Trump’s election interference trial: the oldest felony charge reaches a jury first
In addition to being tax day, April 15, 2024 marked the first time a U.S. president stood trial, as a civilian, for crimes against a state and the nation.
In March 2023, former president of the United States Donald J. Trump (R) became the first U.S. president to be charged with a crime [1], which happened to be under New York state law. He joined the ranks of a lot of other democratic world leaders charged with crimes, such as:
- Former French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy plus former French prime ministers Alain Juppé and François Fillon;
- Former Icelandic prime minister Geir Haarde;
- Former Israeli president Moshe Katsa and prime minister Ehud Olmert as well as current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu;
- Four-time Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi;
- Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak;
- Former South African president Jacob Zuma; and
- Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
The U.S., on the other hand, has treated former presidents with kid gloves. For example, in 1974 U.S. President Gerald Ford (R) pardoned former president Richard Nixon (R) over his role in the Watergate scandal. Nixon resigned rather than be impeached.
Despite clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the Watergate scandal, Ford feared the country “would needlessly be diverted from meeting (our) challenges if we as a people were to remain sharply divided over” punishing the ex-president.
In 2023, Axios noted that leaders in at least 78 countries had been jailed or prosecuted since 2000.
Clearly, holding leaders accountable for crimes has not brought the government down around the ears of its citizens.
Election interference or “hush money”?
News media trivialize the seriousness of these charges by continuing to reference this as a ‘hush money’ case. Paying Daniels not to spill the beans (‘hush money’) is not necessarily a crime; circumstances matter. What are they?
On 07 October 2016, the Washington Post published an explosive story: presidential candidate Donald J. Trump “bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone.”
By 26 October 2016, 19 days later and 11 days before Election Day, “Michael Cohen initiated a $130,000 payment [on behalf of Trump] to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.”
Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet about the alleged affair. News media created a shorthand for the narrative: hush money.
What we did not know: Trump had created false business records to cover his reimbursing Cohen.
Cohen pleads guilty to criminal charges in Manhattan federal court, including campaign finance violations over the hush-money payments. Cohen admitted to making the payments at Trump’s direction “for the principal purpose of influencing” the election. He was sentenced to three years in prison for the election law violation, along with other tax and bank fraud charges (emphasis added).
Because keeping Daniels quiet was important for the campaign, this expense was a “campaign donation” that should have been declared. It was not.
Cooking the books is a crime.
Election interference (failing to note campaign contributions, for example) is a crime, at both state and federal levels.
A timeline of Trump’s legal calendar
Jury selection began on Monday. Their task: decide if Trump made payments to Daniels under the table to cover up criminal activity (the failure to report the campaign contribution).
- First quarter, 2023: Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury that brought this week’s felony indictment. It is likely to be the only criminal case that makes it to trial before November.
- In June 2023, U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith “charged Trump with 37 felonies in connection with his removal of documents from the White House when he left office.”
- In August 2023, Fulton County district attorney Fani Lewis charged Trump with racketeering, conspiracy and other crimes in relation to efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.
- In August 2023, a Washington, D.C. grand jury indicted Trump on four felony counts related to overturning the election: “conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.” This case is also being overseen by Smith.
Hopefully as the trial progresses, news media will cease trivializing the case with headlines like these: “A Weary Trump Appears to Doze Off in Courtroom Ahead of Criminal Trial” (NYT), “Potential jurors stunned as they file into New York courtroom and see Trump on trial” (Washington Times), “Truck With Hogtied Joe Biden Graphic Appeared at Trump’s Trial Amid Jury Selection” (Meidas Touch) and “Trump’s Hardest Fight May Be Staying Awake in Court” (The Daily Beast).
Not holding my breath.
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[1] Criminal, not civil, action
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