Payments in focus as prosecutors make case in Trump trial

Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s criminal trial are expected to call more witnesses as they build out their argument that he was responsible for illegally covering up a hush money payment to an adult film actress in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Prosecutors have shown the former president’s signature was on payments at the heart of the case. Over the next two weeks they aim to demonstrate that Mr Trump, running again for US president, was responsible then for an illegal cover-up.

Yesterday, jurors saw the 34 business records that prosecutors say were falsified by Mr Trump to obscure his reimbursement of then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a 2006 sexual encounter she says she had with Mr Trump.

The first former US president to undergo a criminal trial, Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies that he ever had sex with Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

A former Trump employee testified he had been told by Mr Trump’s top financial officer that the reimbursements to Cohen were for expenses incurred during the campaign.

That could undercut an argument made by Mr Trump’s lawyers that the payments were for legal work.

However, neither that employee nor another who testified yesterday was able to say whether Mr Trump himself directed the paper trail to be falsified to hide the payments to Cohen – a hole that prosecutors will try to fill with additional testimony.

Jurors have yet to hear from Cohen or Ms Daniels.

They also have yet to hear from Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was paid $150,000 during the campaign by the National Enquirer for her story of an alleged affair with Mr Trump in 2006 and 2007.

The tabloid’s former publisher, David Pecker, has testified that the paper never ran Ms McDougal’s account, due to a “catch and kill” agreement with Mr Trump to bury stories that could have damaged his 2016 presidential bid.

Mr Pecker was targeted in a “swatting” incident, meant to trigger a potentially dangerous response by law enforcement, the same day he took the witness stand, according to police records seen by Reuters.

Mr Trump says the trial is a politically motivated attempt to undercut his campaign to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the coming 5 November election.

Justice Juan Merchan has fined Mr Trump a total of $10,000 and warned him he could be jailed for violating a gag order that bars him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and the family members of either the prosecutors or the judge himself if meant to interfere with the case.

The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Mr Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.

The other cases charge Mr Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.