A hush money payout made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election will be back in the spotlight as Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial kicks off this week.
The proceedings in Manhattan Supreme Court — which start Monday with jury selection — will mark the first-ever criminal trial of a US president.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of fudging business records to cover up the payoff.
He’s also denied having sex with Daniels.
The 2024 Republican presidential hopeful claims that the case brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg — an elected Democrat in a borough Trump lost in landslides in 2016 and 2020 — is a politically motivated revenge plot.
But whether he breached New York law will be up to 12 Manhattanites to decide.
Here’s what you need to know:
What is Trump charged with?
In New York, it’s perfectly legal for private citizens to pay someone off to bury a sex scandal.
But business owners aren’t allowed to lie on company records — and that’s what Trump allegedly did throughout 2017 by trying to hide his tracks.
Trump is charged with what’s called “falsifying business records” by allegedly lying that he was reimbursing his then-fixer Michael Cohen for “legal services” when he was actually paying him back for wiring Daniels the cash.
How serious of a crime is ‘falsifying business records’?
Trump once joked that his supporters are so loyal that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I still wouldn’t lose any voters.”
These alleged crimes aren’t at that level, or at the level of sexual assault, which another Manhattan jury has found Trump liable for in a civil case.
But they’re still serious.
Falsifying business records in order to conceal or carry out another crime is a felony.
Each count of first-degree falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if prosecutors would ask to send Trump behind bars if he’s convicted.
Bragg says the $130,000 hush money payment dwarfed the $2,700 cap on individual campaign donations, and breached a local election law which makes it a crime to conspire to illegally promote a candidate.
Can Trump still run for president if found guilty?
Trump could still run for and win the presidency even if he’s convicted, legal experts say.
But a guilty verdict would pose a new challenge for a self-described branding whiz who has splashed his name on buildings, golf courses — and even sneakers — in his decades of celebrity life.
Trump has been able so far to rally his supporters behind him as he faces 88 criminal charges spread across indictments in four states, casting himself as the victim of political “witch hunts.”
But it’s unclear what voters would think of Trump if he were to become a convicted felon.
What will Trump’s defense be?
Trump has a right to have his lawyers aggressively grill the DA’s witnesses — who are expected to include both Daniels and Cohen — and to testify in his own defense if he’d like.
He’ll likely take a two-pronged approach — making some arguments designed to attack the legal merits of the case, and other barbs aimed at the court of public opinion as he pitches himself to voters.
Trump has already claimed that he can’t get a fair trial in Democrat-leaning Manhattan, that the felonies he’s charged with are “not even crimes,” and that Justice Juan Merchan “hates” him and shouldn’t be overseeing the case.
In court, his lawyers will likely argue Trump did not have “intent” to cover up the payout.
They’ll also urge jurors to discount testimony about Trump’s mindset at the time from Cohen, who has admitted lying to a federal judge while pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations for arranging the payoff.
Who is going to testify?
Neither side is required to submit a list of witnesses before the trial starts, but we’ll certainly hear from Cohen and former National Enquirer boss David Pecker — who court papers say colluded to bury negative stories about Trump before the 2016 election.
Daniels has said on social media that she’ll take the stand as well.
“A major network has spent a lot of money making a documentary about me AND I get to testify against tiny!” she wrote in one post, referencing her new movie on Peacock and her insulting nickname for Trump, in what she says is a reference to his penis size.
Other possible witnesses include Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about a months-long affair.
Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks may take the stand as well.
How long will the trial last – and does Trump have to be there the whole time?
The trial is expected to last between six to eight weeks, and is off on Wednesdays.
As with all defendants in criminal cases, Trump will be required to be at the defense table from when the first a pool of jurors is screened to when the jury renders its verdict.
That means that on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Trump won’t be able meet with donors at Mar-A-Lago, play impromptu rounds at his New Jersey golf club, or hit the campaign trail in swing states where polls show him locked in a tight election battle with President Biden.
“I’m gonna have to sit here for months on a trial,” Trump fumed in the hallway after a recent court appearance.
“I think it’s ridiculous. It’s unfair.”
Will the trial be televised?
New York state does not broadcast trials to the public on video, but The Post will be in the courtroom providing gavel-to-gavel coverage of every dramatic twist and turn.
Are the charges against Trump unique?
A lot about this case is unique, most notably that a US president has never before been tried for a crime.
But the charges themselves are hardly novel.
In the decade before Trump was indicted, Manhattan prosecutors brought 437 cases charging people or companies with falsifying business records, the DA’s office said in a November court filing.
“To put it differently, this office has charged defendants with first-degree falsifying business records at an average rate of just under once a week for the last decade straight,” prosecutors said.
Most of those cases did not get media coverage. But the fudging business records charge is the “bread-and-butter of our white collar work,” Bragg told reporters after Trump’s arraignment last March.
