Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts of fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records linked to 2016 hush mon­ey payments

The judge did not impose a gag order

For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump plead­ed not guilty in New York City court Tues­day after being charged with 34 felony counts of fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records in the first degree. 

The charges, which are relat­ed to hush mon­ey pay­ments made dur­ing the 2016 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, came out of Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney Alvin Brag­g’s years-long investigation. 

Bragg alleged that Trump “repeat­ed­ly and fraud­u­lent­ly fal­si­fied New York busi­ness records to con­ceal crim­i­nal con­duct that hid dam­ag­ing infor­ma­tion from the vot­ing pub­lic dur­ing the 2016 pres­i­den­tial election.”

In 2019, fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors in the South­ern Dis­trict of New York opt­ed out of charg­ing Trump relat­ed to the pay­ments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and for­mer Play­boy mod­el Karen McDou­gal. The Fed­er­al Elec­tion Com­mis­sion also tossed its inves­ti­ga­tion into the mat­ter in 2021.

For­mer U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Man­hat­tan court dur­ing his arraign­ment on April 4, 2023, in New York City. (Pho­to by Seth Wenig-Pool/Get­ty Images)

Trump sur­ren­dered to the Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attorney’s Office and was arraigned in court Tues­day after­noon after being indict­ed by a Man­hat­tan grand jury last week.

The indict­ment was unsealed in court dur­ing Trump’s arraign­ment Tues­day before Judge Juan Mer­chan, the tri­al judge pre­sid­ing over the case. Trump was charged in a New York Supreme Court indict­ment with 34 counts of Fal­si­fy­ing Busi­ness Records in the First Degree.

Bragg is alleg­ing that Trump fal­si­fied New York busi­ness records in order to “con­ceal dam­ag­ing infor­ma­tion and unlaw­ful activ­i­ty from Amer­i­can vot­ers before and after the 2016 election.” 

“Dur­ing the elec­tion, TRUMP and oth­ers employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to iden­ti­fy, pur­chase, and bury neg­a­tive infor­ma­tion about him and boost his elec­toral prospects,” Bragg alleged. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this con­duct, caus­ing dozens of false entries in busi­ness records to con­ceal crim­i­nal activ­i­ty, includ­ing attempts to vio­late state and fed­er­al elec­tion laws.” 

For­mer US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump makes his way inside the Man­hat­tan Crim­i­nal Cour­t­house in New York on April 4, 2023.  (Pho­to by ED JONES/AFP via Get­ty Images)

Accord­ing to New York state law, a charge of fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records in the first degree alleges that the defen­dant com­mit­ted a crime of fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to com­mit anoth­er crime. 

The judge said he would like to move ahead as expe­di­tious­ly as pos­si­ble with the case. The next hear­ing in the case is Dec. 4, 2023 in the same Low­er Man­hat­tan court.

The pros­e­cu­tion wants a tri­al in Jan­u­ary 2024 — the height of the GOP pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry sea­son. Trump’s defense wants to delay that as long as possible.

Bragg alleged for­mer Trump attor­ney Michael Cohen orches­trat­ed the hush mon­ey pay­ments on behalf of Trump.  (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Accord­ing to the indict­ment, Bragg alleged that Trump, from August 2015 to Decem­ber 2017, “orches­trat­ed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of pay­ments that he then con­cealed through months of false busi­ness entries.”

Bragg alleges that Amer­i­can Media Inc., the par­ent com­pa­ny of the Nation­al Enquir­er, paid $30,000 to a for­mer Trump Tow­er door­man, who claimed to have a sto­ry about a child Trump had out of wedlock.

Stormy Daniels react­ed to for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s arraign­ment with an X‑rated tweet. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images/Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Get­ty Images)

Bragg also alleges Amer­i­can Media Inc. paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged a sex­u­al rela­tion­ship with Trump. It appears Bragg is refer­ring to for­mer Play­boy mod­el Karen McDougal.

Trump “explic­it­ly direct­ed a lawyer,” an appar­ent ref­er­ence to Michael Cohen, to “reim­burse” Amer­i­can Media Inc. in cash, Bragg charges

He alleged that Cohen, “12 days before the pres­i­den­tial gen­er­al elec­tion,” wired $130,000 to an attor­ney for an adult film actress — an appar­ent ref­er­ence to Stormy Daniels.

Cohen plead­ed guilty and was sen­tenced to three years in prison for vio­lat­ing cam­paign finance laws relat­ed to the pay­ments, among oth­er fed­er­al charges. Cohen plead­ed guilty to arrang­ing the pay­ments but main­tains that Trump direct­ed them.

For­mer US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump arrives at Man­hat­tan Crim­i­nal Court in New York City Tues­day, April 4, 2023. Manda­to­ry Cred­it:  (Thomas P. Costel­lo — USA Today Network)

Bragg alleged that after the elec­tion, Trump reim­bursed Cohen through a series of month­ly checks— “first from the Don­ald J. Trump Revo­ca­ble Trust – cre­at­ed in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets dur­ing TRUMP’s pres­i­den­cy – and lat­er from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a pho­ny purpose.”

“Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charges. “Each check was processed by the Trump Orga­ni­za­tion and ille­gal­ly dis­guised as a pay­ment for legal ser­vices ren­dered pur­suant to a non-exis­tent retain­er agreement.

“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York busi­ness records to con­ceal the ini­tial covert $130,000 pay­ment … Fur­ther, par­tic­i­pants in the scheme took steps that mis­char­ac­ter­ized, for tax pur­pos­es, the true nature of the reimbursements.”

The for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States, and the lead­ing Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date for 2024, was indict­ed by a Man­hat­tan grand jury Thurs­day after a years-long inves­ti­ga­tion by the Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney’s Office, which began in 2019. 

Trump was not hand­cuffed, as some are dur­ing an arraign­ment, after mak­ing arrange­ments with the Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney’s Office. Detec­tives with­in the office han­dled the arrest of the for­mer president.

The pay­ments to Daniels and McDou­gal had been inves­ti­gat­ed by the U.S. Attor­ney’s Office in the South­ern Dis­trict of New York and by the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Commission.

Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney Alvin Bragg speaks on Don­ald Trump arraign­ment April 4, 2023. (Fox News)

The charges against the for­mer pres­i­dent come after fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors in the South­ern Dis­trict of New York opt­ed out of charg­ing Trump relat­ed to the Daniels pay­ment in 2019.

Also, the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Com­mis­sion, in 2021, dropped its case on the same issue— exam­in­ing whether Trump vio­lat­ed elec­tion law with the $130,000 pay­ment made to Stormy Daniels, after it “failed by a vote of 2 – 2 to…find rea­son to believe that Don­ald J. Trump know­ing­ly and will­ful­ly vio­lat­ed” fed­er­al elec­tion law.” 

“The Peo­ple of the State of New York allege that Don­ald J. Trump repeat­ed­ly and fraud­u­lent­ly fal­si­fied New York busi­ness records to con­ceal crimes that hid dam­ag­ing infor­ma­tion from the vot­ing pub­lic dur­ing the 2016 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion,” Bragg said in a state­ment after the arraignment. 

“As the State­ment of Facts describes, the trail of mon­ey and lies expos­es a pat­tern that, the Peo­ple allege, vio­lates one of New York’s basic and fun­da­men­tal busi­ness laws,” Bragg said. “As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that every­one stands equal before the law.” 

Trump has slammed the DA’s inves­ti­ga­tion and the indict­ment as “Polit­i­cal Per­se­cu­tion and Elec­tion Inter­fer­ence at the high­est lev­el in history.”

Fox News’ Bill Mears con­tributed to this report. 

Source: foxnews​.com