Trump's hush money trial has begun: What to know from Day 1 | The Excerpt

On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi recaps the first day of former President Donald Trump's hush money trial. Trump Media's stock price plummeted Monday. Congress is grappling with foreign aid after Iran's attack on Israel. USA TODAY Breaking News Reporter Cybele Mayes-Osterman has the latest from investigations into the Baltimore bridge collapse. The Supreme Court lets Idaho enforce its ban on transgender care. The 'Rust' armorer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, after the shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  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.

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

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Tuesday, April 16th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, we recap day one of Trump's hush money trial, plus what Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel is doing to Congress. And we have the latest from investigations into the Baltimore Bridge collapse.

♦

Donald Trump yesterday became the first former American president to go on criminal trial in the nation's history. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. For more on the trial's first day and a look at what happens next, I caught up with USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi.

Aysha, thanks for hopping on.

Aysha Bagchi:

I'm glad to be here, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Aysha, what was the scene like inside and around the courtroom yesterday?

Aysha Bagchi:

It was a very, very busy scene. I was there among throngs of reporters. You did start to see protesters, even though I entered the building quickly to get into the courthouse early and get a good spot. You go through the normal court security when you walk into the building and then, when you're up near the courtroom, you go through a second layer of security, because of course we're dealing with a trial against a former American President who has around the clock Secret Service protection. Then when you're in there, you see Donald Trump sitting at the defense table, flanked by his defense lawyers. It's dramatic, never been seen before in American history, and you see him being treated by the Judge in ways that are similar to any other criminal defendant in New York. The Judge warned him that there are things he can do that could result in him being sent to jail. The judge was giving warnings that are given to all New York criminal defendants about how if you're convicted and you don't show up for sentencing, that can be an offense and bad things can happen to you. But to hear that said to a former American President sitting at the defense table was a pretty dramatic scene

Taylor Wilson:

And much of the day centered on jury selection. What did we learn here and did anything surprise you?

Aysha Bagchi:

Yes, no jurors are picked yet, and actually we didn't get to jury selection until the afternoon, but there was plenty of talk about it even before. And you could see that the Judge was eager to get going. 500 New Yorkers have been called to come to jury selection. The first batch of potential jurors come into the courtroom. The Judge said that there were 96 and more of half of them were excused very quickly. A lot of them said that they could not be fair and impartial in this case. Maybe that's not too surprising. You're talking about a defendant who garners a lot of strong opinions from people in the public. You're talking about a presumptive Republican nominee and you're talking about Manhattan, where about 87% of Manhattanites voted for Joe Biden in the last election. Some people said that they just had other reasons that they couldn't participate in the case and the Judge excused them as well. And then we got into the fun and interesting part of jury selection, where you got to hear the individualized answers from particular, potential jurors. And the Judge has created a list of 42 questions that each of them needs to answer. So you learned about their jobs, you learned about their hobbies, you learned about their home life. You got a lot of flavor of what individuals are like in New York and how they vary in interests and in personalities.

Taylor Wilson:

And were any other procedural motions tackled throughout the day in court?

Aysha Bagchi:

Trump had filed a motion for the Judge's recusal, and this was the second time Trump had filed this motion. He filed it and it was rejected back in August. Trump's argument is that the Judge's daughters work at a marketing agency that does work for Democratic political candidates, as well as nonprofits, is reason to believe that the Judge can't be impartial in this case and that he should have to recuse. The Judge, back in August, rejected the motion. He cited the opinion of a New York ethics committee who had looked at the question and said that the daughter's business wasn't involved in this case in any direct or indirect way. So the Judge's impartiality couldn't reasonably be questioned, but the Judge denied the motion again.

Another big, dramatic moment from the day is when the Manhattan DA's Office said basically that the Judge should hold Trump in contempt for violating the Judge's gag order. That's an allegation and Trump's lawyers are going to respond to it. But one of the things that the Judge restricted Trump from saying was making public comments about the participation of potential witnesses. And since the Judge issued that gag order, Trump has put up multiple social media posts that definitely referenced witnesses in the case. Now, whether that means he's commenting on their participation in the case is maybe something his lawyers will argue about, but when you're looking at one of his posts, he called Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels sleazebags. Those are people who are definitely potential witnesses in this case. The Manhattan DA's Office wants him held in contempt. They want him to be fined $1,000 for each of those posts. The Judge scheduled a hearing around this issue. So later in the month, we're going to have a hearing about what the Judge is going to do and whether he thinks that Trump has violated the gag order, and we'll see later this month what Trump's attorneys have to say about it.

Taylor Wilson:

It's just day one. Brace yourselves, folks. Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA TODAY. Aysha, thanks for joining us on a busy week.

Aysha Bagchi:

Thank you, Taylor.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Meanwhile, Trump Media and Technology Group shares plummeted more than 18% yesterday, after the company took steps to sell millions of additional shares. Trump Media, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, filed to register up to 146.1 million shares for sale, including nearly 115 million owned by Trump. The company also linked the potential sale of another 21.5 million shares linked to warrants or contracts that give investors the right to buy or sell a stock at a specific price within a certain timeframe. Filing shares for resale is normal for companies that have recently gone public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, which Trump Media did last month after merging with Digital World Acquisition. But making more shares available for purchase could curb the value of existing shareholders' stake in the company, that meant the already volatile stock saw another big swing yesterday.

♦

Iran's attack on Israel over the weekend has put new momentum behind a stalled Congressional effort to pass billions of dollars in foreign aid to a pair of key U.S. allies. After months of delay, House Republicans said yesterday they'll put funding for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies up for a vote on their own, plus a fourth bill that will include several other unrelated GOP foreign policy priorities. Those include provisions to seize Russian assets, to distribute them to Ukraine and to force TikTok's Chinese parent company to sell it or face a practical ban in the United States. Whatever passes in the House will head to the Senate, where it's not clear if there are enough votes to become law. But one thing is clear, the drone and missile attack, itself retaliation for an Israeli airstrike earlier this month on the Iranian Embassy in Syria, has been met with an outpouring of support for Israel from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

♦

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into the Francis Scott Key Bridge's collapse in Baltimore that will focus on whether the crew of the ship knew that its systems had issues when it left port, the Washington Post first reported. I spoke with USA TODAY Breaking News Reporter Cybele Mayes-Osterman for the latest.

Cybele, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

Thanks so much.

Taylor Wilson:

So the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into this bridge collapse. What do we know right now? What will this focus on?

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

So, yesterday the FBI boarded the Dali, which is that cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month. And now the FBI told me that they were on board the ship to conduct what they described as being routine, a court authorized law enforcement activity. But we also heard from an anonymous official that this was standard operating procedure. So I think we're still waiting to see how this might take shape as a potential criminal investigation. Now, the FBI has already said very early on that they think it's unlikely that there was terrorism present factoring into this disaster at all. And now this probe is going to be separate from the one that the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard had already launched, and they've already been on the Dali pretty continuously. They've been interviewing the pilot, other members of the crew, and they're set to put out that preliminary report in May.

Taylor Wilson:

And Cybele, how have the companies involved here responded to these ongoing investigations, be it the ship's the owner or manager, or just some of these other players?

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

Both the owner and the manager of the ship, two separate companies, very early on after the crash, they filed a petition in court basically asking the judge to either exonerate them for being held responsible for the cost of this disaster or to cap the amount of money that they would have to pay at $43 million.

Taylor Wilson:

This is a national story, it's an international story, it's also a local Baltimore story. What are we hearing from the city of Baltimore at this point?

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

Yesterday, the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, came out and announced that the city is working with some lawyers and they're going to plan legal action against the parties that were involved in the disaster. Mayor Scott said he wanted to hold those companies responsible, including the owner, the charter manager, and manufacturer, and saying that the city needs to act quickly to protect its interests, considering that the companies filed this petition in court so soon.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, so what do cleanup efforts look like now weeks after the collapse? I know there have been some concerns, Cybele, about hazardous materials on board this ship.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

So the effort is continuing to clean up this ship and the debris from the bridge. The ship is actually still sitting there in Fort McHenry Channel and the cleanup of the bridge is also no simple task. There's 27,000 tons worth of steel and road debris sitting underwater from that. The ship itself has to be unloaded and that poses its own challenges. There were about 4,700 cargo containers sitting on the ship and some of them carrying toxic material, which is at risk of leaking out.

Taylor Wilson:

So what's next going forward, both for cleanup work and also these ongoing investigations?

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said that they're hoping to open a limited access, one-way channel in the Fort McHenry Channel by the end of this month, and they're hoping to open the full channel at the end of May. So, it's moving forward very quickly. They've described it as an ambitious timeline.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a Breaking News Reporter with USA TODAY. Thank you Cybele.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The Supreme Court said yesterday that Idaho can enforce a law banning gender transition care for minors. The Court did so over the objections of the three liberal justices. It's the first case about restrictions on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people under age 18 that the court has acted on. But it does not get to the underlying legal questions of the ban itself, an issue that has divided lower federal courts and is part of a wave of conservative legislation and litigation aimed at transgender Americans. The Court could also decide soon whether it will review such bans in Tennessee and Kentucky.

♦

Film Armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last month in the shooting death of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The tragedy happened on the set of the film Rust in 2021. Though actor Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger, a jury found Gutierrez Reed wrongly loaded a live round into a revolver he was using on the New Mexico movie set. Gutierrez Reed got emotional during personal statements from Hutchins' friends and co-workers, including Joel Souza, the Rust director, who was also injured during the shooting. The Hutchins family's attorney, Gloria Allred, also shared statements and videos from the family from Kyiv, Ukraine. Halyna's mother Olga Solovey said in Ukrainian, quote, "Time does not heal. It gets worse and worse," unquote. Alec Baldwin's trial for his role in the shooting death of Hutchins begins July 10th, after he was indicted in January of involuntary manslaughter.

♦

Welcome to the pros, Caitlin Clark. The star set records in college at the University of Iowa and was selected first overall last night by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft. The season tips off next month.

♦

And today is National Librarian Day, a great time to show some gratitude to folks curating knowledge around the country. If you haven't already, be sure to check out our special episode, where my colleague Dana Taylor sat down with bestselling author James Patterson and viral librarian Mychal Threets to talk about their shared love of books. We have a link to the episode in today's show notes.

♦

Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's hush money trial has begun: What to know | The Excerpt