Trump Trial: The “Access Hollywood” Recordings As The Focus of The Prosecution

The prosecution is buying silence in the mainstream media outlets. Details of the pleading session in the case of “buying silence” pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutors were accused in the closing arguments, on Tuesday, in the trial of former US President Donald Trump, as of “buying silence,” that Trump was involved in “conspiracy and cover-up operations,” while Trump’s lawyer accused the main witness of being “the biggest liar of all time” and put pressure on the jury is for a “comprehensive acquittal.”

Trump is accused of falsifying accounting records to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy Daniels against the backdrop of a relationship he says he had with her dating back to 2006, which could have harmed his bid to win the presidency in 2016.

The conflicting accounts of the prosecution and defence, which differed greatly in their assessments of the credibility of witnesses and the strength of the evidence, provided both sides with a final opportunity to score points for the jury before it began its deliberations in the first criminal case against a former US president, according to the American Associated Press. .

After more than 4 weeks of testimony, the closing arguments pose a huge and historically unprecedented task for the jury, as it decides whether to convict the presumptive Republican presidential nominee before the November elections.

There were clear political overtones regarding the trial proceedings, as President Joe Biden’s campaign organized an event outside the courtroom with the participation of actor Robert De Niro. 

“Conspiracy and cover-up”

“This case, at its core, is about a conspiracy and a cover-up,” District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told the jury, as he sought to alleviate potential jurors’ concerns about the credibility of witnesses. For example, Trump said he and Daniels never had sex, and repeatedly attacked Cohen and called him a liar.

The prosecutor acknowledged that Daniels’ account of the alleged 2006 encounter in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite, which Trump denied, was at times “disgusting,” but said the details she provided, including regarding the decor, and what she said she saw When I snooped through Trump’s bathroom collection, it was full of “real-life” details.

He told jurors the story was important; Because it “reinforces (Trump’s) incentive to buy her silence. Her story is a mess. It makes people feel embarrassed to hear it. It may make some of you uncomfortable to hear it. But that’s the point. Simply put, Daniels is the payer.”

Steinglass suggested that if Daniels’ story had emerged in the wake of the revelation of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump was heard bragging about harassing women, it would have undermined his strategy of distorting his words.

“It is necessary to appreciate this,” the prosecutor continued. At the same time, Trump was dismissing his words on the recording as “locker room talk” and was “negotiating to silence a porn star.”

“This is not a matter of whether you like Michael Cohen,” Steinglass continued. “It’s not a matter of whether you want to do business with Michael Cohen. It’s a matter of whether he has useful and reliable information to give you about what happened in this case.” “The issue is, and the truth is, he was in the best position to know that.”

“Access Hollywood” recording

On the other hand, the former president’s personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, told the jury that neither the actress, Stormy Daniels, nor the Trump lawyer who paid her, Michael Cohen, could be trusted.

He added: “President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the prosecutor did not meet his burden of proving (the charges).”

Blanche, who spoke first, sought to downplay the fallout by saying the “Access Hollywood” taping was not an “apocalyptic event.”

He also tried to reassure the jury that the prosecution’s case was not limited to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who paid Daniels $130,000 to remain silent. 

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, making false statements to the US Congress, and violating campaign finance laws. The latest crime is directly related to the payment to Stormy Daniels.

In this context, Cohen spent approximately 13 months in prison, and a year and a half under house arrest, after he was sentenced to 3 years in prison on charges of lying to Congress and committing financial crimes, but his direct participation in financial transactions made him a key witness in the trial.

In his hours-long argument to the jury, which included a complete denial, repeating Trump’s “deny everything” approach, Blanche criticized the entire basis of the case.

He said Cohen, not Trump, prepared the invoices submitted to the Trump Organization for reimbursement, and that there was no evidence that Trump knew what employees were doing with the payments.

He disputed the claim that Trump and Daniels “had sex,” and rejected the idea that the alleged “pay for silence” scheme amounted to election interference.

He went on to say, “Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people working together to help someone win.”

As expected, Blanche reserved his most ferocious attacks for Cohen, with whom he sparred during lengthy interrogation.

Blanche described Cohen as “the biggest liar of all time” and “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt.” This language was intentional, because in order to convict Trump, jurors must believe prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Buying Silence” Trial

This trial comes less than 6 months before the presidential elections scheduled for next November, in which opinion polls show a rapprochement between Trump and President Joe Biden. The referee will open the way for a new moment of intense tension in the context of a frenetic competition.

Trump is the first former or current US president to face criminal charges. The trial lasted about 5 weeks, and witnessed statements by more than 20 witnesses and a number of debates to reach the closing arguments, in the last opportunity for the prosecution and defense to convince the jury consisting of 12 anonymous members.

This case is the relatively simplest of several that Trump faces, and it is also the only one that is likely to end, or even go to trial, before November 5.

If convicted, the former US president faces a prison sentence of up to 4 years for each of the 34 charges, but legal experts rule out that he will be imprisoned in the absence of a precedent.

The former Republican president will almost certainly appeal the ruling, while the conviction will not prevent him from continuing his candidacy as a competitor to Democratic President Joe Biden.

As expected, Trump chose not to testify in a move that would have exposed him to legal risks and unnecessary questioning sessions. He was forced instead to sit and listen as porn star Stormy Daniels recounted details of their supposed relationship.

In his statements to reporters before and after each day in court, Trump attacked Judge Juan Mercand, calling him “corrupt” and “tyrannical” and condemning the entire trial as “election interference” by Democrats who are doing everything they can to prevent him from focusing on his campaign.

The political dimension of the case was clearly embodied in recent days when a group of senior Republican figures came to the court, including a number of aspirants to run for vice president, and sat behind Trump.

Attorney Cohen: I discussed with Trump in the Oval Office a plan to buy the silence of actress Daniels

Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer of former US President Donald Trump, resumed his testimony, on Tuesday, in the criminal trial of the Republican candidate, the day after he told the jury that Trump allowed him to pay a sum of money to a pornographic film actress, weeks before the 2016 elections, in the case that has become known as In the media, “buying silence.”

Cohen told the jury the story of a meeting in the Oval Office, in which he claimed that the then US President approved a plan to secretly compensate Cohen, in exchange for paying pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels money to buy her silence.

Cohen, the main prosecution witness in Trump’s criminal trial in New York, admitted to lying on numerous occasions, including under oath. But he stressed that he did so out of loyalty to Trump.

The $130,000 paid by Cohen in October 2016 is the focus of Trump’s trial, the first for a former US president, which has now entered its fifth week.

Trump (77 years old) defended himself, asserting that he is not guilty and denying any sexual encounter with Daniels. He described the case as a partisan attempt to interfere in his campaign to regain the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden.

Prosecutors say Trump paid Cohen after the election, concealing the amount by falsely recording it as a retainer fee in his real estate company’s records. These damages provide the basis for 34 charges against Trump related to falsifying business records.

Oval Office meeting

In his testimony early Tuesday, Cohen told the story of an Oval Office meeting with Trump in February 2017, when the newly inaugurated president told him he would soon receive the first payments from a bonus package, which Cohen said included compensation for paying Daniels.

Trump spoke at times with his lawyer, Emil Boff, sitting to his left, while Attorney General Susan Hofinger showed Cohen invoices and checks, some of which were signed by Trump himself, and which Cohen said were falsely labeled as power of attorney.

“There was no power of attorney agreement, right?” Hovinger asked, and Cohen replied, “No, ma’am.”

Cohen, 57, said he lied to Congress several times during the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, and eventually pleaded guilty to perjury. 

He also told jurors that he lied extensively about payments received by Daniels and another woman, previously telling reporters that Trump was “not involved.” Cohen said that he pressured Daniels to issue a statement denying meeting with Trump.

Asked how he knew Daniels’ statement was false, Cohen replied: “Because I helped him (the actress’s lawyer) draft it.”

In 2018, during a federal investigation into the Daniels case, FBI agents raided the home of Cohen, who said he called Trump in a panic.

“Federal crimes”

Cohen added that Trump told him: “Don’t worry, I am the president of the United States, there is nothing here, everything will be fine, hold on, it will be fine,” noting that this was the last time they spoke directly.

Cohen pleaded guilty to federal crimes in 2018, including crimes related to the payment to Daniels, and his tainted history is sure to draw tough questioning from Trump’s lawyers, who have already called Cohen a “liar.”

While Cohen testified on Tuesday, a mid-level appeals court rejected Trump’s latest attempt to overturn the gag order, which he asserted violated his right to freedom of expression and made him unable to respond to criticism from people like Cohen.

The order, imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, prohibits Trump from making public comments about jurors, witnesses, the families of judges and prosecutors, if they are intended to interfere in the case.

“Everything is approved by Trump.”

In his testimony on Monday, Cohen explained in great detail how Trump ordered him to pay money to the porn actress, and that Trump told him: “Just do it,” to buy her silence about a relationship she says she had with Trump in 2006.

Cohen recounted a number of turns in the story, saying that Trump agreed to pay sums of money to keep stories of sexual scandals out of the public eye, for fear that they would blow up his presidential campaign.

“Everything required Mr. Trump’s approval,” Cohen said.

Cohen, once one of Trump’s most loyal aides and now the prosecution’s main witness, added that he learned that Daniels was selling her story at a critical moment in Trump’s bid for the White House in 2016.

A few weeks before Election Day, the campaign was facing difficulties because an audio recording appeared on a television program of Trump bragging about harassing women.

Cohen said that Trump told him at the time: “This is a disaster… a complete disaster. Women are going to hate me… This will be a disaster for the campaign.”

Under New York law, falsifying business records can be elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony, if the crime helps conceal another crime. In Trump’s case, prosecutors said the payment was actually a secret campaign contribution, violating federal and state laws.

Cohen said that he, Trump, and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker secretly agreed in 2015 to use his newspaper to help the Trump campaign.

Cohen said that this arrangement included paying the Inquirer $150,000 to obtain exclusive rights to the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to buy her story about a year-long affair that she said she had with Trump. Trump also denied this relationship.

AP