea what a. conviction would actually mean or how it. would affect the election.

[Music]. Jonah thank you very much of course. thanks for having. [Music]. me we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today during oral arguments on Monday a.

majority of the Supreme Court appeared. ready to uphold a series of local laws. that allowed Grants Pass a small city in. Oregon to ban homeless people from. sleeping in public spaces the case which. was covered on Friday's episode of The. Daily has sweeping implications for how. the entire country deals with the. growing crisis of homeless. and tensions over the war in Gaza are.

escalating on the campuses of several. Elite. Universities at Yale and New York. University Police on Monday arrested. dozens of protesters who defied orders. to disperse at Harvard administrators. said they plan to close Harvard Yard to. avoid unauthorized demonstrations and at. Colombia where protesters have set up a. large encampment. the University's president faced calls.

to resign from all 10 House Republicans. from the state of New York in a letter. the Republicans wrote quote Anarchy has. engulfed the. [Music]. campus today's episode was produced by. Will Reed AA chv and muj Z it was edited. by Lexi di with help from Paige cow. contains original music by Dan Powell.

Marian Lozano and Brad fiser and was. engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim brunberg and Ben lansberg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael borro see you tomorrow.

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