随着封口费审判开始，特朗普的性生活成为关键主题
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 16 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）唐纳德·特朗普刑事审判的第一天深入探讨了他的小报素材性生活，律师和法官争论陪审员在决定他是否违反法律以掩盖封口费时最终应该听到多少淫秽细节。对此，《华盛顿邮报》记者德夫林·巴雷特（Devlin Barrett）、大卫·中村（David Nakamura）和谢娜·雅各布斯（Shayna Jacobs）作了下述详细报道。
对美国前总统的历史性首次审判于周一在一座著名的法院开始，多年来，该法院审理了许多引人注目的案件，从说唱明星到电影大亨，但从未有过对国家和世界产生如此潜在影响的案件。
法庭上枯燥的仪式只会让诉讼程序变得更加离奇，纽约最高法院法官胡安·默查恩（Juan Merchan）警告特朗普，如果他扰乱审判或未能出庭，他可能会被免职或被送进监狱，检察官表示，他们将寻求将特朗普关押在法庭上。甚至在一个潜在的陪审员受到询问之前就已经受到蔑视。
共和党总统候选人特朗普当天晚些时候在法院走廊对记者发表讲话时，公开表达了对审判的蔑视。“我们不会得到公平的审判，”他说，并称检方是“一个骗局”。
然而，在法庭上，特朗普一点也不具有破坏性。他经常对整个上午的法律角逐表现得感到无聊或不感兴趣，但一旦陪审员开始接受质询，他就会集中注意力。
午休后不久，当默查恩向未来的陪审员宣读一系列冗长的指示时，特朗普闭上了眼睛，有时似乎在打瞌睡。然后他会突然控制住自己并僵住姿势。
这位前总统在法庭上最激动人心的时刻是当法官不在法官席上时。特朗普在辩护席上与他的律师聊天，有时让他们大笑或微笑。
周一早上，当数百名潜在陪审员在法院另一层等待时，律师们就应该与他们分享哪些证据以及其他大大小小的法律问题争论了几个小时。
直到下午三点左右，第一批96名潜在陪审员才进入法庭，开始预审筛选过程。几乎立刻，他们中的一半人就离开了，当被问及在涉及特朗普的案件中谁不能做到公平或公正时，他们举起了手。
一位留下来接受质询的准陪审员表示，在此过程中，她确实对特朗普有强烈的感情，这可能会干扰她保持公平的能力。她是哈莱姆区的居民，最近开始在布鲁明代尔百货公司工作，她说在空闲时间她喜欢唱歌、看电视和“去俱乐部”。
律师与法官商议后，她被免去陪审义务。走出去时，她告诉一名法庭官员，“我就是做不到。”
到当天下午 4:30 休庭时，只有 10 名准陪审员接受了质询。诉讼程序将于周二上午 9:30 恢复，还有数百人拿着陪审团传票等待。律师必须就 12 名陪审员和少数替补陪审员达成一致，这一过程可能需要数周时间。
默查恩试图让这一备受瞩目的案件保持平稳，他一度敦促检察官和辩护律师“坐下来，放松一下”，同时他列出了尚未决定的问题。
但他还裁定，他不能免于参加下周最高法院关于特朗普在另外三起悬而未决的刑事案件之一中声称享有豁免权的辩论，这也激怒了特朗普。当特朗普要求下个月请一天假去参加他儿子巴伦的高中毕业典礼时，默查恩不置可否。
这位前总统利用他面临的许多刑事和民事审判作为其共和党基础的战斗口号，并成功地将他的一些出庭行为变成了竞选素材。他没有被要求参加 4 月 25 日最高法院就豁免权案件进行的辩论，也没有参加 2 月份另一起案件的口头辩论——关于他是否会被禁止参加科罗拉多州的投票——这也有可能重塑他的候选资格。
特朗普多次批评默查恩对他有偏见，并试图将这名法官从该案中除名，但没有成功。
周一，在法官发布禁言令明确禁止发表此类言论后，默查恩对特朗普最近发表的公开言论表示不满，该言论攻击特朗普的前律师迈克尔·科恩(该案的关键证人)。
检察官辩称，特朗普在过去两周内发布了三篇社交媒体帖子，违反了法官的命令。他们要求对他处以总计 3,000 美元的罚款，认定他藐视法庭，并警告说，如果他继续发表此类言论，可能会被送进监狱。
当特朗普的律师托德·布兰奇回应说，他的当事人必须能够回应科恩和其他人的政治和公开攻击时，默查恩狡猾地要求律师指出他在禁言令中的哪些地方做出了这样的例外。法官安排下周就此事举行听证会。
特朗普作为被告的独特地位，同时也是前任总统和潜在的未来总统，在审判开始的几个小时内经常出现——这是特朗普面临的四个被告中的第一个，也是唯一一个没有因预审程序和上诉而严重延误的被告。
默查恩指出，刑事被告有权参与对潜在陪审员的私人边栏询问，但如果特朗普这样做，特勤局特工也会加入他的行列，从而为法院官员制造后勤障碍。
检察官指控特朗普犯有 34 项伪造商业记录的罪名，他们称这是一项犯罪计划，目的是掩盖科恩 2016 年向成人电影女演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯 (Stormy Daniels) 支付的款项，以便她对多年前涉嫌与特朗普的幽会保持沉默。
特朗普赢得 2016 年总统大选后，科恩获得了这些付款的报销，但这些付款被归类为合法保留金。检察官指控，隐瞒付款的真实目的构成犯罪。
在这起与涉嫌性关系密切相关的案件中，律师们周一花了大部分时间争论陪审团可以如何了解特朗普生活中其他据称的不检点行为。
检察官想告诉陪审团，他还与花花公子模特凯伦·麦克杜格尔有染，当时他的妻子梅拉尼娅·特朗普怀着他的孩子。
布兰奇辩称，这会毒害陪审团对他的当事人不利，因为这不是犯罪，也与他面临的指控无关。
布兰奇说：“不公平偏见的风险非常大，因为有关完全不同情况的淫秽细节。”
检察官约书亚·斯坦格拉斯认为，麦克杜格尔事件的细节对于显示特朗普在受到不当性行为指控时的心态和行为很重要。
法官表示，可以向陪审团告知这件事，但不能告知梅拉尼娅·特朗普当时怀孕的更多细节。他说，这个细节是有偏见的，尽管他保留在审判期间引入其他证据时改变他对此事的想法的权利。
自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，特朗普的名气和恶名在一定程度上是由小报推动的，检察官明确表示，他们的目标是利用这种对他不利的关系来表明他支付封口费是为了防止选民了解他令人尴尬的过失 。
默查恩同意允许检察官向陪审团讲述 2016 年特朗普、科恩和《国家询问报》高管大卫·佩克在特朗普大厦举行的一次会议，据称佩克试图帮助特朗普的总统竞选。检察官称，三人讨论了发表有关这位房地产大亨转型为候选人的正面报道以及有关他的政治对手的负面报道。
预计检察官将利用此类信息来支持他们的论点，即特朗普掩盖向丹尼尔斯支付 13 万美元的款项是为了提升自己的竞选形象。据称，这笔钱让她在竞选期间对她所说的 10 年前与特朗普的性接触保持沉默。
“特朗普大厦会议的全部目的是控制到达选民的信息流，以强调积极的一面，隐藏消极的一面，夸大对特朗普的对手有害的信息，”斯坦格拉斯说。
布兰奇反驳说，这次会议不属于任何被指控的犯罪行为，并表示此类会议对于候选人来说很常见。
虽然他们输掉了这场争论，但特朗普的律师说服了默查恩，陪审员们不应该被告知2016年底一些女性站出来指控特朗普在“走进好莱坞”的录音中吹嘘自己对女性进行性行为不当的情况。
默查恩称这些指控“非常非常有偏见”，并补充说它们“只是谣言，只是八卦，完全是道听途说。” 它发生了吗？没有什么可以证明这一点。对我来说，仅仅因为谣言就让被告受到偏见是不公平的。”
斯坦格拉斯认为，他的团队应该被允许向陪审团笼统地提及这些主张，以表明特朗普对这些主张的反应。
检察官说，特朗普“几乎痴迷于解决这些指控”，因为这位候选人担心这些故事会伤害他在女性选民中的地位。
“这确实是关键，特别是对于女性选民，”斯坦格拉斯说。
题图：前总统唐纳德·特朗普在周一陪审团遴选开始前与他的法律团队抵达曼哈顿刑事法院。 JABIN BOTSFORD/《华盛顿邮报》
附原英文报道：
As hush money trial begins, Trump’s sex life emerges as key theme
By Devlin Barrett, David Nakamura and Shayna Jacobs The Washington Post,Updated April 16, 2024
NEW YORK – The opening day of Donald Trump’s criminal trial delved deep into his tabloid-fodder sex life, as lawyers and the judge debated how many salacious details jurors should eventually hear as they decide whether he broke the law to cover up hush money payments.
The historic first trial of a former U.S. president began Monday in a storied courthouse that has seen a host of high-profile cases over the years, from rap stars to movie moguls, but never one with such potential consequences for the nation and the world.
The dry rituals of court only made the proceedings more surreal, as New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan warned Trump he could be removed or sent to jail if he disrupted the trial or failed to appear, and prosecutors said they would seek to hold Trump in contempt even before a single potential juror had been questioned.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was openly contemptuous of the trial when he spoke to reporters at the end of the day in the courthouse hallway. “We are not going to be given a fair trial,” he said, calling the prosecution “a scam.”
Inside the courtroom, however, Trump was anything but disruptive. He frequently appeared bored or uninterested in the legal jousting that took up the entire morning session, but was mostly attentive once jurors began to be questioned.
Shortly after the lunch break, as Merchan read a lengthy series of instructions to prospective jurors, Trump closed his eyes and at times appeared to nod off. He then would abruptly catch himself and stiffen his posture.
The former president’s most animated moments in court came when the judge was not on the bench. Trump chatted with his lawyers at the defense table, sometimes making them laugh or smile.
While hundreds of potential jurors waited on another floor of the courthouse, lawyers sparred for hours Monday morning over what evidence should be shared with them, and a host of other legal issues large and small.
It wasn’t until midafternoon that the first batch of 96 potential jurors entered the courtroom to begin the voir dire screening process. Almost immediately, half of them were gone, having raised their hands when asked who could not be fair or impartial in a case involving Trump.
One prospective juror who stayed to be questioned said during that process that she did have strong feelings about Trump that could interfere with her ability to be fair. A Harlem resident who recently started working at Bloomingdale’s, she said in her free time she liked to sing, watch TV and “go to the club.”
She was excused from jury duty after lawyers conferred with the judge. Walking out, she told a court officer, “I just couldn’t do it.”
Just 10 prospective jurors had been questioned by the time the trial adjourned for the day at 4:30 p.m. The proceedings will resume Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., with hundreds more people waiting with their jury summonses. Lawyers must agree on 12 jurors and a handful of alternates – a process that could take weeks.
Merchan tried to keep the high-profile case on an even keel, at one point urging prosecutors and defense lawyers to “sit down, relax” while he laid out the issues yet to be decided.
But he also angered Trump by ruling that he could not be excused from the trial to attend Supreme Court arguments next week over Trump’s claims of immunity in one of his three other pending criminal cases. And Merchan was noncommittal when Trump asked for a day off next month to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.
The former president has used the many criminal and civil trials he faces as a rallying cry for his Republican base, and has successfully managed to turn some of his court appearances into campaign fodder. He is not required to attend the April 25 Supreme Court argument in the immunity case, and did not attend a February oral argument in a different case – about whether he could be barred from the ballot in Colorado – that also had the potential to reshape his candidacy.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Merchan as biased against him and tried – without success – to remove the judge from the case.
On Monday, Merchan signaled his displeasure with Trump over recent public statements attacking Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, a key witness in the case, after the judge had issued a gag order explicitly barring such comments.
Prosecutors argued Trump had made three social media posts in the last two weeks that violated the judge’s order. They asked that he be fined a total of $3,000, found in contempt and warned he could be sent to jail if he keeps making such comments.
When Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche responded that his client had to be able to respond to political and public attacks from Cohen and others, Merchan archly asked the lawyer to point out where in his gag order he’d made an exception like that. The judge scheduled a hearing on the matter next week.
Trump’s unique status as a defendant who also happens to be a former and potential future president arose frequently in the opening hours of the trial – the first of four that Trump faces, and the only one that has not been significantly delayed by pretrial proceedings and appeals.
Criminal defendants, Merchan noted, have a right to participate in private sidebar questioning of potential jurors, but if Trump were to do that, he would be joined by Secret Service agents, creating logistical hurdles for court officials.
Prosecutors have charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records – part of what they say was a criminal scheme to cover up Cohen’s 2016 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels so she would keep quiet about her alleged tryst with Trump years earlier.
Cohen was reimbursed for those payments after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, but those payments were categorized as a legal retainer. Concealing the true purpose of the payments amounts to a crime, prosecutors charge.
In a case so closely tied to an alleged sexual liaison, lawyers spent much of Monday arguing over what a jury can be told about other purported indiscretions in Trump’s life.
Prosecutors wanted to tell the jury that he also had an affair with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, at a time when his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with his child.
Blanche argued that would poison the jury against his client, for something that was not a crime and has no bearing on the charges he is facing.
“The risk of unfair prejudice is through the roof,” Blanche said, “from salacious details about a completely different situation.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued that the details of the McDougal affair were important to show Trump’s state of mind and behavior when allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced against him.
The judge said the jury could be told about the affair, but not the additional detail that at the time Melania Trump was pregnant. That detail, he said, was prejudicial, although he reserved the right to change his thinking on that matter as other evidence is introduced during the trial.
Since the 1980s, Trump’s fame and notoriety have been fueled partly by the tabloid press, and prosecutors made clear they aim to use that back-scratching relationship against him to show that he made the hush money payment to keep voters from learning about his embarrassing peccadilloes.
Merchan agreed to allow prosecutors to tell the jury about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Trump, Cohen and National Enquirer executive David Pecker, who allegedly tried to help Trump’s presidential campaign. Prosecutors say the three men discussed publishing positive stories about the real estate mogul turned candidate, and negative pieces about his political opponents.
Prosecutors are expected to use that type of information to support their argument that Trump intended to help his campaign image when he covered up the $130,000 payment to Daniels. That money allegedly kept her quiet during the campaign about a sexual encounter she says she’d had with Trump 10 years earlier.
“The entire point of the Trump Tower meeting was to control the flow of information that reached the electorate to accentuate the positive, hide the negative and exaggerate information that would be harmful to Trump’s opponents,” Steinglass argued.
Blanche countered that the meeting was not part of any charged criminal conduct, and said such sessions are common for candidates.
While they lost that argument, Trump’s lawyers convinced Merchan that jurors should not be told about a number of women who came forward in late 2016 to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct in the wake of an “Access Hollywood” recording in which he bragged about grabbing women.
Merchan called those accusations “very, very prejudicial,” adding that they are “just a rumor, just gossip, complete hearsay. Did it happen? There’s nothing to prove that. For me to allow the defendant to be prejudiced based just on a rumor is not fair.”
Steinglass had argued that his team should be allowed to mention, in general terms, those claims to the jury, to show how Trump reacted to them.
Trump “became almost obsessed with addressing these allegations,” the prosecutor said, because the candidate worried the stories would hurt him with women voters.
“This is really the key, specifically with female voters,” Steinglass argued.
