Legal expert maps out Bragg's opening statement in case against Trump

A legal expert mapped out a possible opening statement that prosecutors could present to a jury in the business fraud case against Donald Trump.

Dennis Aftergut, a former assistant U.S. attorney and former Supreme Court advocate, wrote a new column for The Bulwark evaluating the strength of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg's evidence against the former president with a hypothetical opening statement drawn from the indictment, the statement of facts and the prosecutor's press conference.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," he begins, "this is a case about hiding the truth from the people to get elected president. The coverup was worse than the crime. The coverup involved the defendant, Donald J. Trump, making false entries in business records to keep the truth secret after he’d suppressed it on the eve of the 2016 election. The victims were the American people and American history."

"The defendant set out to fool the voters, and he got himself elected," Aftergut adds. "But accounts become due. This is his moment of accountability to the law and to you."

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Aftergut imagines that prosecutors will present testimony and documents to prove Trump ran a three-part "catch and kill" scheme involving his former attorney Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker ahead of the 2016 election to keep voters from knowing about his alleged affairs with a porn actress and a Playboy model, as well as a doorman's claim about an alleged illegitimate child.

"The defense will tell you that Cohen and Pecker cannot be believed — that they are motivated to lie. But tape recordings have no motivation to lie," Aftergut predicts prosecutors might say. "You can believe both men because documents, texts, emails, notes, checks, and tapes corroborate the truth of what they are telling you."

Aftergut lists some of the evidence that prosecutors will tell jurors they've assembled, including notes from the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg that corroborates Cohen's testimony.

"While the defendant is a politician, this case is about law, not politics," Aftergut concludes. "All politics must be set aside. Only when our evidence proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt do we charge or convict individuals of crime. When we have that evidence, as we do here, it does not matter if you were president or if you are running for president. No one is above the law."