Donald Trump is the first former president to face trial on criminal charges. In the first of potentially four trials, Trump entered a plea of not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. These charges stem from a $130,000 payment made to the adult actress and stripper Stormy Daniels, which aimed to keep her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump quiet.
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid expresses pessimism about the trial’s outcome, citing various reasons why the former president might have a strong chance of being acquitted.
First, hush money payments aren’t actually illegal, they’re just gross. What would be illegal would be the fact that the payments were marked as “legal expenses” on Trump’s records. Trump’s attorneys will almost certainly argue that the former president had no knowledge or understanding of the bookkeeping process or how these payments were recorded.
And even if the prosecution can prove that he did, falsification of business records is a misdemeanor, not a felony. It’s not the kind of thing that results in jail time. It’s not the kind of thing that I can imagine his rabid supporters abandoning him because of. If the prosecution can prove that these hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations, the charges could rise to the level of a felony, but a conviction for a first time offender — not that he is one but whatever — a conviction is still very unlikely to result in anything more than a fine or probation.
Another problem is the credibility of the man who appears likely to be the primary witness in this case, Trump’s former attorney and friend Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen has lied in court, a lot, by his own admission. He also hates Donald Trump, a lot, by his own admission. And these factors combined may make the jury view him as an unreliable witness.
This case was never going to be the strongest one against Trump — the classified documents case, the January 6 case, and the Fulton County, Georgia, case all allege more serious crimes, with vaster consequences should he be convicted. But those cases, more than ever, are looking unlikely to see verdicts before the presidential election, which, of course, is what Trump is hoping for.
So I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. I just wonder whether this case will have much of an impact on…well…anything at all.