史无前例的审判以特朗普的两种愿景开始
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 23 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）纽约曼哈顿检察官在周一（22日）向陪审员、全国和全世界首次提起针对唐纳德·特朗普的案件时，对唐纳德·特朗普的丑恶行为进行了原始的叙述，将这位前总统归咎于掩盖威胁到他 2016 年大选的胜利三起性丑闻的阴谋的同谋。《纽约时报》记者乔纳·E·布罗姆维奇（Jonah E. Bromwich）和本·普罗特斯（Ben Protess）对此作了下述详细报道。
他们的开场陈词是对美国总统首次起诉的关键时刻，全面概述了针对特朗普的案件，特朗普坐在辩护席上观看，偶尔摇头。过了一会儿，特朗普的律师发表了自己的开场白，首先简单地声称“特朗普总统是无辜的”，然后指出他再次成为共和党的推定候选人，最后劝告陪审员“运用常识”。
由 12 名纽约人组成的陪审团将在数百万选民决定特朗普的政治前途之前权衡特朗普的法律命运，他们还听取了检方首席证人、与特朗普关系密切的前小报出版商戴维·佩克 (David Pecker) 的简短证词。《国家问询报》的负责人佩克作证说，他的超市小报实行的是“支票簿新闻”。检察官称，在本案中，他收买并埋藏了可能危及特朗普 2016 年竞选的故事。
这一具有里程碑意义的审判正式第一天的一系列活动吸引了陪审员，其中许多人在审判过程中记下了笔记。
当炸弹嗅探犬、美国特勤局和警察在这座肮脏的大楼里巡逻时，曼哈顿下城的法院大楼里弥漫着紧张的气氛。这一奇观生动地提醒人们，诉讼程序具有史无前例的性质：习惯于循环审判各种类型的谋杀犯、欺诈者和重罪犯的法院现在迎来了第一位前总统。
周一，审判提前结束，没有大张旗鼓，以适应逾越节假期和陪审员的紧急牙科预约。
但事情以惊人的方式开始，法官胡安·M·默查恩(Juan M. Merchan)决定，如果特朗普出庭为自己辩护，检察官可以向他提出什么要求。检方取得了胜利，法官裁定，他们可以就他去年输掉的三项民事审判对他进行讯问，其中包括一起欺诈案，在该案中，另一位法官认定他对合谋夸大自己的净资产负有责任，并对他处以数百万美元的罚款。
曼哈顿地区检察官阿尔文·布拉格 (Alvin Bragg) 的高级助手马修·科兰杰洛 (Matthew Colangelo) 随后抓住了他所说的刑事案件中的阴谋。在 45 分钟的开庭过程中，布拉格在前排观看，科兰杰洛平静地向陪审团讲述了检方的论点，即特朗普精心策划了腐败 2016 年选举的阴谋。
他解释说，该计划涉及与三个有色情故事可供出售的人进行封口费交易：一名色情演员、一名花花公子模特和特朗普一栋大楼的一名门卫。
科兰杰洛解释说，面临最高四年监禁的特朗普指示盟友收买这些人的沉默，以保护他的候选资格。佩克负责照顾模特和门卫，而特朗普的前掮客、即将成为检方明星证人的迈克尔·科恩则付钱给了色情演员。
科朗杰洛补充说，入主白宫后，特朗普同意“捏造账目”，以掩盖科恩向色情演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付的 13 万美元款项。科朗杰洛说，当特朗普偿还科恩的费用时，特朗普和他的公司伪造了内部记录，将还款伪装成常规法律费用。
特朗普面临 34 项伪造商业记录的重罪，每一项虚假支票、账簿和发票均对应一项。
科朗杰洛强调说，这位前总统“一遍又一遍地”撒谎，把他塑造成一个纵容犯罪的人。
但特朗普的律师托德·布兰奇试图通过对案件进行更无伤大雅的提炼来削弱检方的崇高言辞，称其为“商业记录违规”，但事实并非如此。
相反，他说，“只是 34 张纸”。
布兰奇将责任归咎于科恩，科恩曾与特朗普的公司商定了报销计划，并承认了联邦对他的指控。布兰奇辩称，“特朗普总统与发票无关。”
布兰奇在预见到可能会反复出现的主题后，瞄准了科恩的可信度，指出他“是一名罪犯”，并辩称他是一名被蔑视的前雇员，他会不惜一切代价将特朗普投入监狱。
“我向你们保证，他不值得信任，”布兰奇补充道，“直到今天，他仍然对特朗普总统着迷。”
然而，科朗杰洛坚称，科恩的大部分证词都将得到证实，包括佩克和“大量的书面记录”。
开场陈述对这一震惊政界和法律界的案件提出了相互矛盾的解释。布拉格实质上是在 2024 年大选的核心时期对特朗普 2016 年的竞选活动进行了考验。
一年前，布拉格是第一位起诉特朗普的检察官。随后在另外三个城市提出了另外三份起诉书，指控他密谋推翻 2020 年选举的失败，并在不再担任总统后对机密记录处理不当。但由于这些案件被推迟，布拉格的审判可能是特朗普在选举日之前面临的唯一一场审判。
在周一的开幕词中，科兰杰洛对围绕特朗普叛乱竞选白宫的事件进行了严厉的描述。
事情始于 2015 年夏天，特朗普宣布参选后不久，特朗普、佩克和科恩举行了一次会面。他们在候选人位于曼哈顿中城的总部会面，在那里策划了检察官所说的“特朗普大厦阴谋”。
该计划是警惕任何有关特朗普的破坏性故事，然后向选民隐瞒它们。
这样的故事很快就出现了。很快，佩克就收买了门卫的沉默，他关于特朗普非婚生孩子的故事被证明是假的。
然后是《花花公子》模特凯伦·麦克杜格尔（Karen McDougal），她说她在特朗普结婚时与他有染。《国家询问报》再次介入，购买了她的故事的版权，然后不再发表，这种做法在小报界被称为“抓捕”。
第三笔也是最具法律问题的交易——向丹尼尔斯支付 13 万美元——是在竞选活动最后几周内形成的。
丹尼尔斯威胁要公开她长达十年之久的与特朗普的性爱故事，正当他的竞选团队因“走进好莱坞”录音的发布而陷入困境时，特朗普在录音中吹嘘抓住女性生殖器。
科兰杰洛说：“竞选活动进入了立即损害控制模式，以削弱录音带的影响，”其中包括让丹尼尔斯保持安静。“继‘走进好莱坞’录像带之后，另一个关于性不忠的故事，尤其是与色情明星的不忠，可能会对他的竞选活动造成毁灭性的打击。”
科朗杰洛说，特朗普当选并必须偿还科恩后，他和他的公司就伪造记录来掩盖事实。
“他想隐瞒自己和其他人的犯罪行为，”科朗杰洛告诉陪审团，他认为这种伪造行为“表明，隐藏科恩向丹尼尔斯女士非法付款的真实性质以及整个选举阴谋对他来说是多么重要。”
布兰奇则否认任何指控都构成干预选举。“我有一个剧透警告：试图影响选举并没有错，”他说。 “这就是所谓的民主。他们给这个想法加上了一些险恶的东西，就好像它是一种犯罪一样。你会发现事实并非如此。”
特朗普没有被正式指控干涉选举，但这一指控支撑了此案。
在纽约，如果被告为了隐瞒另一项罪行而伪造商业记录，则属于重罪。在本案中，特朗普被指控参与“密谋促进或阻止选举”，违反了州法律。此案可以基于这一主张。
法官允许检察官讨论另外两项封口费协议，他们将利用这些协议来支持这一阴谋的目的是让特朗普当选，而不仅仅是为了保护他和他的家人免受羞辱。
科兰杰洛宣称：“这纯粹是选举舞弊。”
题图：唐纳德·特朗普周一在曼哈顿法庭接受刑事审判。MUST CREDIT: Victor J. Blue for The Washington PostVICTOR J. BLUE
附原英文报道：
An unprecedented trial opens with two visions of Trump
By Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess New York Times,Updated April 23, 2024, 1:12 a.m.
NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors delivered a raw recounting of Donald Trump’s seamy past Monday as they debuted their case against him to jurors, the nation and the world, reducing the former president to a co-conspirator in a plot to cover up three sex scandals that threatened his 2016 election win.
Their opening statement was a pivotal moment in the first prosecution of an American president, a sweeping synopsis of the case against Trump, who watched from the defense table, occasionally shaking his head. Moments later, Trump’s lawyer delivered his own opening, beginning with the simple claim that “President Trump is innocent,” then noting that he is once again the presumptive Republican nominee and concluding with an exhortation for jurors to “use your common sense.”
The jury of 12 New Yorkers who will weigh Trump’s legal fate before millions of voters decide his political future also heard brief testimony from the prosecution’s leadoff witness, David Pecker, a former tabloid publisher who was close with Trump. Pecker, who ran the National Enquirer, testified that his supermarket tabloids practiced “checkbook journalism.” In this case, prosecutors say, he bought and buried stories that could have imperiled Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The flurry of activity on the landmark trial’s first formal day captivated jurors, many of whom jotted notes as they followed along.
And it sent nervous energy through a lower Manhattan courthouse as bomb-sniffing dogs, the U.S. Secret Service and the police patrolled the dingy building. The spectacle was a vivid reminder of the proceeding’s unprecedented nature: A courthouse accustomed to cycling through trials of murderers, fraudsters and felons of all types now had its first former president.
On Monday, the trial ended early and with little fanfare, to accommodate the Passover holiday and a juror’s emergency dental appointment.
But it began in striking fashion, with Judge Juan M. Merchan determining what prosecutors could ask of Trump should he take the witness stand in his own defense. In a victory for the prosecution, the judge ruled that they could question him about three civil trials he lost over the last year — including a fraud case in which a different judge found him liable for conspiring to inflate his net worth, and penalized him hundreds of millions of dollars.
Matthew Colangelo, a senior aide to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, then seized on what he called a conspiracy in the criminal case. Over the course of a 45-minute opening, as Bragg watched from the front row, Colangelo calmly walked the jury through the prosecution’s argument that Trump orchestrated the plot to corrupt the 2016 election.
The scheme, he explained, involved hush-money deals with three people who had salacious stories to sell: a porn actor, a Playboy model and a door attendant at one of Trump’s buildings.
Trump, who faces up to four years in prison, directed allies to buy those people’s silence to protect his candidacy, Colangelo explained. Pecker took care of the model and the door attendant, while Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer who is set to be the prosecution’s star witness, paid off the porn actor.
After taking the White House, Colangelo added, Trump agreed to “cook the books” to cover up Cohen’s $130,000 payment to the porn actor, Stormy Daniels. When Trump reimbursed Cohen, Colangelo said, Trump and his company falsified internal records, disguising the repayments as routine legal expenses.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, one for each false check, ledger and invoice.
The former president lied “over and over and over” again, Colangelo emphatically said, casting him as a conniving criminal.
But Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche sought to undercut the prosecution’s lofty rhetoric with a more innocuous distillation of the case, calling it a “business records violation” that wasn’t.
Instead, he said, it was “just 34 pieces of paper.”
Blanche placed blame on Cohen, who had hashed out the reimbursement plan with Trump’s company and pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role. Blanche contended that “President Trump had nothing to do with the invoice.”
Previewing what is likely to be a recurring motif, Blanche took aim at Cohen’s credibility, noting that he “is a criminal” and arguing that he is a scorned former employee who will stop at nothing to put Trump in prison.
“I submit to you that he cannot be trusted,” Blanche said, adding, “He’s obsessed with President Trump even to this day.”
Colangelo insisted, however, that much of Cohen’s testimony would be corroborated, including by Pecker and “an extensive paper trail.”
The opening statements offered dueling interpretations of a case that has transfixed much of the political and legal worlds. Bragg, in essence, has put Trump’s 2016 campaign on trial during the heart of the 2024 election.
A year ago, Bragg was the first prosecutor to indict Trump. Three other indictments followed in three other cities, on charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandled classified records once he was no longer president. But with those cases delayed, Bragg’s trial may be the only one that Trump will face before Election Day.
In Monday’s opening statement, Colangelo unspooled a scathing account of events surrounding Trump’s insurgent run for the White House.
It began in summer 2015, soon after Trump announced his candidacy, with a meeting among Trump, Pecker and Cohen. They met at the candidate’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, where they hatched what the prosecutor called “the Trump Tower conspiracy.”
The plan was to watch out for any damaging stories about Trump — and then hide them from voters.
Such stories arose swiftly. Soon, Pecker bought the silence of the door attendant, whose story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock turned out to be false.
Then came the Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Trump while he was married. The National Enquirer again stepped in, buying the rights to her story and then never publishing it, a practice known in the tabloid business as “catch and kill.”
The third and most legally problematic deal — the $130,000 payoff to Daniels — took shape in the campaign’s waning weeks.
Daniels threatened to go public with her decade-old story of sex with Trump just as his campaign was reeling from the release of the “Access Hollywood” recording, in which Trump boasts about grabbing women’s genitals.
“The campaign went into immediate damage control mode to blunt the impact of the tape,” Colangelo said, and that included keeping Daniels quiet. “Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, could have been devastating to his campaign.”
Once Trump was elected and had to repay Cohen, he and his company falsified the records to cover it up, Colangelo said.
“He wanted to conceal his and others’ criminal conduct,” Colangelo told the jury, arguing that the falsification “shows just how important it was to him to hide the true nature of Cohen’s illegal payment to Ms. Daniels and the overall election conspiracy.”
Blanche, for his part, disputed that any accusations amounted to election interference. “I have a spoiler alert: There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election,” he said. “It’s called democracy. They put something sinister on this idea as if it were a crime. You’ll learn it’s not.”
Trump is not formally charged with election interference, but the accusation underpins the case.
In New York, falsifying business records is a felony if a defendant did so to conceal another crime. And in this case, Trump is accused of violating a state law by engaging in “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.” The case could rest upon that assertion.
The judge has allowed prosecutors to discuss the two other hush-money deals, which they will use to bolster the idea that the plot was meant to elect Trump, not just to protect him and his family from humiliation.
“It was election fraud, pure and simple,” Colangelo declared.
