Trump has so many cases against him, civil and criminal, it has been hard to keep up. This is quite a reality we are living in, considering he is going to be the Republican nominee for president of the freaking United States.
Trump hasn’t even wrapped up one civil fraud trial in New York (he’s still figuring out how to come up with the already reduced $175 million payment he owes) and he’s already heading back to court—soon!
Who can forget the story heard ‘round the country about adult film legend Stormy Daniels and her encounter with Trump? At first, some thought it was just salacious tabloid fodder, but we would learn that illegal activity had taken place—with potentially massive implications.
In the last leg of the 2016 Presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump and his cronies paid Daniels to essentially keep her story away of their alleged affair from the media. She agreed to sell her rights in exchange for the payment.
So what’s the crime? Well, Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen falsified business records for the $130,000 reimbursement of Daniels’ payment. Cohen has already served his time in prison for his actions, which he says were done at the behest of his boss Trump.
Now, Trump is facing the first of four criminal cases, in the middle of a presidential election year. Sucks for him! A hearing took place on Monday to try and settle a dispute regarding a ton of documents given to the Manhattan DA’s office. Trump’s lawyers had already contested these documents for the late discovery. They said that the trial should be delayed or charges should simply be dismissed. Well, that isn’t happening.
Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s team’s request to delay, and said that jury selection in the hush money trial will begin April 15! That is less than a month away! Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair with Stormy Daniels and has grouped this allegation into all of his other alleged crimes, citing a “witch hunt.”
This is untrue, obviously, but it remains to be seen how much this will impact his political hopes this election year. That this is his first criminal trial is momentous but at the same time, his base loves viewing him as a martyr and he really knows how to fan those flames, both in terms of public support and campaign fundraising.
There are a lot of people who see the involvement of an adult film actress and automatically (not to mention discriminatorily) underestimate the gravity of the case. Trump is being accused of wanting to sway the election and people’s perceptions so badly that he was willing to commit a crime. That should be the big takeaway here!
(featured image: Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images)
