Republican
presidential
candidate
and
former
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump
gestures
during a
campaign
rally on
March 2
in
Richmond,
Virginia,
U.S.
March 2,
2024.
REUTERS/Jay
Paul/File
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Adult-film
actress
Stephanie
Clifford,
also
known as
Stormy
Daniels,
speaks
as she
departs
federal
court in
the
Manhattan
borough
of New
York
City,
New
York,
U.S.,
April
16,
2018.
REUTERS,
Lucas
Jackson/File
Photo |
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Hush
money
trial
could
help
Trump in
2024
presidential
race
By Tim
Reid
reuters.com
April 16
(Reuters)
- When
Donald
Trump
was
indicted
a bit
more
than a
year ago
over
hush
money
paid to
a porn
star, it
turbocharged
the
Republican's
presidential
campaign.
He
surged
ahead of
his
rivals
for the
White
House
nomination,
gaining
a lead
he never
relinquished.
Trump
went on
trial in
New York
on
Monday,
seven
months
before
Americans
will go
to the
polls on
Nov. 5
to
choose a
president.
The
history-making
trial,
the
first of
a former
U.S.
president,
could
again
boost
Trump's
presidential
bid,
some
analysts
and
political
strategists
said.
While
opinion
polls
suggest
roughly
a third
of
Republican
voters
would
not vote
for
Trump if
he is
convicted
of a
crime,
the hush
money
trial is
considered
by many
legal
experts
to be
the
weakest
of the
four
criminal
cases he
faces.
Trump
has used
the
looming
trial to
reinforce
a
central
campaign
message
that his
supporters
have
embraced:
He is
the
victim
of a
two-tier
justice
system
that
favors
Democrats
and
discriminates
against
Republicans,
and that
Democratic
incumbent
Joe
Biden is
trying
to knock
him out
of the
race.
Trump is
using
the
trial to
energize
his
supporters
and -
with
legal
bills
mounting
- raise
more
money
from
them to
take on
a
much-better
funded
Biden. A
hung
jury or
an
acquittal
would
hand a
major
political
victory
to the
former
president.
"This is
an
outrage,"
Trump
said
before
entering
the New
York
state
courtroom
on
Monday.
"This is
political
persecution."
As jury
selection
begun,
his
campaign
sent a
fundraising
text
message
to
supporters
saying,
"The
Biden
trial
against
me has
begun.
They're
after
YOU -
and I'm
the only
thing
standing
in their
way."
The New
York
case is
not a
federal
trial -
it was
brought
by
Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg -
so the
Biden
administration
is not
involved.
The
Justice
Department
says it
is
acting
without
political
bias in
the two
federal
prosecutions
Trump
faces.
Rick
Hasen, a
professor
of law
at the
UCLA
School
of Law
and a
critic
of
Trump's
efforts
to
overturn
his 2020
election
defeat,
called
the hush
money
charges
against
Trump
"so
minor"
they
risk
undermining
the
importance
of the
more
serious
cases he
faces,
including
state
and
federal
charges
related
to his
alleged
efforts
to
overturn
the 2020
result.
Hasen
said
once
voters
actually
look at
the
details
of this
case,
many
will
view it
skeptically.
"And for
his
supporters,
Trump
has set
up a
no-lose
situation,"
Hasen
said.
"He will
say a
conviction
will be
more
evidence
that the
deep
state
and the
justice
system
is
arrayed
against
him. And
if he's
acquitted,
he can
claim
victory."
Steven
Cheung,
a Trump
campaign
spokesperson,
said the
trial
was a
"political
attack"
on
Trump,
claiming
it was
"election
interference."
Cheung
called
the case
"a show
trial
straight
out of
1930s
Stalinist
Soviet
Union,"
adding
that
voters
will
back
Trump
"as he
fights
against
the
weaponization
and
abuse of
our
judicial
system."
`THIS
CASE
WILL
HELP
TRUMP`
After
Trump
was
indicted
by a New
York
grand
jury in
March
2023,
many
Republicans
began
rallying
around
him,
viewing
the
charges
as
unfair.
Reuters/Ipsos
polling
showed
his lead
over his
then
nearest
primary
rival,
Florida
Governor
Ron
DeSantis,
widening
from 14
percentage
points
to 26.
More
than $13
million
was
raised
in the
week
after
the
indictment,
his
campaign
said.
New York
state
prosecutors
accuse
Trump of
falsifying
records
to cover
up a
$130,000
payment
in the
waning
days of
the 2016
presidential
campaign
to buy
the
silence
of porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
about a
2006
sexual
encounter
she has
said
they
had.
Trump
has
denied
having
sex with
Daniels,
whose
real
name is
Stephanie
Clifford.
He
pleaded
not
guilty
last
year to
34
counts
of
falsification
of
business
records.
The case
is the
first of
the four
criminal
indictments
Trump
faces to
go to
trial.
It is
unclear
whether
the
other
three
will
begin
before
the Nov.
5
election.
"This
case
will
help
Trump,
there's
no doubt
about
it,"
said
John
Feehery,
a
Republican
strategist.
He
supported
DeSantis
in the
race for
the
Republican
nomination,
but says
he'll
vote for
Trump in
November.
"It's
the
weakest
of the
four
cases,
it's
nakedly
partisan,
most
Republicans
see that
as do
some
independents,"
Feehery
said.
"Independent
voters
like
fair
play.
This
prosecution
is not
fair
play."
In New
York,
falsifying
business
records
is a
misdemeanor.
Bragg is
arguing
that
Trump
committed
a felony
by
falsifying
those
records
to
further
or
conceal
another
crime -
by
violating
election
interference
or tax
laws.
Other
analysts
said
they
suspected
the case
could
have
little
or no
impact
on the
rematch
between
Trump
and
Biden,
which is
expected
to be
extremely
close.
"The
specifics
of this
case are
not as
damning
as the
other
cases.
This
election
is a
toss-up,"
said
Kyle
Kondik,
a
nonpartisan
analyst
at the
University
of
Virginia
Center
for
Politics.
The
presidential
election
could be
decided
by
independents
in close
contests
in a
handful
of swing
states.
Doug
Heye, a
Republican
strategist
who does
not
support
Trump,
said if
a small
number
of
Republicans
and
independents
turn
against
the
former
president
because
of the
trial -
especially
if he is
convicted
- that
could
cost him
the
election.
"That's
a real
problem
for
Trump,"
Heye
said.
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