Opening statements are underway by Matthew Colangelo, the former high-ranking Justice Department official who was hired by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in 2022 to lead the Trump investigation.
This morning, Colangelo stated that the prosecution’s opening statement will last about 40 minutes, while Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche said his will be about 25 minutes.
“This case is about a criminal conspiracy,” the prosecution said, according to MSNBC’s Katie Phang. “Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his NY business records over and over and over again.”
What’s more, Phang continued, prosecutors noted that Trump said in the business records that he was paying Michael Cohen for legal services.
Colangelo claims those were lies because there was no legal retainer, arguing that Trump falsified business records to hide his criminal conduct.
