For four years, former President Donald Trump has been alleging election fraud and interference. But in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday, the former president himself was accused of that crime.
“This was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he leaves court with his attorney Todd Blanche during his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024 in New York City. Victor J. Blue-Pool/Getty Images
The case centers on “hush money” payments Trump made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors say the arrangement amounted to criminal conspiracy. Trump, they allege, illegally conspired with his former “fixer” Michael Cohen to protect his image from Clifford’s allegations of an affair and help him win the election.
Prosecutors also hold that Trump committed fraud by “lying” about the nature of the payments in his business records.
Trump’s attorneys countered those claims by calling Cohen’s credibility as a witness into question.
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“You’ll hear that he was loyal; he was very loyal to President Trump and the companies for years. But Mr. Cohen was also a criminal,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said, noting that Cohen was convicted for tax evasion and lying to banks.
“In 2018, he got caught. The decision he made was to blame President Trump for virtually all his problems.”
And “election interference,” Blanche argued, is not a crime.
“Spoiler alert: there’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy,” he said. “The reality is that there is nothing illegal about what happened.”
The attorney urged the jury to use “common sense” and deliver a “very swift non-guilty verdict.”
—Catherine Yang, Michael Washburn, and Samantha Flom
The Senate side of the U.S. Capitol, on April 8, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
SENATE TAKES UP FOREIGN AID PACKAGE
The Senate will today take up legislation providing financial assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific.
The bills also include a measure to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company to address national security concerns.
The chamber will hold hold two procedural votes this afternoon. It is unclear when the final vote will be because one senator has the ability to delay the process, but the package is expected to pass by about midweek.
The package includes $61 billion for Ukraine, $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific, and $26.4 billion for Israel and Gaza. It also includes a measure forcing Chinese divestment of TikTok and allowing the government to give seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
The bills passed the House on April 20 with bipartisan support, but not without sparking a potential mutiny.
“Speaker [Mike] Johnson refuses to use his power as speaker of the House to do any type of negotiating to secure the southern border and stop the madness in our country,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“Mike Johnson’s speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing—to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so he will be vacated,” she added.
The congresswoman filed a motion to oust Johnson (R-La.) last month. While a vote hasn’t been triggered yet, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) have both signaled their support for the move.
But if the speaker does find himself in trouble, he may receive help from across the aisle.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) suggested earlier this month that Democrats might be willing to step in and save Johnson should the need arise. He added, however, that his conference had yet to discuss that possibility.
Johnson, meanwhile, told reporters on April 20 that he isn’t worried about threats of removal.
“I’ve done here what I believe to be the right thing, and that is to allow the House to work its will,” he said. “And as I’ve said, you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may.”
—Samantha Flom
Presidental candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a rally at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 13, 2024. Kathryn Gamble for The Epoch Times
RFK JR. HAS MIXED IMPACT ON MICHIGAN RACE
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on the presidential ballot in Michigan, a key battleground state in the 2024 election, threatening to upend what was essentially a two-person contest between Joe Biden and former Donald Trump.
Pollsters and pundits are divided on how Kennedy’s run might help or hinder either major candidate.
Kennedy had led Biden and Trump in polls of voters under 35 and Independents.
That’s telling according to Jim Lee of Susquehanna Polling, who believes Kennedy will perform well with independent voters in the fall.
“He would be looking for … someone that is looking for a third-party solution,” Lee told The Epoch Times.
Biden relied heavily on independents to win Michigan in 2020.
A pair of polls last month showed that when Kennedy’s name is in the mix, he pulls voters away from both Biden and Trump—but more from Biden.
But that’s been shifting over the past several months.
“As [Kennedy] has become more defined, Democrats have moved away from him,” GOP pollster Neil Newhouse told The Epoch Times.
“Right now he takes a little bit more votes from Trump than he does from Biden simply because his base is lower-educated, younger, and more Hispanic,” Newhouse said.
Presidents Biden and Trump both have unfavorable ratings of above 50 percent, so Kennedy voters may be more motivated to vote against one of them than for Kennedy himself.
Trump may gain the most from that phenomenon.
“Trump voters are more solidified, and that means it’s likely that RFK will peel votes away from Biden more so than Trump,” Lee said.
“There will be people who would vote against Trump who are now choosing RFK instead of Biden,” Higgins said. That amounts to a loss of votes for President Biden.
For his part, Mr. Kennedy insists he’s in the race to win rather than play the spoiler for one of the major candidates.
“I only need as little as 34 percent of the votes to win. To achieve that, I currently need 4.5 percent of people planning to vote for Biden or Trump to vote for me,” he wrote on social media.
—Lawrence Wilson
BOOKMARKS
The $175 million bond Trump posted to appeal against his civil fraud case will stand, The Epoch Times’ Sam Dorman, Catherine Yang, and Juliette Fairley report. His agreement reached with New York Attorney General Letitia James imposes new conditions on the bond.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has pledged to support House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) if Republicans move forward with a motion to vacate him from the chair, The Epoch Times’ Chase Smith reports. The congressman’s declaration comes amid Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) calls for the speaker’s resignation.
President Joe Biden issued a statement affirming his “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security and right to exist, The Epoch Times’ Aldgra Fredly reports. The show of support came on the eve of Passover.
The Biden administration will award $7 million in grants for residential solar projects in low-income communities, The Epoch Times’ Emel Akan reports. The president unveiled the new plan during an Earth Day address.
The Supreme Court appeared receptive on Monday to an Oregon city’s argument that it is not unconstitutional to prosecute homeless people for sleeping outside, The Epoch Times’ Matthew Vadum reports. The hearing comes amid increasing levels of homelessness around the country.
