Trump’s ‘Hush-Money’ Trial

Written by Alice Forsyth

Background: Trump’s four 2023 indictments

An indictment formally charges a person with a crime. It is filed after a grand jury investigates the alleged crime, with formal charges coming later.

Four criminal indictments were filed against Trump in 2023. They are summarised below: -

• The New York trial – For falsifying business records.
• The Florida trial – For mishandling of classified documents.
• The Washington DC trial – For attempting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.
• The Georgia trial – For attempting to change the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election in Georgia.

All four indictments amount to a total of 88 felony charges.

The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, the trial for which began on 15 April 2024, if the first of the four indictments to go to trial.

With regard to the other three indictments, the Washington DC trial was put on hold in February 2024 while the Supreme Court determine whether Trump is immune from prosecution, the Florida trial has been indefinitely postponed, and the Georgia trial has not yet been listed.

This trial: The People of New York v Donald J Trump

In this indictment, Donald Trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 ‘hush-money’ payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, in order to cover up a damning story about an alleged affair at the end of the 2016 election campaign. He is also accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to maintain this concealment.

Unsurprisingly, Trump has plead not guilty to the 34 counts and also denies any sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and himself. Throughout the five-week trial, Trump was never called to give his own evidence.

This is the first time in history that a US president (former or current) has faced a criminal trial.

The jury for this trial is a mixture of 12 everyday New Yorkers; seven men and five women. They were selected from a pool of 300 potential jurors during the first week of the trial.

Closing statements: A summary

After a five-week trial, lawyers for both the prosecution and the defence gave their closing statements on Tuesday 28 May.

The prosecuting lawyer, Joshua Steinglass, told the jurors that they had seen a “mountain of evidence” in support of the charges against Trump in his five-hour closing statement. He told the jurors that the former president had carried out “a conspiracy and a coverup” to help him win the 2016 presidential election. He outlined how Trump, with the help of those around him, worked to deliberately bury damaging stories which had the potential to harm his chances of winning the 2016 election. He told the jurors that it was this unlawful scheme which ultimately led to Trump being elected.

Conversely, in his two-hour closing statement, the defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, focused on Michael Cohen’s testimony, arguing that the prosecution’s case is wholly reliant on it as their strongest evidence.

Mr Cohen was Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who worked directly for him from 2006 to 2018. Mr Cohen testified for over five hours and outlined much of what he used to do for Trump during this period. He summarised his job as doing “everything in [his] power to protect Mr Trump”. In fact, in 2018, Mr Cohen even pleaded guilty to federal charges for lying to Congress about his involvement in Trump’s foreign real estate interests; a crime for which he served three years in prison. He emerged from incarceration as a critic of the former president and made this somewhat clear in his testimony this month.

In response, Trump’s defence team attacked Mr Cohen’s testimony, berating his credibility. They went as far as to label him ’the Tom Brady of lying’ – the “GLOAT” or the “Greatest Liar of All Time”. They concluded that the prosecution did not have “a shred of evidence” to show that Trump was guilty of these charges.

Following the closing statements, the Judge gave his directions for the jury to be sent away to begin their deliberations. It is key that only a unanimous verdict between all jurors would lead to Trump’s conviction.

What will happen to Trump if he is convicted?

At the time of writing this article, the jury have just started deliberating, before they will need to return with a final verdict. The jury could deliberate for hours, days or even weeks before they are able to reach a decision, so it’s unknown when the final verdict will be delivered.

If Trump is convicted, he may or may not be facing time in jail. This will be decided upon by Judge Juan Merchan. He has been coined by media outlets as a ‘no-nonsense’ judge, who had also presided over the 2022 tax-fraud trial that let to the conviction of the Trump Organisation’s CFO, Mr Allen Weisselberg.

The maximum sentence Trump could get for these charges is four years imprisonment. However, Judge Merchan would take into account factors such as Trump’s age (he’s 77 years old), his lack of previous criminal convictions, and the fact that the cases involved a non-violent crime. As such, it is speculated that a sentence of imprisonment is unlikely.

Even if Trump is handed a custodial sentence, it is almost inevitable that he would appeal the guilty verdict and would be released on bail until that hearing. Such a hearing would likely not take place for many months at least, and possibly even past the November 2024 election.

If Trump is acquitted of the charges by the jury, he cannot be retried for the same charges again.

Throughout the trial, Trump has taken to social media to express his frustration that the trial itself is “election interference” as it disrupts his 2024 presidential bid. Despite this, it is somewhat evident that he is the front runner to be the Republican party candidate.

However, there is nothing in the US Constitution to say that a convicted criminal cannot run for president of the US. In fact, the only requirements set out in the Constitution is that they must have been born in the US, be over 35 years old, and have lived in the US for at least 14 years.

Therefore, even if Trump is convicted of these charges and receives a jail sentence, he will still be able to run for president and potentially be elected in the November 2024 election.

If you’re interested in keeping up with the final verdict (whenever it occurs), I recommend following live updates on the BBC.