Hush money isn't illegal, it's 'democracy,' Trump lawyer says in defiant trial opening statements

Opening statements in Donald Trump's hush-money trial began Monday. A prosecutor said the case is about a "criminal conspiracy and a coverup."

• Opening statements began in Donald Trump's hush-money trial on Monday. 
• Trump faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in the historic case.
• "This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a coverup," ADA Matthew Colangelo said.

Opening arguments in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial got underway on Monday with a prosecutor describing the case as being about a "criminal conspiracy," while a defense attorney for the former president likened hush-money payments to "democracy."

"This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a coverup," Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo told the 12-person Manhattan jury in the hush-money trial.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege Trump illegally falsified business records by covering up a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The payment, handled by Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen, was made to Daniels 11 days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, prosecutors allege.

Trump, who faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records, has repeatedly denied having an affair with Daniels.

"He falsified those business records because he wanted to conceal his and others' criminal conduct," Colangelo said of Trump.

Trump was not watching Colangelo at the start of his opening statement. Rather, he was looking straight ahead from his seat at the defense table.

Interestingly, in describing the reason for the coverup of the $130,000 payment to Daniels, the prosecutor did not refer to an "alleged" sexual encounter with the adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Instead, Colangelo said the hush money was paid to make sure voters "did not learn about a sexual encounter with the candidate."

During his opening statements, Colangelo told jurors about a similar scheme to silence ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has said that she had a nearly year-long sexual relationship with Trump beginning in 2006. Trump has also denied having any affair with McDougal.

Colangelo also left out an "allegedly" to describe McDougal's claim of an extramarital affair with Trump.

Colangelo said her claim that she had an affair with Trump was found to be credible by editors with the National Enquirer. The prosecutor told the jury McDougal was paid $150,000 "to make sure that she didn't publicize her affair with Donald Trump before the 2016 election."

In contrast, Colangelo referred to the National Enquirer paying a Manhattan doorman $30,000 earlier in 2015 to "catch and kill" a story about "an alleged illegitimate child" of Trump that lived in the building.

This rumor proved untrue — the so-called illegitimate child was a fiction, prosecutors have said.

Colangelo pleaded with the jury to "use common sense" and warned them to avoid "any side shows" that may erupt.

"Focus on the testimony," Colangelo urged.

'President Trump is innocent,' Trump's lead attorney proclaimed

Meanwhile, Trump's lead attorney, Todd Blanche, declared, "President Trump is innocent" at the start of his opening statements.

"President Trump did not commit any crimes," Blanche said. "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office should never have brought this case."

Blanche described his high-profile client as "larger than life," but also "a man, a husband, a father, and he's a person, just like you and me."

"You'll learn President Trump had nothing to do with any of those 34 pieces of paper except he signed the checks," Blanche told the jurors, adding, "In the White House. While he was running the country. That's not a crime."

There was a non-disclosure agreement, Blanche conceded. But there's nothing wrong with Cohen paying Daniels to protect Trump's brand and keep Daniels from embarrassing Trump's family, the defense lawyer said.

"I have a spoiler alert for you. It's called democracy," Blanche said of the hush-money payment.

"Michael Cohen paying Stormy Daniels — or Stephanie Clifford — in return for her agreeing not to publicly spread false claims, false claims against President Trump, is not illegal," Blanche said.

Blanche spent the bulk of his opening statement attacking Cohen and Daniels — two key witnesses for the prosecution — as opportunists who are obsessed with Trump and have built livelihoods around attacking him.

"He cheated on his taxes," Blanche said of Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to criminal charges, including bank fraud and tax evasion, in connection to the hush-money payment. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. 

"He lied to banks, He lied about a side business he had, taxi medallions, in addition to other things," Blanche said. "And in 2018, as the people alluded to, he got caught."

Blanche ripped Cohen as a "convicted perjurer," and said Cohen on Sunday night posted on social media "that he wanted to see President Trump in an orange jumpsuit."

Michael Cohen: The 'facts will come out' at trial

Cohen told Business Insider on Monday in response to Blanche's remarks: "The facts will come out at the time of trial that contradicts Todd Blanche's mischaracterizations of me."

Blanche, in his opening statement, went on to say that any testimony from Daniels "does not matter."

"She has no idea what Michael Cohen wrote on those invoices," Blanche said of Daniels. "So her testimony, while salacious, does not matter."

Blanche added that Daniels "has made a livelihood out of these allegations."

"She's made hundreds of thousands of dollars," Blanche said without mentioning the "Make America Horny Again" strip club tour that the porn star embarked on after news of the hush-money scandal broke.

Meanwhile, Blanche said, Daniels owes Trump "somewhere around $600,000" due to her legal losses to Trump.

Ahead of openings, Trump blasted the case as a political 'witch hunt'

Before Trump headed into the 15th-floor courtroom Monday morning to hear opening statements in the case, he ignored a shouted question from a reporter asking him where his wife Melania Trump was. Instead, Trump took the opportunity to bash the case against him as a political "witch hunt."

"I'm here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and lots of other places campaigning, and it's very unfair," Trump told reporters in the courtroom hallway.

Prior to opening statements, Trump lost his bid to keep jurors from seeing the infamous Access Hollywood "grab 'em" transcript.

And much of Trump's prior court losses will be fair game for prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office on cross-examination should Trump take the stand.

Prosecutors can cross-examine Trump about his civil New York fraud trial and his E. Jean Carroll losses, but they can't ask Trump about the total monetary value of the judgments from these trials, which surpasses $500 million combined.

Additionally, prosecutors can also bring up that Trump twice violated his fraud-trial gag order and was fined $15,000 for doing so.

Finally, prosecutors can touch on a stipulation with the New York Attorney General's Office, in which the Trump Foundation was dissolved due to what the presiding judge, New York Supreme Justice Juan Merchan, on Monday called Trump's "self-dealing."

Before openings, there were a few juror wobbles. The day was shortened by half — until 12:30 p.m. — so that juror number 6, a software engineer, could make her 1 p.m. emergency dental appointment for a toothache.

And the day began with juror number 9, a speech therapist, being briefly questioned in private after she expressed concern about media attention.

"Juror number 9 is going to remain with us, so again that is not going to be an issue," the judge said after they conferred with her for a few minutes in the judge's robing room.