Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Blanche is denying the existence of the second crime - interfering with an election - which is the crux of prosecutors’ decision to charge Trump with a felony.

Falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanour, but the district attorney’s office said that Trump falsified those records to obscure that second crime.

But the defence maintains that Trump did nothing illegal by trying to cover-up Stormy Daniels' claims, and as we reported earlier, he said: “there’s nothing illegal about trying to influence an election, it’s called democracy.”

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty

Prosecutors have started interrupting Todd Blanche's opening statements with objections.

Some are sustained by the judge, others rejected.

At the latest one, Justice Merchan calls everyone up to the bench for a few moments.

After they confer, the judge sustains the prosecutors' latest objection, and Blanche is allowed to continue.

Donald Trump is meanwhile turned in his chair toward Blanche, watching his lead lawyer argue the case for his innocence.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

The burden of proof isn’t on the defendant, in this case Trump. It’s all on the prosecutors to prove the case “beyond a reasonable doubt”.

So now, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is trying to introduce any elements of doubt he can into the story the prosecution just laid out to the jury.

“The 34 counts, ladies and gentlemen, are really just 34 pieces of paper,” he said, in reference to each of the felony charges that prosecutors have brought.

He describes the paper trail under scrutiny: that Michael Cohen would send invoices for supposed legal expenses pursuant to a retainer agreement to Trump Tower, "someone at Trump Tower" would process it, and record it on a ledger.

Trump was not personally involved in what was happening, Blanche argues. When Trump signed any cheques to Cohen, Blanche says, it’s because he's the sole signatory on his personal account.

As for the prosecutor’s allegations that Trump made fraudulent business records to commit "election fraud," Blanche has a retort ready.

"I have a spoiler alert... There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy."

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is a former federal prosecutor, which is where he got most of his trial experience, but he hasn’t had many reps on the defence’s side of the courtroom.

After his time working for the government, Blanche became a partner at a prominent Wall Street law firm.

He worked as a white-collar defence lawyer, and he largely sorted those legal issues outside the courtroom. He's only gone to trial as a defence attorney once before.

That lack of trial experience is perhaps showing slightly. He’s stumbling a bit in his early remarks and often walks out of range of the microphone.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, has started the defence's opening statement.

He has led with a pretty plain and direct assertion before asking jurors to remember the former president's humanity - rather than his persona.

"President Trump did not commit any crimes," Blanche says.

"The Manhattan District Attorney's office should not have brought this case."

“He is cloaked in innocence,” Blanche says of Trump

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Colangelo is making his closing pitch.

"We are confident you will have no reasonable doubt that Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election," he says.

He then makes a plea to the jury.

"We ask you to use your common sense. Look past any distractions, look past any irrelevant sideshows that pop up during this trial.

"Tune out the noise. Focus on the facts. Focus on the logical inferences that follow from those facts," he says.

"Focus on the evidence, listen to the testimony, read the documents, emails, text messages, bank statements, handwritten notes, all of it."

He claims that their evidence will lead them to "only one conclusion: that Donald Trump is guilty".

But Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the prosecution has the full burden of proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

We'll find out in the coming weeks if they managed to do so.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo is trying to head off one of the trickiest aspects of this case: Michael Cohen's role as a key witness.

Cohen has a criminal history and has openly criticised Donald Trump since his release from prison.

Colangelo tells the jury - likely correctly - that Trump's team will try hard to discredit Cohen as a witness.

"You will need to keep an open mind," he tells the jury, and "keep in mind all the evidence that corroborates Michael Cohen's testimony".

He assures them Cohen's testimony will be "backed up" by evidence like bank records, emails, text messages, phone logs, business documents, etc.

You can read more about Michael Cohen here.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

To ensure that the hush-money payments appeared legal, prosecutors claim that Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, who was the Trump Organization chief financial officer at the time, “agreed to cook the books”.

They break down the alleged scheme like this: Trump approved a payment to Cohen of $420,000 over a period via a series of cheques.

The payments were to reimburse $130,000 for the Stormy Daniels pay off. The court hears they added $50,000 for a separate reimbursement related to tax services, and then they agreed to double the amount to account for any taxes.

Here prosecutors point out that reimbursements are not taxed, but prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies wanted the payment to appear as income.

So they doubled it and added $60,000 as a bonus.

That all adds up to a total of $420,000.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Colangelo is getting into the meat of the case: the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and the way that they claim Cohen concealed it.

The prosecution lays out a scheme in which he says Michael Cohen created a shell company in order to funnel money to pay off the adult film star in exchange for her silence.

The intention, he said, was to keep damaging information from coming out about Trump in the days before the 2016 election.

"It was election fraud, pure and simple," Colangelo says.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

The prosecution has brought up the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump brags to television host Billy Bush about trying to have sex with a married woman.

Prosecutors were permitted by the judge to add a transcript of the video to evidence, but not the video itself.

They wanted it included because they want to prove that Trump’s political campaign panicked in 2016 when the Washington Post first reported on the tape’s existence.

“The defendant and his campaign staff were deeply concerned that it would irreparably damage his standing with female voters in particular,” Matthew Colangelo tells the court.

Colangelo says that a day later, Stormy Daniels came forward alleging a sexual encounter with Trump, and David Pecker - the publisher of the National Enquirer - contacted Michael Cohen to discuss how to keep it quiet.

Similar to the Access Hollywood tape, the public disclosure that Trump had a sexual encounter with an adult film star “would have been devastating to his campaign, so at Trump’s direction Cohen negotiated a deal,” Colangelo tells the jurors.

You can read more about the tape, including the full transcript, here.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Matthew Colangelo is now laying out the background surrounding the case - the alleged "catch and kill" scheme that Donald Trump, a tabloid publisher, and Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen engaged in.

The scheme was to stop damaging stories from coming out during the 2016 presidential election, the court hears.

He explains the prosecution's case that Trump, National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker, and Cohen had entered into an agreement to provide favourable coverage to Trump, attack his presidential rivals, and importantly, keep an ear out for any damaging stories about Trump in order to head them off.

The prosecution says the damaging stories that Pecker and Cohen headed off included a salacious story from a doorman at a Trump property about an alleged love child, and a Playboy model's story of an affair with Trump.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Trump is facing 34 charges of falsifying business records, and now Colangelo is laying out how that number came together.

It’s based on three different types of allegedly false records: invoices, ledger entries, and cheques.

There are 11 invoices that the prosecution says falsely described what the Trump payments were for, 12 allegedly false entries in the Trump Organization internal ledger system and 11 cheques that allegedly falsely described the nature of the payments.

Add those numbers together, and you get 34.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Matthew Colangelo from the prosecution is laying out the very basics of the state’s case against Trump now.

He outlines that, in the lead up to the 2016 election, Trump made payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse him for hush-money payments that he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

He did so to ensure she kept quiet about an alleged “sexual encounter with the defendant” - Trump.

Colangelo underlines that these payments were done at Trump's direction to ensure it didn’t affect his campaign, which prosecutors say is election interference.

Trump said in his business records that those payments were “for legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement”.

"Those were lies,” Colangelo says.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump is sitting just a few feet away from Colangelo as the prosecutor reads out their allegations of a criminal conspiracy.

I'm sitting behind him, but on a video feed projected onto several screens in the room, Trump appears to be staring straight ahead.

Though he has railed against the case and prosecutors on social media for weeks, now, he must remain silent.

Later, his lawyers will speak for him. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Matthew Colangelo with the Manhattan District Attorney's office is addressing the jury, presenting their case.

“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover up. The defendant Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again.”

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

It’s a packed house here at court.

I’m in the overflow room with dozens of other journalists, and every seat in this spare room down the hall from the trial is taken.

A video screen is playing the proceedings, with Trump front and centre. Judge Merchan’s jury instructions are currently being broadcast over the speaker system.

You can hear the click-clack of everyone's keyboards and, occasionally, a court officer scolding a journalist for using their phone.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Justice Merchan explains the main procedures and rhythms of a criminal trial to the jury, who are listening attentively in their seats.

I am sitting a few rows behind them, and from what I can see, most are turned in their chairs towards Justice Merchan, not towards the famous defendant just a few metres away.

He instructs them on the proper way to take notes, the high legal standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the prosecution must meet, and the importance of deciding their verdict based on that standard.

“Remember you have promised to be a fair juror,” Justice Merchan says.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from court

Justice Merchan just gave us his ruling on the Sandoval hearing, which decides what previous Trump cases can be brought up during this trial.

The two legal teams made their case to him on Friday.

The judge just told the lawyers that he is allowing determinations from four previous cases, including elements of the civil fraud judgement that led to a fine of $454m and even Trump's violation of the gag order in that case.

He is also allowing prosecutors to bring up the determinations in the two E Jean Carroll cases.

Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in the first case and then defamation in the second.

This is a loss for the Trump defence team, who had hoped to limit the potential fallout of the former president’s other legal troubles.

Prosecutors, however, will want to show that this alleged crime of Trump's is part of a pattern of behaviour.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

The jury has entered the courtroom for the first time.

Some of them look quite serious as they walk up to the jury box and take their seats.

Justice Merchan greets them, and begins to instruct them.