Prosecutors at Donald Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday let slip their “entire case” rests on a legal theory was part of a “conspiracy” to corrupt the 2016 election.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a crime which is usually a misdemeanor.
To elevate the charges to a felony, prosecutors have to show Trump lied on the documents with the intention of committing another crime.
A prosecutor in case, Joshua Steinglass, told judge Juan Merchan and Trump’s lawyers during a sidebar Tuesday “the entire case is predicated on the idea that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016,” according to a report by CNN.
Another prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, told jurors during opening statements on Monday Trump orchestrated a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election” then “covered up that conspiracy by lying in his New York business records … over and over again.”
Despite those claims, no federal charges have been brought against Trump for interfering with the 2016 election.
His lawyer, Todd Blanche, also pushed back at the notion of a conspiracy to affect the results of the election during his opening Monday, saying: “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
Trump, 77, is accused of having his former lawyer Michael Cohen pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the lead up to the 2016 election to keep her quiet about claims she had a one-night stand with Trump. That payment itself wasn’t illegal.
Prosecutors say the law was broken when Trump then tried to hide the payment by logging the reimbursements to Cohen as legal expenses in 2017.
Legal experts previously told The Post District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case is “going to be very complicated” to prove and the case wades into uncharted legal waters.
Outside court Monday Trump defended himself, claiming: “I was paying a lawyer and we marked it down as a legal expense.
“Some accountant I didn’t know marked it down as a legal expense. That’s exactly what it was, and you get indicted over that?”
Former prosecutor and defense lawyer Adam Uris previously told The Post using an alleged federal election-law violation to increase a state law misdemeanor to a felony adds complexity to the case.
Prosecutors had previously floated three different legal theories for the second layer of wrongdoing, saying Trump lied on business records to commit: campaign finance fraud; tax fraud; and election fraud.
Trump allegedly violated tax law by falsely calling Cohen’s payments “income.” He allegedly breached campaign finance law by allegedly exceeding the $2,700 cap on the amount someone can contribute to a campaign when he allegedly paid Daniels $130,000 to benefit his campaign. And he broke local election law, by conspiring to illegally promote a candidate, prosecutors claim.
Trump’s lawyers will likely attempt to combat all three theories by arguing their client never meant to hide the payout to Daniels.
The trial will resume on Thursday.
