From stare-downs to shut-eye: Trump's every move in criminal trial under the microscope
But behind every scowl, whisper or even yawn, Trump’s team sees a clear message the presumptive GOP nominee has the opportunity to get across: Defiance.
Donald Trump has spent most of his adult life seeking the limelight. Inside a frigid New York City courtroom this week, a closed-circuit camera provided arguably the brightest light he’s ever experienced.
Not even during his jaw-dropping presidency nor at his raucous rallies has Trump’s every move been so meticulously tracked as during his initial appearances in Manhattan for the start of his hush money trial. Every smirk, turn, stare and scoff he made in the courtroom was chronicled by reporters and blasted out to the world to offer even a glimpse or small insight into how he was handling developments in the case — the first criminal trial ever involving a former president.
But behind every scowl, whisper or, yes, even yawn, Trump’s team sees a clear message the presumptive GOP nominee has the opportunity to get across: defiance. The aim? Convince the American people that the 34 counts of falsifying business records he faces are a sham to harm his electoral odds this fall.
“President Trump proved he will remain defiant in the face of this unprecedented political lawfare, and it is clear that his support from the American people will only grow as they watch Joe Biden, [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, and the Democrats putting on this bogus show trial six months before the election,” said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokesperson.
The central thesis of the charges, as Bragg alleges, is that Trump falsified records to conceal that he reimbursed his former lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 paid to adult film actor Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 presidential election — a move made to pre-emptively silence her from alleging that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. (Trump denies sleeping with Daniels but has acknowledged repaying Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance charges related to the payment).
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