Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court for opening statements in his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024 in New York City.

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court for opening statements in his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024 in New York City.

Pool/Getty Images

For this episode of Trump’s Trials, we hand the mic over to Consider This.

Host Juana Summers speaks with defense lawyer Daniel Horwitz.

As the first criminal trial for a former U.S. president got under way in New York, Donald Trump looked on as prosecution and defense teams presented their opening statements to the jury.

The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony in New York if done to cover up another crime.

The prosecution argued hush money payments made by former Trump fixer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels were to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump. And were made at the former president’s direction with the intention of influencing the 2016 election.

The defense countered it was not illegal to affect the outcome of an election and that Cohen had handled the specifics of the hush money payments.

Topics include:
– Why the prosecution is arguing election fraud
– The role Michael Cohen’s credibility as a witness will play
– What to look out for as the trial continues

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Email the show at trumpstrials@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Jonaki Mehta and Connor Donevan and was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producers are Beth Donovan and Sami Yenigun. Eric Marrapodi is NPR’s Vice President of News Programming.