NEW YORK — Opening statements are underway after a delayed start Monday morning in Donald Trump’s criminal trial for allegedly falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Then-candidate Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo told jurors. “Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy and lied in his New York business records over and over and over again.” Once the prosecutor and Trump’s legal team have outlined their cases, the first witnesses will be called to testify in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
