Donald Trump’s hush money trial will begin in mid-April, about seven months before the presidential election, and is expected to last for about six weeks.
The trial was originally scheduled to start next week but was postponed over concerns about timely evidence review.
It would be recalled that Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from the $130,000 in hush money Cohen provided to Daniels.
Trump allegedly reimbursed Cohen through monthly installments falsely disguised as legal payments that totaled $420,000, part of what Manhattan prosecutors allege was a scheme to cover up the payments because they qualified as illegal campaign expenditures.
The former president has pleaded not guilty. The maximum penalties for Trump’s charges include 136 years in prison and $170,000 in fines, though it’s unlikely the former president will be sentenced to prison as a first-time offender, according to experts.
Cohen, for his part, pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations for the Daniels payouts in 2018, and was sentenced to three years in prison for a litany of criminal offenses.
Since then, he has positioned himself as a staunch Trump opponent, a stark turnaround for an attorney and fixer who once claimed he was willing to “take a bullet” for Trump.
Trump is also involved in three other criminal trials including a case regarding his handling of classified documents, where he was hit with dozens of felony counts and saw his trial date pushed beyond May 20.
Discover more from NATIONAL BEAM
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
