Trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts, WI election could affect abortion law: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts

USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen looks into the specific charges facing former President Donald Trump. Plus, USA TODAY Politics Reporter Erin Mansfield looks at some big picture ramifications of Trump's indictment, Trump says the charges against him are driven by politics, Finland joins NATO, and a Wisconsin Supreme Court election could have a major impact on abortion law.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 5th of April, 2023. Today, a look at the charges against former President Donald Trump. Plus, what's the indictment mean for the 2024 election, and a Supreme Court election in Wisconsin could have major ramifications for abortion law.

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Donald Trump made history yesterday, becoming the first former president placed under arrest. At his arraignment in New York, we also found out exactly what charges he faces. USA Today Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen has more. Bart, welcome back to 5 Things.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

We now know the charges surrounding former President Donald Trump. So Bart, what are they?

Bart Jansen:

Well, it's 34 counts of falsifying business records. So pretty easy to remember, it's the same thing 34 times, but what's curious about it is that that charge under New York State law is usually a misdemeanor. And in this case, because the prosecutors have associated it with another alleged violation of law, they've been elevated to felonies. So Trump faces 34 felonies for falsifying business records.

Taylor Wilson:

And were you surprised that there were so many felonies on this indictment?

Bart Jansen:

Well, the number is striking, but what it really means is that Trump made a series of payments to his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, in exchange for Cohen arranging payments to two women for their silence before the 2016 election. So there was a series of 11 payments during 2017 to Cohen and then each one of those checks gets issued. There is also an entry into a corporate ledger. Okay, we got the invoice. Then there's another entry into a corporate ledger. The money has gone out. So basically, with each payment to Cohen, there were basically three notations and there are a couple of extra notations along the way. So it looks like a large number, but it's basically a series of payments to Michael Cohen for making the hush payments to two women.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart, there was so much spectacle around the arraignment, itself, on Tuesday. Trump flew up from Florida on his big plane. There was tons of media presence across Manhattan. Did everything go smoothly with Trump's arraignment? And how similar was the process to what any other American faces when they're charged with a crime?

Bart Jansen:

I think the process went relatively smoothly, considering you've got a secret service motorcade that has to bring the defendant back and forth to the courthouse. Traffic in a big city is tough on any given day, but they got him in and out relatively smoothly. Part of the novelty of this case involving a former president is that he was processed, he was booked like a standard defendant, they took his fingerprints, but they did not take his mugshot, as you would with a typical defendant. Sources told us that that's because, typically, you'd have a mugshot in case a defendant was fleeing the charges and needed to be identified. In this case, Trump, of course, is one of the most recognizable faces on earth. And so I guess the District Attorney's Office decided that they didn't need the picture.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart, we've talked on the show about the prospect of this wave of legal challenges that the Trump team might now unleash. What's the expectation here?

Bart Jansen:

Yeah, Trump's legal team is expected to challenge these charges in a variety of ways. They told reporters outside the courthouse, Trump will be fighting these charges vigorously. Some of the initial challenges that appear obvious include the way the charges were elevated from misdemeanor to felony. Trump has criticized the judge in the case, saying that he might be unfavorable to him. The judge has already overseen a criminal case involving the Trump organization and its chief financial officer, who were each convicted in a case last fall. He might argue for a change of venue, to have the case heard in a different location than in New York, and he might just argue outright the case should be dismissed, that there's not enough evidence to prove that he falsified records. He argues that there were never any violations, that the payments that he made were part of a private arrangement that he had with Cohen and that he shouldn't be held accountable for what Cohen did on his end of the payments.

Taylor Wilson:

Do we have any sense of what the timeline looks like surrounding this case in the next few weeks and months?

Bart Jansen:

Well, lawyers will be hashing out what the indictment says precisely, what evidence can be accepted at trial, those various motions. Whether you change venue, try to dismiss all those pretrial motions, I believe the judge has set an aspirational trial date of January, 2024, which would put it in the thick of the presidential campaign, if it goes at that timing. So we'll have to see whether that schedule actually holds, but I don't believe we're expecting to see Trump back in court anytime in the next few months.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart Jansen, great info for us. Thanks so much.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Trump's indictment is making waves in a number of ways, including its possible influence on the upcoming 2024 election. USA TODAY Politics Reporter Erin Mansfield explains. Hi, Erin. Thanks for hopping on the podcast on a busy week, to say the least.

Erin Mansfield:

Thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

This indictment is unprecedented for many reasons. One of them is that it involves a presidential hopeful. I want to get into the impact of this on the 2024 presidential race. Will this indictment hurt or help Trump, politically?

Erin Mansfield:

Well, we're seeing that his base is doubling down. His base has long believed that he was a subject of what they call a witch hunt, that all these different investigations that happened over the years are part of some conspiracy or some effort just to go after Donald Trump because he's Donald Trump, and we are most definitely seeing those people dig in. That is for certain.

The bigger question is going to be whether or not more average, more moderate voters who maybe could take or leave Trump are going to want to follow him through this indictment. It's going to test anyone who's not loyal to the Trump brand and anyone who simply maybe disagrees with Biden or just wants a Republican in there because maybe they're just very much not a Democrat. And that, I think, is still a question that's very much up in the air.

Taylor Wilson:

So what are Trump's presidential rivals saying in the wake of this indictment?

Erin Mansfield:

So we saw Asa Hutchinson come out, basically declare his campaign as the anti-Trump candidate in response to this news. He's always been pretty anti-Trump, so that's not surprising, and we knew that he might run for president. The news has been overshadowed by the rest of the details of this. Nikki Haley was the first one to actually declare her candidacy. She went on Fox News and she questioned whether this was a politically motivated indictment. Ron DeSantis has not declared, but most people believe he is running. So I guess we can call him a presumed candidate. He came out and said he wasn't going to help with any type of extradition from Florida to New York, obviously, because the President lives in Florida. Now, that didn't end up being an issue because he surrendered voluntarily, but what we're seeing are people who essentially come down on Trump's side and it's a, how far on the side of this new issue are people going to come down?

Taylor Wilson:

Erin, we've grown accustomed to expect protests whenever Donald Trump is involved, really. Are we seeing that either in New York, in Florida, or anywhere around the country after this arraignment?

Erin Mansfield:

Well, absolutely, one of the first people who said they were going to go to New York to protest was Marjorie Taylor Greene, a very, very staunch ally of the former president. She was going with the New York Republican Club, which is a club that is very much moving toward the far right. They have ties to this far right group in Austria, essentially. We are seeing his base galvanized over this. And this is a guy who has said, for eight years now, "I'm the subject of a witch hunt. People are coming after me." And for people who believe that, this is the culmination. And so this is kind of their moment.

The difference is that most of the people doubling down are very much the Trumpians, the people who want specifically Trump. They don't want a Republican, they don't want a conservative, they don't want even a populist. They want him.

Taylor Wilson:

So shifting away from the politics of all of this, Erin, what do these charges mean culturally in the wake of the Me Too era?

Erin Mansfield:

One of the things that's hard to communicate out there is that a lot of people think this is essentially just about hush money to an adult film actress. And while that is what precipitated this alleged business fraud, these charges have absolutely nothing to do with sex, with affairs, marriage, any of that. This is about accounting, it's about finance, it's about how he paid and what he said those payments were for.

But, what you can't ignore about the former president is that he came to power right before the Me Too Movement started, and some might say that he helped precipitate that. In 2016, woman, after woman, after woman was accusing him of sexual misconduct, whether it was assault or harassment or any other type of misconduct. And then here you have two women, and they were the ones who he was trying to silence. So in a way, it's kind of like, wow, two women finally seemed to have an impact and take him down a notch.

Taylor Wilson:

Erin Mansfield, with some great perspective for us, thanks so much.

Erin Mansfield:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Hours after being arraigned in New York, former President Donald Trump was already back at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. There, he told supporters this:

Donald Trump:

And I never thought anything like this could happen in America.

Taylor Wilson:

Trump's 27-minute speech centered on describing various investigations as attempts to thwart his presidential campaign. He made false claims about the investigations and claimed, without evidence, that he's being singled out for political reasons. He especially went after New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg, calling him a failed district attorney and even going after his family. You can read more on USATODAY.com.

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Finland formally joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, yesterday. Finland and Sweden began seeking expedited NATO membership along with the military support it can provide within weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sweden continues to wait for approval. The move more than doubles the length of NATO's border with Russia. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement warning of retaliatory measures.

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Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a nationally watched judicial election yesterday that'll likely give liberals the edge on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She defeated former justice Daniel Kelly in a race that was largely defined by abortion access in the state. Abortions were made illegal there after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last summer. A ruling will likely be issued later this year around a lawsuit brought by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to block the law. The Protasiewicz win gives liberals a four to three majority on Wisconsin's high court. The ruling could also have an impact on the state's congressional maps. Democrats might be emboldened to push for maps that split Wisconsin's congressional delegation more evenly. You can read more on USATODAY.com.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pleads not guilty, Finland joins NATO: 5 Things podcast