We’re a week into testimony now for Donald Trump’s hush-money trial – one of four criminal trials he’s currently facing.
So let’s take a moment to zoom out, and look at what this case is all about.
The former president has been charged with business fraud over hush-money payments to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claims she and Trump had sex, and that she accepted $130,000 (£104,500) from his then-lawyer. Michael Cohen, before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about the encounter.
Prosecutors allege that Trump had Cohen make the payments, and then they claim Trump fraudulently recorded the transaction in his company’s books as legal expenses when in fact he was paying Cohen back for the hush-money payments.
Paying hush-money is not illegal, but the prosecution says how the payment was recorded amounts to election fraud. In short – they say he wrongly classified the payments as legal fees, to conceal what they really were for, thus concealing the pay-off, and therefore interfering with an election.
Since the allegations surfaced in 2018, Trump has denied any sexual involvement with Stormy Daniels.
He is facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
