Witnesses in Donald Trump’s historical hush money case in New York are expected to be colourful characters. Trump’s former attorney former National Enquirer publisher, porn star Stormy, Daniels, a Playboy model, Michael Cohen, and Trump’s communications director are among the prosecution witnesses anticipated to appear.
On Monday morning, the prosecution is anticipated to call David Pecker, the executive editor of the tabloid daily the National Enquirer, as its first witness.
Here are a few of the important witnesses scheduled to testify:
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David Becker
Up until August 2020, Pecker served as American Media’s CEO and the National Enquirer’s publisher.
According to the prosecution, in August 2015, Donald and Cohen met at Trump Tower with Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump, to discuss how to use the National Enquirer hindering damaging stories regarding Trump by purchasing the sole rights to them as well as never publishing them.
The Daniels payment, according to the prosecution, was a part of a larger “catch and kill” plot to suppress unfavourable reports about Donald.
Prosecutors claim that after Pecker & American Media received subpoenas by federal agents in April 2018, they gave them information regarding Cohen’s payment to Daniels. Afterwards, Pecker received immunity in return for testifying that Donald was aware of the payment.
Stormy Daniels
The adult film actress Daniels, whose true identity is Stephanie Clifford, asserts that she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 and that Trump’s former attorney Cohen paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about it before the 2016 election.
Cohen claims that Donald approved the payment, while the prosecution claims that Trump misclassified Cohen’s reimbursements as legal costs. Trump has entered a not guilty plea to 34 counts of falsifying company documents, which is a felony.
In addition to denying the meeting with Daniels, Donald said the money was for personal use and had nothing to do with the campaign.
Michael Cohen
Before their tense split about six years ago due to Cohen’s own legal issues, Cohen worked as Donald personal attorney & fixer for over a decade.
Prosecutors claim that Cohen, a high-ranking official at Donald’s property firm prior to joining his legal team, funded Daniels with his personal cash via a front business and negotiated for her to execute a nondisclosure agreement.
August 2018: Cohen entered a guilty plea for paying Daniels in violation of campaign finance laws. For it and other offences, he received a sentence of three years in jail, which he served for a little over a year prior being freed.
In the separate case, Cohen appeared against Donald during his civil fraud case in New York a year ago, claiming that Donald gave him instructions to boost his property values falsely.
Donald refutes those accusations.
Karen McDougal.
The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper, published a story in November 2016 regarding McDougal, a former Playboy model, claiming that she was paid $150,000 by Pecker’s American Media in 2016 for writing about a 10-month alleged affair she had with Donald in the mid-2000s.
Trump disputes that he slept with McDougal.
Although prosecutors claim her evidence will provide jurors with information regarding the infamous “catch and kill” technique of purchasing exclusive access to publications in order to bury them, Donald has not been charged in relation to the alleged McDougal payment.
Hope Hicks
Before joining Donald’s White House staff as director of communications, Hicks was the presidential campaign’s press secretary.
According to an unredacted warrant for search made public in July 2019, Hicks took part in calls between Donald as well as Cohen in which they allegedly planned the payments of hush money, as ABC News revealed in July 2018.
Donald Trump
Donald has stated that he intends to testify, which might be dangerous since it could expose him to prosecutors’ probing cross-examination. Defendants are exempt from taking the stand because they are assumed innocent.
To get a conviction, however, prosecutors must show that Donald meant to break the law, and he may refute that claim with his testimony.
In the lead-up to the US presidential election in November, Donald, a Republican, may utilise the act of taking the stand as a way to energise his followers, as he regularly uses court appearances to do.
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