Matthew Colangelo, a member of Bragg’s workforce, kicked issues off for the prosecution, laying out the central allegations within the case.
Just days earlier than the 2016 election, Trump’s legal professional on the time, Cohen, paid $130,000 to Daniels to purchase her silence about an alleged sexual encounter she stated she had with Trump years earlier. Trump denies the encounter.
Colangelo stated Cohen made the cost “on the defendant’s route, and did it to affect the election.” He portrayed the cost as a part of a scheme concocted by Trump, Cohen and Pecker to bury unfavorable tales about Trump and attack his rivals. The plan was hatched at a gathering at Trump Tower in 2015, Colangelo stated.
“Together they conspired to affect the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo instructed the jury, saying Pecker agreed to behave as Trump’s “eyes and ears” through the 2016 marketing campaign.
Colangelo laid out the “catch and kill” tactic allegedly utilized by Pecker and Dylan Howard, the Enquirer’s editor, to protect Trump from unfavorable tales. The follow concerned shopping for the rights to somebody’s story after which declining to publish the account, successfully maintaining it hidden. They additionally printed unflattering tales about Trump’s rivals.
Prosecutors allege AMI, the Enquirer’s dad or mum firm, employed the “catch and kill” tactic twice earlier than the cost to Daniels. One occasion concerned a $150,000 cost to a former Playboy mannequin to safe the rights to her story. The mannequin, Karen McDougal, additionally alleged an affair with Trump, which he denies. Colangelo instructed jurors they might hear a recording of Cohen promising to arrange a shell firm to purchase the rights to McDougal’s story from the Enquirer to reimburse Pecker for the acquisition.
In the weeks main as much as the 2016 election, Daniels’ lawyer approached the Enquirer about promoting the rights to her story as effectively, Colangelo stated. Howard put the lawyer in contact with Cohen, who negotiated the $130,000 cost, in accordance with prosecutors. Colangelo stated Trump hoped to delay the deal till after the election, after which not pay in any respect. Cohen finally transferred the money to Daniels’ legal professional simply days earlier than Election Day.
“This was a deliberate, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to affect the 2016 election to assist Donald Trump get elected,” Colangelo instructed the jury. “It was election fraud, pure and easy.”
