CNN
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Former President Donald Trump’s New York felony hush cash trial, set to start Monday, brings with it a protracted record of fees, witnesses, potential penalties, appeals and attorneys.

Right here’s all the pieces you could know.

The costs stem from reimbursements made to Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for hush cash funds he made earlier than the 2016 election to grownup movie star Stormy Daniels to cease her from talking publicly about her alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. The previous president has pleaded not responsible and denied the affair with Daniels.

Whereas it’s often known as the “hush cash” trial, Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg has stated this case is about election interference, alleging the $130,000 cost was a part of a wider scheme enacted by Trump and his allies from 2015 to 2017 to maintain damaging info from voters.

Prosecutors allege that after the “Entry Hollywood” tape – whereby Trump speaks graphically about his proclivity to grope ladies – grew to become public, the marketing campaign was scrambling to quash Daniels’ allegation out of concern of how it might play with feminine voters. Prosecutors should show that Trump is responsible of falsifying enterprise data with the intent to cover that $130,000 cost.

Trump is required to attend the trial except he receives a waiver from Choose Juan Merchan.

The Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace formally launched its investigation into the alleged hush cash schemes beneath the earlier DA, Cy Vance, in August 2018, the identical month Cohen pleaded responsible to federal fees associated to the Daniels funds. Below Vance, prosecutors shifted their investigation to concentrate on the Trump Group’s funds and away from the compensation scheme.

Bragg, who took workplace in January 2022, has accused Trump of leaning on his political energy to keep away from felony accountability for years and campaigned on a promise to prosecute the previous president. A grand jury was finally green-lit to listen to the hush cash case in December 2022, resulting in the historic indictment of the previous president simply over a 12 months in the past.

Cohen stated he paid Daniels at Trump’s request shortly earlier than the 2016 election to maintain her quiet. Cohen paid Daniels the $130,000 by means of a shell company he arrange and funded at a Manhattan financial institution. Cohen plead responsible in 2018 to violating federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines and implicated Trump instantly within the scheme.

The falsified enterprise data embody invoices created by Cohen, entries for the funds recorded on Trump books, and checks that have been principally signed by Trump to Cohen. Prosecutors allege they falsely say the funds have been for authorized bills pursuant to a retainer settlement, however prosecutors allege there by no means was a retainer settlement.

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data within the first diploma, all associated to the cover-up of hush cash funds to Daniels.

Every depend represents a separate occasion of the alleged misconduct, pointing to completely different enterprise data related to a sequence of repayments to Cohen (ledger entries, checks, stubs, invoices, and many others.) that have been allegedly falsified to hide his felony conduct.

The utmost penalty for every depend is 4 years in state jail, however the choose has discretion over how lengthy any sentence ought to be and whether or not to permit any sentences to be served consecutively. He might additionally sentence Trump to probation.

New York caps sentencing for this sort of felony at 20 years. A president has no authority to pardon state crimes.

Jury choice is anticipated to take one to 2 weeks, with your entire trial anticipated to final six to eight weeks.

Trump’s attorneys went to a New York appeals court docket 3 times this previous week to attempt to pause the trial whereas the court docket heard challenges on a number of points. The entire requests for stays have been swiftly rejected, although Trump’s attorneys will nonetheless be capable to proceed to litigate their appeals on a number of points – together with the gag order and recusing the choose – even when the trial is just not paused.

Earlier this month, Merchan expanded his gag order, banning Trump from attacking witnesses and jurors, to incorporate relations of the court docket and relations of the Manhattan district legal professional.

Merchan warned that Trump’s rhetoric threatens to instill worry in those that could be concerned within the proceedings for his or her family members. Trump continues to be allowed to touch upon Bragg and Merchan, who he has since accused of taking away his First Modification rights.

An enchantment on the gag order continues to be pending.

Courtroom officers anticipate that about 100 new potential jurors from Manhattan at a time might be introduced into Merchan’s downtown Manhattan courtroom to be vetted to finally sit on a 12-person jury with six alternates.

The potential jurors might be requested to fill out a questionnaire giving info on the place within the metropolis they stay, the place they get their information, their emotions in regards to the former president, whether or not they’ve ever attended a rally for the previous president or had any affiliations with teams just like the Proud Boys or with the QAnon motion.

Notably, they gained’t be requested what political social gathering they belong to or how they’ve voted up to now. Merchan stated he is not going to ask jurors their ideas on the 2020 election final result.

However the choose plans to ask whether or not anybody feels they might not be truthful or neutral or in any other case serve within the case after which excuse those that elevate their fingers with out inquiring additional.

In a letter Friday afternoon, Trump’s attorneys stated that strategy is “insufficient as a result of the plan wouldn’t create a enough file for the aim of any vital appellate evaluate, or a venue-change movement.” As a substitute, they requested the choose to tell apart between jurors who stated they’ll’t be truthful and people who are in any other case unable to serve.

The jury will stay nameless to the general public to keep away from “exposing them to an environment of intimidation” and Merchan warned Trump in a gag order that he can’t make public feedback or direct anybody else to make public feedback about jurors concerned within the proceedings.

Different witnesses will embody bankers and Trump Group officers who dealt with the funds, attorneys concerned within the transaction, in addition to different individuals who labored on Trump’s marketing campaign, the individuals stated.

Cohen, Daniels, Trump’s longtime buddy and former chief govt of American Media David Pecker, and Trump’s former marketing campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks are among the many high-profile witnesses who’re anticipated to be referred to as by prosecutors, in response to individuals aware of the case.

Manhattan prosecutors
– Alvin Bragg

– Matthew Colangelo

– Christopher Conroy

– Joshua Steinglass

– Susan Hoffinger

– Becky Mangold

Trump felony attorneys

– Todd Blanche

– Emil Bove

– Susan Necheles