New York v. Trump

Presented by Shut Down SHEIN

With additional reporting from Ari Hawkins

UNSEALED AND DELIVERED — Five long days after the indictment of former President Donald Trump — and five long years after news of Trump’s hush money payment to Stormy Daniels broke — we finally got a look at the charges.

This afternoon, Trump appeared before New York judge Juan Merchan for his arraignment — a first step in the process of the first ever criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president, though a step that, as a legal matter, is largely a formality. At the hearing, Merchan unsealed the indictment against Trump, who pled not guilty to all counts.

The Charges

The indictment contains 34 charges against Trump for falsifying business records in the first degree. The relevant statute makes it a crime when someone makes or causes a false entry in the records of a business with the intent to defraud and the defendant also intends to commit, aid, or conceal another crime.

This is a so-called “Class E” felony, the lowest level under New York law. The charge entails a maximum term of imprisonment of four years upon conviction. There is no mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.

The Key Allegations

A Statement of Facts from the DA’s office alleges that Trump participated in falsifying business records of the Trump Organization in order to conceal a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election to dissuade her from going public with an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen allegedly made the payment to Daniels through a shell corporation and was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization over the course of 2017. Cohen himself pled guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance offenses concerning the underlying facts.

The DA’s Theory of the Case

The accompanying indictment lays out 34 separate alleged instances of false records within the Trump Organization from February through December 2017, including invoices from Cohen, entries in corporate general ledgers, checks and check stubs.

Prosecutors allege that the records were false because they indicated that Cohen was being reimbursed for legal expenses under a retainer — even though, in paying off Daniels, he had rendered no actual legal services. They further allege that the payment to Daniels “violated election laws” and that Trump and others mischaracterized “the true nature of the payments” for “tax purposes.”

Trump’s Possible Defenses

Trump’s lawyers in recent days have indicated they will try to get the charges dismissed before a trial. That is generally a difficult thing to accomplish for a criminal defendant, unless the legal issues are clear enough for a judge to dismiss the case, but the unusual nature of the charges could make this more fertile ground for pretrial litigation than the average criminal case.

Trump may claim, for instance, that he is the victim of selective prosecution. That argument is likely to fail unless Trump can somehow manage to identify similarly situated people who committed similar conduct and who have not been criminally charged by the DA’s office — a prospect that appears unlikely at the moment.

Trump might also claim that the charges against him are too old — that is, that they are barred by the relevant statute of limitations under New York law. In response, prosecutors are likely to rely on a provision of state law that pauses the limitations period when “the defendant was continuously outside this state,” which could include both Trump’s time in the White House and his move to Florida. They could also rely separately on an executive order from then-Governor Andrew Cuomo that paused the statutes of limitations in the state for most of 2020.

Trump also appears poised to challenge each one of the elements of the charges against him. In recent weeks, his lawyers have argued that there was no “false entry” in the company’s records because the reimbursements to Cohen were in fact legal fees because they were made in connection with a legal settlement.

They have argued that Trump had no “intent to defraud” because he relied on Cohen and other advisers to structure the transaction. And they have argued that there was no underlying crime being facilitated or concealed because there was nothing inherently illegal about the settlement with Daniels, including any violation of either state or federal election law.

It is far too soon to predict whether these arguments will be successful. Prosecutors are certain to mount aggressive responses to any pretrial motions filed by Trump. They’ll likely urge the judge, in the first instance, to let the jury and the court hear all of the evidence and reach a conclusion before making any determinations on the strength or sufficiency of the evidence.

If convicted, Trump could then litigate these issues on appeal with a full evidentiary record. But, of course, that would entail him enduring the indignity and spectacle of both a trial and a guilty verdict.

A historic prosecution — now the most closely watched criminal case in the country — is officially underway.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at [email protected]. Or contact tonight’s author at [email protected].

What'd I Miss?

— Jamie Dimon warns of new economic storms ahead: JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon thinks the U.S. economy is holding up pretty well, all things considered. But he sees trouble ahead. “Threatening clouds are still here,” the CEO of the nation’s largest bank wrote in his annual letter to shareholders this morning, adding that the market’s odds of the economy falling into recession have grown.

— Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to block aides from testifying in Jan. 6 probe: A federal appeals court in Washington rejected an emergency bid by Trump to block several top aides from testifying in the special counsel investigation of his effort to subvert the 2020 election. In a sealed order, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s urgent demand to block his aides from being required to appear before special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury. Trump’s emergency motion triggered a frenzied set of overnight filings ahead of the ruling today.

— Club for Growth moves to stop Jim Justice in West Virginia: The Club for Growth will back GOP Rep. Alex Mooney’s West Virginia Senate bid, setting up a potential clash with Gov. Jim Justice, who is expected to enter the race at the behest of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The conservative anti-tax group had vowed earlier to oppose Justice should he enter the Senate race. Their endorsement of Mooney came on the same day that Patrick Morrisey, the state’s attorney general, announced he would run for governor instead of making another run for Senate.

Nightly Road to 2024

ANXIETY INDUCED — As Trump was booked over a hush money payment he made to a porn star, a chunk of the Democratic Party is growing anxious. An uneasy déjà vu has set in, writes POLITICO’s Jonathan Lemire and Holly Otterbein.

“Last time people were rooting for Donald Trump, he ended up president of the United States,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif). “We’ve seen this story before.”

Back in 2016, Trump was supposed to have been the perfect opponent: too crude and way too outrageous to win a general election. It didn’t work out as planned. And the shock many in the party experienced because of it compelled them to pledge that they’d take a more sober-minded approach to the possibility of a Trump revival.

But with Trump once more eyeing the White House, the conventional wisdom is again forming that he would be the easiest Republican to defeat, owing to the myriad of legal problems he’s facing.

OPPO DUMP — Democrats released 500 pages of opposition research on Monday against Ron DeSantis, whose 2024 campaign announcement looks increasingly imminent. The extensively researched effort is the latest indication that Democrats view the Florida governor as a candidate worth taking down before he takes off nationally. American Bridge 21st Century compiled the trove released as a website, after gathering data last year to brand Desantis as a “MAGA extremist.”

WAITING GAME — Close avoiders and allies to President Joe Biden don’t expect him to officially announce his reelection run anytime soon, with some now saying it could come as late as July or this Fall. Biden’s waiting game comes after persons familiar initially expected the president to launch a campaign soon after Christmas.

AROUND THE WORLD

‘OLIVE BRANCH’ — Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga called on his supporters to suspend fierce anti-government protests on Sunday, paving the way for talks over long-sought reforms, Ari Hawkins reports for Nightly.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets over the past two weeks, railing against high living costs and alleged fraud in last year’s presidential election. Kenya’s security forces fired tear gas and water cannons against protestors in the capital of Nairobi, who were mostly armed with rocks.

“We stand down our demonstrations for Monday — that is tomorrow, April 3, 2023,” Odinga told reporters Sunday. “We agree that a balanced parliamentary process co-chaired by both sides and backed by experts from outside should proceed.”

Earlier on Sunday, President William Ruto asked Odinga to call the protests off, which he said led to the deaths of at least three protestors and injured more than 400 people, including 60 security officers.

“I urge my brother Raila Odinga and the opposition to call off the demonstrations and to give this bipartisan approach a chance for us to take the country forward,” said Ruto.

Ruto added that he is ready to engage with the opposition on how to restructure the nation’s economy, as well as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which tabulates Kenya’s elections and routinely experiences technical abnormalities.

Anti-government protests kicked off in March, after the ruling government failed to implement a series of reforms pushed by Odinga and his opposition party. Protestors rallied against the government’s removal of certain subsidies on products like fuel and flour, which contributed to a sharp rise in the cost of basic items across Kenya.

Tensions have been high in the country since August 2022, when Odinga disputed the results of the presidential election, arguing that the race between him and Ruto was plagued with malpractice. Kenya’s highest court ultimately upheld the results of the election and denied Odinga’s request to make certain voting data public.

Ever since, Odinga and his supporters have pushed for several reforms to the IEBC, including making server data publicly available, and new assurances that the president can’t pack the commission with loyalists.

Over the weekend, Odinga and his party praised the president’s “olive branch for dialogue on key issues.” Still, he added that if talks produce “no meaningful engagement or response,” protests will pick up again in one week.

“We stand down our demonstrations for Monday but in doing so we want to emphasize that we reserve the right to call for demonstrations should this process bear no fruit,” Odinga said.

Nightly Number

RADAR SWEEP

PRICED OUT — The price of EpiPens has increased exponentially in recent years, but policymakers might just have a solution. Mylan, the company that makes EpiPens, paid a $465 million settlement for knowingly misclassifying the drug and has temporarily introduced a cheaper version. Still, some patients continue to pay over $600 a year for the potentially life-saving medication. Widespread outrage has led to one major policy solution: lawmakers in Colorado have introduced legislation to cap the price of out-of-pocket costs on the acting drug in EpiPens, epinephrine. But why are EpiPens so expensive in the first place? And how would this cap work in practice? Dylan Scott reports for Vox.

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