Week 2 of Trump hush money trial begins, House approves anti-TikTok measure | The Excerpt

On Monday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen previews the second week of former President Donald Trump's hush money trial. The New York attorney general's office asks a judge to reject the $175 million bond in Donald Trump's civil business fraud case. It'll be a busy week at the Supreme Court. The House approves an anti-TikTok measure. USA TODAY National Immigration Reporter Lauren Villagran looks at why Donald Trump's comments on oil and immigration are at odds.

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.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, April 22nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, week two of Trump's Hush Money trial begins. Plus, it'll be a jam-packed week at the Supreme Court, and the House approves legislation that could ban TikTok.

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We're kicking off an epic week of historic and impactful news, starting with Donald Trump. The former President's Hush Money trial will move to opening arguments today. I caught up with USA Today Justice Department Correspondent, Bart Jansen, for a look ahead. Hello, Bart.

Bart Jansen:

Hello.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for hopping on, Bart. So, before we get to this week, jury selection is now behind us. How complicated of a process did this end up being?

Bart Jansen:

Well, it didn't wind up being as hard as they thought it might be. The judge had estimated it could take as long as two weeks to seat them, and they were able to narrow down to 12 jurors and six alternates in one week. Much of the first day was spent in some legal arguments, so they really went at quite a pace to get the jury seated.

Taylor Wilson:

The meat of the case, opening arguments are set for today, Bart. What can we expect here?

Bart Jansen:

Well, the prosecutor has laid out this case as basically a campaign finance violation by making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress, in order to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual episode with Trump a decade before the 2016 election, so that news of that episode would not influence the election. Bragg has stitched together 34 counts of falsifying business records that basically documented the payments that former President Trump gave to his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen as a reimbursement to Stormy Daniels. The charges are misdemeanors to begin, but if Bragg's prosecutors can link them to covering up another crime, such as a campaign finance violation, as he argues, then the charges become felonies.

For the defense opening arguments, Trump has already revealed how they're going to present the case, which is basically he considers the payments that he made, payments to his lawyer as a retainer, and that he didn't know about payments to women to prevent news stories about their allegations that they had sex with him. His lawyers have argued that the charges should be dismissed and that there's no case here. That the allegations are a discombobulation of partisan allegations against the former president, and that the payments were from a private organization, that they were Trump's money as part of a private deal, essentially the, again, nondisclosure agreement, and so there's no need for prosecution at all. Judge Juan Merchan has rejected that request to dismiss the charges. And so now we will wait for a jury to decide what they think about those facts.

Taylor Wilson:

And Bart, once we get through these opening arguments, there's an interesting list of witnesses who will likely testify here. Who can we expect to take the stand?

Bart Jansen:

Well, one of the major figures will be Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer at that time. He has since been disbarred. He was sent to prison for several years after pleading guilty to a number of charges, including tax fraud and charges unrelated to this case. But one of the counts was a campaign finance violation, because basically the campaign contribution limit at the time this happened in 2016 was $2,700 per person. So making a payment of $130,000, if it's viewed as an in-kind campaign contribution basically to prevent derogatory news about the candidate Trump at that point from getting into the press, then it became a campaign finance violation. So he is expected to testify about how he arranged that payment to Stormy Daniels and basically link it to the preventing news to come out before the election.

Another key witness is expected to be Stormy Daniels herself. She can testify about getting the $130,000 and why she was given that. Trump contends that he was paying Michael Cohen a retainer, a legal fee broken up into $35,000 a month for a year, winding up being $420,000 for basically the payment to Daniels, an added bonus and to Cohen, and then the tax value of that money. So Trump has said that he thought he was just paying Cohen, that he was unaware of the payment to Daniels, that it was a private arrangement for a nondisclosure agreement and that it had nothing to do with the campaign. One of the interesting things will be whether Trump himself testifies. He has hinted that he would like to testify. He did testify in a civil fraud trial a few months ago, and so it's possible, but the risk's much greater in a criminal trial because potentially he could be jailed if convicted.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart Jansen covers the Justice Department for USA Today. Thank you, Bart.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

Meanwhile, in Trump's separate civil business fraud case, the New York Attorney General's office is asking a judge to void a $175 million bond posted earlier this month by Trump. New York Attorney General, Letitia James, argued that Trump and other defendants could not prove that they could back the bond if their appeal in the case fails, and that Knight Specialty Insurance Company, which Trump used to obtain the bond, is not authorized to write bonds in New York. The request was revealed in a court filing on Friday and comes ahead of a hearing on the bond dispute later today. Trump's lawyers have argued Knight Specialty Insurance Company is a viable company to write the bond. If Trump's payment is not accepted, the State Attorney General's office could quickly move in on Trump's assets if he's not able to put up $175 million in the fraud case.

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It's set to be a packed week at the Supreme Court. Most notably, the court will weigh if and when a former president can claim criminal immunity for acts committed while in office. That's as Donald Trump fights three additional indictments on attempts to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding of classified documents. The court has also been asked to decide if cities can punish people who sleep outdoors in an Oregon case dealing with homeless residents. And the court will take on a conflict over Idaho's strict abortion ban. Idaho's law and similar measures in other states make it a crime to perform an abortion unless a physician can demonstrate a danger to the mother's life. The Biden administration says federal law requires emergency rooms to provide stabilizing care, including abortions, if a patient's health is in serious jeopardy. In January, the court allowed the Idaho ban to proceed while the federal government challenges the state's emergency room standard. You can read more about what's coming up for the High Court with a link in today's show notes.

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The House approved legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok nationwide unless its Chinese owners sell. Under the measure, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has up to a year to divest before the prohibition begins. It passed on a bipartisan 360 to 58 vote. President Joe Biden has already expressed support for the effort, which speaker Mike Johnson attached to a larger foreign aid package that includes three bills that separately provide billions for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region. A previous version passed by the House earlier this year gave ByteDance six months to sell, but that plan stalled in the Senate. Since this measure is attached to the foreign aid package, it will now be difficult for Congress's Upper Chamber to ignore.

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Former President Donald Trump's comments on oil and immigration are at odds. I spoke with USA Today National Immigration Reporter, Lauren Villagran, for more. Lauren, thanks for making the time today.

Lauren Villagran:

Thanks, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's just start with Trump's comments on these issues. What has former President Donald Trump said about both immigration and oil?

Lauren Villagran:

On the Republican campaign trail last year and this year, he has often paired two ideas back to back. So it doesn't matter where he is or what he's talking about, he often says these two things in quick succession. One, that he's going to institute a mass deportation, the largest America has ever seen. And two, that he's going to drill, drill, drill, referring to the oil industry. Basically, reopen lands to drilling and boost the industry in different ways. And in my reporting, I found that in oil and gas country in Southern New Mexico, a lot of folks are Republican and support Trump, and yet they say that these two ideas are not necessarily compatible together.

Taylor Wilson:

So how are immigration and oil really connected, Lauren?

Lauren Villagran:

So, oil and gas, I feel like it's considered a quintessential American industry. Presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have talked a lot about moving the country to energy independence, something that did happen under former President Donald Trump. But what's less known is that just like in many industries in the United States, including essential industries, workers who are here without authorization, immigrant workers without legal permission are working and underpinning this industry.

Taylor Wilson:

What would a mass deportation, as Trump's rhetoric has touched on, mean for this industry and also some of these towns that rely on it?

Lauren Villagran:

USA Today spent time in Southeastern New Mexico, in a county called Lea County, at the very southern tip of the state. It borders on Texas. And most of the growth in this area in terms of population has come from immigrants, some legal, some not. And this is an industry that when oil is booming, when the price of a barrel of oil on the global market is high, can never find enough workers. And so, naturally, being fairly close to the US Mexico border, the industry has attracted foreign-born labor, including those who are working without permission.

Taylor Wilson:

Lauren, as you're writing the piece, some of these workers make really good money, six figures, as you talked about. How might cutting off some of these migrant flows lead to a larger humanitarian crisis in the region as they stop sending some of that money back home?

Lauren Villagran:

One researcher who I spoke to said that immigration has to be looked at systemically. Right? So when you think about the number of people who could be working unlawfully in the United States, Pew Research has put the number at 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States broadly as a whole. But one researcher was telling me, if you were to deport large numbers of unauthorized workers from the United States back to their home countries, you cut off a major flow of remittances that keep their families afloat in country. And so, that there could be a domino effect of despair that would lead more people to come to the US border.

What I hear from both workers themselves and other community members, researchers and economists, is that what's really needed is an overhaul of the nation's legal immigration system that would account for work visas in an industry like this. There currently are no visas available for low-level year-round labor, for example.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, interesting stuff. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA Today. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren Villagran:

Thank you, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

And Passover begins today. The eight-day holiday celebrates the Jewish Festival of Freedom.

Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. 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: Week 2 of Trump hush money trial begins | The Excerpt