Former President Donald Trump's hush money trial set to begin with opening arguments

The trial will start with the prosecution's opening arguments, setting out what Donald Trump is accused of doing, ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports

So the jury has been selected, the lawyers are prepared and the case is about to begin.

It will start with the prosecution's opening argument, setting out what Donald Trump is accused of doing.

In essence, he is charged with covering up the hush money payments of his former fixer Michael Cohen to a former adult film star Stormy Daniels to avoid a sex scandal before the 2016 election.

Lawyers for the state of New York will try to show by covering up these payments Donald Trump not only was involved in falsifying business records, but by doing so he was covering up another crime, namely campaign finance breaches by the man who made these payments, Michael Cohen.

This two-stage crime they will argue is a felony - more serious than a misdemeanor - and they will claim Donald Trump was well aware of the whole conspiracy knowing it would benefit his chances of being elected.

Essentially, they will say, this amounts to trying to put his thumbs on the scales of the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton (not to be confused with other cases in which he is accused of trying to rig the 2020 election against Joe Biden).

They will try to show that by covering up his alleged affair with Stormy Daniels (a liaison he always denied), he buried a damaging and lurid story that could have come to light just after the notorious tape of him from Access Hollywood, in which he was heard saying he could grab women “by the p***y”.

It might have had a significant impact on voters and might have changed the election result and recent history, prosecutors will try to show.

They will also try to demonstrate this wasn’t a one-off, but part of a pattern of behaviour to “catch and kill” damaging stories about Trump.

They are likely to call another alleged mistress of Trump’s, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy bunny whose story was bought by the tabloid the National Enquirer, and then never run, as part of an alleged deal with the Trump campaign.

Donald Trump’s lawyers will try to poke significant holes in this narrative, claiming perhaps that the hush money payments were designed to spare his wife Melania’s embarrassment, rather than benefit him politically.

She was pregnant with their son Barron at the time of the alleged affair with Daniels.

Witnesses are expected to include Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, the publisher of the National Enquirer David Pecker and Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks.

It promises to be a trial of lurid details, explosive testimony, and profound importance.

Donald Trump faces three other criminal trials and while this might be the less serious of the cases he’s fighting, it is the first to get underway and might end up being the only one to conclude before November’s election.

So buckle up and prepare for what promises to be a rollercoaster four weeks of evidence, with the man seeking to return to the White House sitting in court for every minute of it.

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