特朗普将成为第一位接受刑事审判的前总统
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 15 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）唐纳德·特朗普的封口费案将于周一开庭并选出陪审团，他将创造历史，成为第一位因刑事指控受审的前总统。《波士顿环球报》电讯服务（Globewire services ） 对此作了下述综述报道。
此案将迫使这位共和党总统候选人在竞选期间在曼哈顿法庭坐上数周时间为自己辩护，以应对涉及埋葬其2016年首次白宫竞选期间出现的婚姻不忠指控的计划的指控。
它具有巨大的政治影响，可能是针对特朗普的四起刑事案件中唯一可能在选民于 11 月决定是否将他送回白宫之前做出判决的案件之一。
以下是关于封口费案和针对特朗普的指控的信息：
特朗普被指控什么？
这些指控可以追溯到特朗普的掮客迈克尔·科恩在 2016 年竞选的最后几天向丹尼尔斯支付的 13 万美元封口费。科恩称，这笔钱是他在特朗普的指示下支付的，这掩盖了她所说的与特朗普发生性关系的故事。
支付封口费并不总是违法的。
但检察官表示，特朗普在担任三军总司令期间向科恩报销了费用，他的做法构成了欺诈。
在内部记录中，特朗普的公司以保留协议为由，将偿还给科恩的款项列为法律费用。 然而，检察官表示，并没有此类费用，而且聘用协议也是虚构的。
这些记录支撑了 34 项伪造商业记录的罪名：11 项罪名涉及支票，11 项罪名涉及科恩向公司提交的月度发票，12 项罪名涉及特朗普信托总账中的条目。
检察官为何列举其他封口费？
布拉格办公室将特朗普与三项封口费交易联系起来。 虽然特朗普仅因与丹尼尔斯相关的商业记录而被起诉，但检察官很可能提到了其他交易，以开始证明特朗普打算隐瞒第二项罪行。
除了起诉书之外，检察官还提交了一份所谓的事实陈述，其中提到了其他贿赂。
这份文件在复杂的白领案件中很常见，它为检察官在审判中披露的信息提供了某种路线图。根据向大陪审团提交的证据，该文件详细介绍了涉及《国家询问报》的两笔封口费交易，该报与特朗普有着长期的联系。
第一起案件涉及该小报向一名前特朗普大厦门卫支付 3 万美元，该门卫声称知道特朗普有一个非婚生孩子。 该出版物后来确定该说法不真实。
《国家问询报》还向 1998 年《花花公子》年度玩伴凯伦·麦克道格尔 (Karen McDougal) 支付了一笔费用，她想在 2016 年竞选期间推销她与特朗普的风流韵事。她与该小报达成了 15 万美元的协议，该小报购买了她的故事的版权来压制它——这种做法被称为“抓捕”。
这些交易表明，向丹尼尔斯付款并不是一个孤立事件，而是影响 2016 年大选的更广泛战略的一部分。
为什么伪造记录是重罪？
在纽约州伪造商业记录可能属于轻罪。但如果检察官证明这些记录是为了掩盖另一项罪行而伪造的，则可能会被提升为重罪。
在本案中，布拉格指控特朗普隐瞒了三项潜在的额外罪行：联邦竞选财务违规、州选举法犯罪和税务欺诈。
检察官称，竞选犯罪涉及向丹尼尔斯和麦克杜格尔支付封口费。他们认为，这些款项是对特朗普竞选活动的非法捐款。
潜在的税务欺诈源于科恩向丹尼尔斯偿还付款的方式。
检察官是否需要对特朗普定罪？
不会。检察官不必指控特朗普犯有任何次要罪行，也不必证明他犯了这些罪行。
然而，他们仍然必须表明存在“实施或隐瞒”第二次犯罪的意图。
证人会是谁？
科恩预计将成为检方的关键证人。 他的证词可能需要几天时间。
在去年提出起诉的大陪审团面前作证之前，科恩表示，他的目标是“说出真相”，并坚称他并不是寻求报复，但表示特朗普“需要为他的肮脏行为负责”。科恩于 2018 年承认联邦指控，包括因安排向丹尼尔斯和麦克杜格尔支付款项而违反竞选财务规定，随后入狱服刑。
预计布拉格的检察官还将致电《国家问询报》前出版商戴维·佩克(David Pecker)，以及特朗普前竞选团队、白宫助手霍普·希克斯(Hope Hicks)，以揭露围绕封口费的动荡时期。
其他预计的证人包括丹尼尔斯，其真名是斯蒂芬妮·克利福德。 丹尼尔斯声称，她在 2006 年与特朗普发生了性关系，她不想，但没有拒绝。 特朗普表示这从未发生过。
特朗普的辩护会是什么？
特朗普否认有任何不当行为，并抨击此案是为了损害他的 2024 年总统竞选。特朗普承认向科恩偿还了这笔款项，并表示此举是为了阻止丹尼尔斯公开有关所谓的遭遇的事情。但特朗普在 2018 年表示，这与竞选活动无关。
特朗普的律师可能会通过试图破坏科恩和丹尼尔斯等检方证人的可信度来攻击此案。特朗普称这两人是骗子，测试了法官实施的禁言令的限度。它试图减少总统对此案的煽动性言论。预计特朗普的律师会将科恩描绘成一个骗子，并指出他在多项联邦罪行中被定罪以及他被取消律师资格，以试图说服陪审员相信他是不可相信的。
特朗普最近在社交媒体上发布了丹尼尔斯 2018 年书面声明的照片，其中她否认他们有性关系。不久之后，丹尼尔斯撤回了这一声明，并表示发生了性接触。她说，她的否认是由于保密协议，她签署这份声明是因为相关各方“让我听起来别无选择”。
法官是谁？
默查恩是一位经验丰富的法官，以严肃、不爱闹剧而闻名。这个案子已经在考验他的耐心了。
自从去年曼哈顿地区检察官指控特朗普以来，这位前总统一直利用竞选电子邮件、社交媒体和重复的法律文件来攻击法官的正直和家庭。上周，这位前总统第二次要求默尚下台，理由是他女儿在一家为 2020 年拜登竞选活动工作的民主党咨询公司担任职务。
预计法官将在未来几天内就这一请求作出裁决，他还发布了一项禁言令，以保护检察官、证人和他自己的家人免受特朗普的尖酸刻薄的攻击。然而，这位前总统仍然继续发表带有法官女儿照片的文章。
审判期间，默查恩将负责维持法庭秩序，并对检察官和特朗普律师提出的反对意见做出裁决。 陪审团将最终决定特朗普是否有罪。
陪审团遴选将如何进行？
选择 12 名陪审员以及 6 名候补陪审员的过程将从法官胡安·M·默查 (Juan M. Merchan) 开始，他将带领数十人进入法庭，开始淘汰那些因潜在偏见或其他原因而无法任职的人。法官表示，在召集陪审团成员回答 42 个问题之前，他将原谅任何举手表示自己无法出庭或无法公平公正的人。潜在陪审员的名字只能被知晓，因为法官已下令对除了检察官、特朗普及其法律团队之外的所有人保密。
潜在陪审员将被问到的问题包括：他们是否在社交媒体上关注前总统、是否曾经为特朗普组织工作过、是否参加过特朗普集会——或者反特朗普组织或集会，以及潜在陪审员是否是特朗普组织的支持者或追随者。 极右翼团体，例如“骄傲男孩”和“誓言守护者”，其成员是 2021 年 1 月 6 日袭击美国国会大厦的亲特朗普暴民，或者是极左翼组织“antifa”，该组织抵制 法西斯分子和新纳粹分子，尤其是在示威活动中。
如果特朗普被定罪，最高刑期是多少？
对特朗普的指控均为E级重罪，这是纽约州最低的重罪类别。每项罪名最高可判处四年监禁。 默查恩明确表示，他严肃对待白领犯罪，并可能将特朗普投入监狱。然而，如果前总统被判犯有不止一项罪名，默查可能会同时判处特朗普同时服刑的所有刑期。
如果特朗普被陪审团定罪，法律中没有任何规定要求默钦监禁特朗普。法官可以判处他缓刑。
特朗普的其他案件又如何呢？
特朗普的另外三起刑事案件陷入了法律斗争和上诉，这可能意味着陪审员在 11 月大选之前不会听到这些案件。
由特别检察官杰克·史密斯提起的 2020 年选举干预案仍处于搁置状态，而特朗普则继续声称，他在白宫期间的行为可以免受起诉。美国最高法院定于四月下旬听取有关此事的辩论。
史密斯提起的另一起案件指控特朗普在他的海湖庄园非法保留机密文件。审判原定于五月开始，但法官上个月听取了关于设定新审判日期的论点，但尚未这样做。
佐治亚州案件指控特朗普及其盟友密谋推翻他 2020 年在该州选举的失败，目前尚未确定审判日期。 检察官建议审判日期为八月，但辩护律师现在敦促上诉法院考虑是否应取消富尔顿县地方检察官法尼·威利斯（Fani Willis）与一名前高级检察官之间的恋爱关系，后者最近退出了此案。 。
特朗普对所有三起案件均表示无罪，并表示自己没有做错任何事。
本报告使用了美联社和纽约时报的材料。
题图：周一（4月15日），前总统唐纳德·特朗普离开特朗普大厦前往曼哈顿刑事法院，前往纽约市参加他涉嫌掩盖与婚外情有关的封口费的第一天审判。CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
附原英文报道：
Trump will be first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
By Globe wire servicesUpdated April 15, 2024
Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens Monday with jury selection.
The case will force the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to juggle campaigning with sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks to defend himself against charges involving a scheme to bury allegations of marital infidelity that arose during his first White House campaign in 2016.
It carries enormous political ramifications as potentially the only one of four criminal cases against Trump that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House.
Here’s what to know about the hush money case and the charges against Trump:
What is Trump accused of?
The charges trace back to a $130,000 hush-money payment that Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. The payment, which Cohen said he had made at Trump’s direction, suppressed her story of a sexual liaison that she said she had with Trump.
Paying hush money is not always illegal.
But while serving as the commander in chief, Trump reimbursed Cohen, and how he did so constituted fraud, prosecutors say.
In internal records, Trump’s company classified the repayment to Cohen as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. Yet there were no such expenses, the prosecutors say, and the retainer agreement was fictional too.
Those records underpin the 34 counts of falsifying business records: 11 counts involve the checks, 11 center on monthly invoices Cohen submitted to the company, and 12 involve entries in the general ledger for Trump’s trust.
Why did prosecutors cite other hush-money payments?
Bragg’s office linked Trump to three hush-money deals. While Trump is indicted only in connection with the business records related to Daniels, the prosecutors most likely mentioned the other deals to begin the work of proving that Trump intended to conceal a second crime.
In addition to the indictment, the prosecutors filed a so-called statement of facts that referenced the other payoffs.
That document, common in complex white-collar cases, provides something of a road map for what the prosecutors could reveal at trial. And based on evidence presented to the grand jury, the document details the two hush-money deals involving The National Enquirer, which has long-standing ties to Trump.
The first involved the tabloid’s payment of $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to know that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. The publication later determined the claim to be untrue.
The National Enquirer also made a payment to Karen McDougal, Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1998, who wanted to sell her story of an affair with Trump during the 2016 campaign. She reached a $150,000 agreement with the tabloid, which bought the rights to her story to suppress it — a practice known as “catch and kill.”
The deals suggest that the payment to Daniels was not an isolated incident but rather part of a broader strategy to influence the 2016 election.
Why is it a felony to falsify records?
Falsifying business records in New York state can be a misdemeanor. But it can be elevated to a felony if prosecutors prove that the records were falsified to conceal another crime.
In this case, there are three potential additional crimes that Bragg has accused Trump of concealing: a federal campaign finance violation, a state election-law crime and tax fraud.
The campaign crimes, prosecutors say, involve the hush-money payoffs to Daniels and McDougal. The payments, they argue, were illegal donations to Trump’s campaign.
The potential tax fraud stems from the way in which Cohen was reimbursed for his payment to Daniels.
Do prosecutors need to convict Trump of the other crimes?
No. Prosecutors do not have to charge Trump with any secondary crime or prove that he committed it.
They still must show, however, that there was intent to “commit or conceal” a second crime.
Who will the witnesses be?
Cohen is expected to be a crucial witness for the prosecution. His testimony could take days.
Before testifying in front of the grand jury that brought the indictment last year, Cohen said his goal was “to tell the truth” and insisted he is not seeking revenge but said Trump “needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.” Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging the payouts to Daniels and McDougal.
Bragg’s prosecutors are also expected to call David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, as well as Hope Hicks, a former campaign and White House aide to Trump, to shed light on the tumultuous period surrounding the hush-money payments.
Other expected witnesses include Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 that she didn’t want, but didn’t say no to. Trump says it never happened.
What will Trump’s defense be?
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has slammed the case as an effort to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump said in 2018 it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Trump’s lawyers will likely attack the case by trying to undermine the credibility of prosecution witnesses like Cohen and Daniels. Trump has described the two as liars, testing the limits of a gag order that the judge imposed. It seeks to curtail the president’s inflammatory rhetoric about the case. Trump’s lawyers are expected to paint Cohen as a con man and point to his conviction on multiple federal crimes as well as his disbarment to try to persuade jurors that he can’t be believed.
Trump recently posted on social media a picture of a 2018 written statement from Daniels, in which she denied they had a sexual relationship. Not long after, Daniels recanted the statement and said that a sexual encounter had occurred. She said her denials were due to a non-disclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because the parties involved “made it sound like I had no choice.”
Who is the judge?
Merchan is a veteran judge known as a no-nonsense, drama-averse jurist. This case is already testing his patience.
Since the Manhattan district attorney charged Trump last year, the former president has used campaign emails, social media and repetitive legal filings to attack the judge’s integrity and family. Last week, the former president demanded for a second time that Merchan step aside, citing his daughter’s position at a Democratic consulting firm that worked for the 2020 Biden campaign.
The judge, who is expected to rule on that request in the coming days, has also issued a gag order to protect prosecutors, witnesses and his own family from Trump’s vitriol. And yet the former president has continued to post articles with pictures of the justice’s daughter.
During the trial, Merchan will be in charge of keeping order in the courtroom and ruling on objections made by prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers. The jury will ultimately decide whether Trump is guilty.
How will jury selection work?
The process to choose 12 jurors, plus six alternates, will begin with Judge Juan M. Merchan bringing scores of people into his courtroom to begin weeding out people for potential biases or other reasons they cannot serve. The judge has said he will excuse anyone who indicates by a show of hands that they can’t serve or can’t be fair and impartial before calling groups of those who remain into the jury box to answer 42 questions. Potential jurors will be known only by number, as the judge has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.
Among the questions potential jurors will be asked: Whether they follow the former president on social media, have ever worked for a Trump organization and have ever attended a Trump rally — or anti-Trump organizations or rallies and whether potential jurors are supporters or followers of far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members were among the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or of the far-left-leaning collective known as antifa, which resists fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.
What is the maximum sentence if Trump is convicted?
The charges against Trump are all Class E felonies, the lowest category of felonies in New York. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. Merchan has made it clear that he takes white-collar crime seriously and could throw Trump behind bars. It’s possible, however, that Merchan would impose a concurrent sentence — under which Trump would serve all prison time simultaneously — if the former president were convicted of more than one count.
And nothing in the law requires Merchan to imprison Trump if he’s convicted by a jury. The judge could instead sentence him to probation.
What about Trump’s other cases?
Trump’s three other criminal cases have gotten bogged down in legal fights and appeals, which may mean jurors won’t hear about them before the November election.
The 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith remains on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in the White House. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter in late April.
The other case brought by Smith accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The trial had been scheduled to begin in May, but the judge heard arguments last month to set a new trial date and has yet to do so.
No trial date has been set in the Georgia case accusing Trump and his allies of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Prosecutors have suggested a trial date of August, but defense attorneys are now urging an appeals court to consider whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the prosecution over a romantic relationship she had with a former top prosecutor who recently withdrew from the case.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all three cases and says he did nothing wrong.
Material from the Associated Press and The New York Times was used in this report.
