Trump Shares Message Online Hours Before NY Hush Money Trial

Former President Donald Trump has issued a giant warning simply hours earlier than his trial begins in New York.

Jury choice for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case, which includes allegations of a “hush money” scheme and cover-up, will start on Monday, the primary day of Trump’s prison trial in Manhattan.

Trump used his Truth Social platform to set the stage for Monday’s occasions and paint an image of how issues look right this moment in comparison with simply 4 years in the past.

“Just four years ago I was a very popular and successful President of the United States, getting more votes than any sitting President in history,” he wrote. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be in Criminal Court, before a totally conflicted Judge, a Corrupt Prosecutor, a Legal System in CHAOS, a State being overrun by violent crime and corruption, and Crooked Joe Biden’s henchmen ‘Rigging the System’ against his Political Opponent, ME!”

“I will be fighting for myself but, much more importantly, I will be fighting for our Country,” he wrote. “Election Interference like this has never happened in the USA before and, hopefully, will never happen again. We are now a Nation in serious Decline, a Failing Nation, but we will soon be a Great Nation Again. November 5th will be the most important day in the History of the United States.”

He concluded with barely extra enthusiasm, going again to all caps to put in writing, “MAGA2024! SEE YOU TOMORROW.”

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Monday will mark the beginning of the jury choice course of for Trump’s trial, which is said to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into purported hush-money funds made to Trump earlier than the 2016 presidential election.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024 is on trial for the primary time in his election 12 months in New York City. For each cost, Trump has entered a not-guilty plea.

Juan Merchan, a Manhattan decide, is overseeing the proceedings. Because of Merchan’s Democratic affiliation and the decide’s supposed “hostility” towards the presumed Republican nominee for president in 2024, Trump’s authorized staff had filed a movement to have Merchan faraway from the trial.

In April of final 12 months, Bragg filed 34 first-degree prices towards Trump for falsifying enterprise data. The prices additionally associated to purported hush-money funds made throughout the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.

DA Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

“During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged within the indictment final 12 months. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

Fox News reported:

According to New York state legislation, a cost of falsifying enterprise data within the first diploma alleges that the defendant dedicated against the law of falsifying enterprise data with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud can be an intent to commit one other crime.

In 2019, federal prosecutors within the Southern District of New York investigated the matter and opted to not cost Trump associated to the alleged funds made to grownup movie actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal.

The Federal Election Commission additionally tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

According to Bragg, Trump “orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries” between August 2015 and December 2017.

Bragg additionally claimed {that a} former doorman at Trump Tower acquired $30,000 from American Media Inc., the dad or mum firm of the National Enquirer, for a narrative he claimed to have a couple of little one Trump had not married into.

Additionally, the DA claimed that American Media Inc. gave a girl who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Trump $150,000. Bragg was reportedly speaking about McDougal.

Additionally, Bragg claimed that Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer,” presumably referring to Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, to “reimburse” American Media Inc. with money. He claimed that Cohen wired $130,000 to an lawyer for an grownup movie actress “12 days before the presidential general election,” ostensibly referring to Daniels.

For breaking marketing campaign finance legal guidelines related to the funds, amongst different federal prices, Cohen entered a responsible plea in 2019 and acquired a three-year jail sentence. Cohen admitted to organizing the funds, however he insists that Trump gave the orders.

Bragg alleged that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen via a collection of month-to-month checks “first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose.”

“Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charged. “Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.”

“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. … Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.”

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