Donald Trump's first of four criminal trials starts Monday.
“7 stories to know” is a new Monday series showcasing stories that may have been ignored in the crush of news over the past few weeks, and stories that have continued to evolve over the weekend. Expect to read coverage about health, science, and climate that frequently take second chair to what’s happening at the top of the page, plus information from local sources that the national media may have overlooked.
1. Trump’s hush money trial begins
Last week, Donald Trump struck out in his efforts to delay his trial for funneling hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. With his legal team going 0-4, as of Friday, in last-minute attempts to shift the location of the trial, disqualify the judge, or give Trump a pass to skip the courtroom for the campaign trail, it now seems that jury selection in the case will begin in the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Juan Merchan on Monday morning.
While pundits have argued that the hush money case is the least important of the four criminal trials Trump faces, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that voters don’t see it that way: 64% of registered voters described the charges as serious, including nearly 40% of Republicans. Only 34% of voters said they didn’t believe the charges were serious.
As The Washington Post reported last week, the case is about more than just whether or not Trump paid off Daniels. It’s already clear that he did. What’s technically at stake in the New York trial is 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up those payments.
However, based on a letter to counsel Merchan wrote last week about jury selection, this trial could cover some of the same issues of election interference that are at the center of a federal trial currently held up by Trump’s claims of immunity and a Georgia trial that has been delayed by attacks on the prosecutors.
As the Post notes, Merchan isn’t rewriting the charges against Trump, but in his letter, the judge makes it clear that looking at how these crimes may have affected a razor-thin electoral victory is within the scope of this trial. This could expand the range of issues and testimony and mean that some of the issues in those other trials get a preview in Merchan’s courtroom.
Whatever happens at trial, this is the first time in history that a former president of the United States has gone to trial on criminal charges. That alone makes this a historic event. A sad, disgraceful, ugly historic event.
It may not be the trial everyone wanted to see first, but it’s the trial we’re getting. And, depending on the response of the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of federal immunity and other delays in the schedule, it could be the only criminal trial Trump faces before the 2024 election.
New York state prohibits recording of court proceedings, so the trial will not be televised.
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