The question in the Trump Hush Money Trial, which will likely go to the jury this week, is quite simple: Did Trump knowingly falsify business records to help his 2016 presidential campaign and thereby avoid campaign finance rules? The answer is not difficult. The prosecution’s proof on the 34 counts charging Trump with perpetrating a scheme to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 not to tell her story about having sex with him, and then covering up the payment to look like a legitimate business expense, is overwhelming.
But will the jury agree? Or will Trump’s lawyers try to transmogrify the issues, arguing that the case is a misbegotten effort by an overzealous prosecutor to crucify a former president for getting support from a friend in the media, trying to conceal from his wife and family an alleged extra-marital sexual encounter, and relying on an unscrupulous lawyer who betrayed him.
