Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 34 Felony Counts
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree — part of a complex scheme intended to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
Trump surrendered to authorities for arrest in New York early Tuesday afternoon, and he pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court. He is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. The not-guilty plea comes after a grand jury voted on Thursday to indict Trump, an unprecedented decision that promises to shake up the 2024 presidential race.
The indictment itself is bare-bones. It lays out a series of dozens of allegedly “false” financial transactions made by Trump “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.”
The Statement of Facts in the case, embedded below, is far more revealing.
It alleges that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently” falsified business records “to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.” A key “component of this scheme,” it alleges, was Trump’s direction that “an adult film actress” be “covertly paid $130,000… shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant.”
The document offers new allegations about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, including that Trump — after approving the deal — sought to “delay making a payment” in the hopes of dragging the process past Election Day. Trump allegedly hoped he “could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public.”
The Trump charges have emerged after years of legal wrangling over the $130,000 payment, made in October 2016, to keep Daniels quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. The payment was made to aid Trump’s presidential bid, but it was not disclosed as a campaign contribution. Trump is accused, but not charged with, having “violated election laws.”
Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels out of his own pocket, funneling the money through a shell corporation. The Statement of Facts alleges: “Before making the payment, Lawyer A” — i.e. Cohen — “confirmed with the Defendant that Defendant would pay him back.”
The Trump Organization then put Cohen on a $35,000 monthly retainer throughout 2017, ostensibly for his work as an attorney. But the Statement of Facts insists Cohen “was not being paid for legal services” and that Trump “caused his entities’ business records to be falsified to disguise his and others’ criminal conduct.”
The Statement of Facts also underscores troubling behind-the-scenes meetings to further this illegal scheme — including at the White House. It describes how Trump and Cohen “met in the Oval Office” in February 2017 “and confirmed this repayment arrangement.”
Trump has denied the affair and insisted that he never instructed Cohen to do anything illegal, suggesting he was following the advice of his counsel. But Cohen has testified that the initial payment and the covert reimbursement scheme were both executed at Trump’s direction.
The Statement of Facts additionally describes overtures made to Cohen by other lawyers in Trump’s camp as the scheme initially came to light, putting Cohen in legal jeopardy. The document alleges that Cohen was approached by an attorney who “offered to represent him in the interest of maintaining a ‘back channel of communication’ to the Defendant,” Trump. This attorney allegedly communicated to Cohen: “You are ‘loved,’” and, “you have friends in high places.”
Rolling Stone reported in February that Trump’s advisers have told him to insist the payment was made to keep the alleged affair from his wife Melania, not to help his presidential campaign. Rolling Stone reported last month that Trump’s attorneys have been preparing him to lose the case.
Trump has been railing against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg since the news of his impending arrest broke last month, and especially since the grand jury voted to indict him last week. The former president has attacked the legitimacy of the case, calling it “Election Interference” and suggesting violence may be the only way to defend him against the prosecution.
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” Trump wrote last week.
Trump responded to a report about the number of charged against him on Monday night by writing that Bragg should “INDICT HIMSELF.”