In what will be the first-ever criminal trial against a former United States president, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump will head to court for his criminal hush money trial on Monday.
Trump’s appearance for jury selection in Manhattan's Criminal Courts Building will mark the beginning of the first of four pending criminal cases against the former president as he continues to balance legal trouble with his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump and his legal team unsuccessfully attempted to delay proceedings multiple times in the days leading up to the trial — including three requests in three days last week.
Trump and his legal team have been able to delay proceedings — one of his main strategies since indictments began being levied against him — in Trump's three other criminal trials, two federal trials in Florida and Washington, D.C., and a state-level trial in Georgia. As a result, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg may be the only prosecutor who gets the chance to try Trump on any criminal charges before the results of the Nov. 5 election are announced.
Unlike other civil trials Trump has been facing, including a $355 million civil fraud verdict awarded against him in February, he will be required to be in the courtroom every day in which the trial takes place — every weekday besides Wednesday — a fact that has already led Judge Juan Merchan to place a gag order on him out of fear that he will launch public attacks on those involved in the trial. However, he can request to be excused, and is expected to hold press conferences as the trial progresses.
The case involves adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed that Trump had sexual encounters with her in 2006 and was eventually paid upwards of $100,000 to keep quiet in the months leading up to the 2016 election. While former Playboy model Karen McDougal made similar claims about her own alleged affair with Trump, Monday's proceedings will center around Daniels's case.
McDougal received $150,000 from American Media Inc. for the rights to her story in a process known as “catch and kill,” where AMI did not pursue the story upon acquisition. Additionally, Daniels received $130,000 from Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to convince her to sign a nondisclosure agreement to avoid the release of information which may have harmed Trump's chances of election.
Both AMI and Cohen have admitted that laws were broken in these transactions, and Cohen previously pled guilty to two campaign finance charges in 2018 that also implicated Trump in the process. Now, Trump will stand trial for the events that he and his team worked to cover up.
The question that this trial will be looking to answer is whether or not Trump is guilty of “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election,” according to a press release from April 2023 announcing his indictment.
While Trump has said publicly that he will take the stand in an effort to personally persuade jurors and “tell the truth,” he has previously shied away from testifying in other trials.
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