Headed into this afternoon, we had a reasonably good idea about how the process would unfold. Donald Trump would surrender to authorities in Manhattan. The former president would be fingerprinted and processed. He would then appear in court, plead not guilty, and prepare to head back to Mar-a-Lago for some kind of political event tonight.
What we didn’t know was, well, everything else. How many charges would the Republican face? What would the indictment say? Would there be felony counts?
The answers have come into sharper focus. My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin summarized what transpired in a New York courtroom this afternoon:
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the indictment unveiled in Manhattan on Tuesday. The former president’s plea was expected but it nonetheless kicks off an historic criminal case involving hush money payments to two women, NBC News reported.
After the lengthy court hearing wrapped up, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office released both a copy of the 16-page felony indictment and a 13-page statement of facts, summarizing what the prosecutors intend to show during the trial.
“From August 2015 to December 2017, [the former president] orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects,” prosecutors alleged.
“In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme.”
Much of the story is familiar, though there are new details that are likely to be highly relevant as the process moves forward.
The statement of facts, for example, alleges that Trump directed…
Read the full article here
