Donald Trump 'orchestrated a criminal scheme' to corrupt the 2016 election, prosecutors say in opening statement of hush money trial
Opening statements begin in Donald Trump's hush money trial. Former National Enquirer David Pecker is also expected to take the stand as the first witness for the prosecution a source with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News.
Donald Trump "orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt" the 2016 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors Monday as opening statements in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president got underway.
"This case is about criminal conspiracy,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury. Trump, he said, conspired to corrupt the 2016 presidential election by conspiring with his lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, who was the publisher of the National Enquirer at the time.
“Then, he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,” Colangelo said.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News Pecker is expected to take the stand as the prosecution's first witness.
Prosecutors have said Pecker, the longtime former publisher of the National Enquirer, is a central figure in the alleged scheme to bury claims from women who said they had affairs with Trump. The source said that due to opening statements and a hearing on Trump’s gag order set for Tuesday, they don’t expect the cross-examination of Pecker to happen until Thursday.
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