Donald Trump‘s team has put Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on the back foot, placing the former president in a strong position at the start of his hush money trial, a legal analyst has said.
Greg Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University in New York, told Newsweek that Bragg’s opening statement has not established that what Trump did was illegal.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The Manhattan District Attorney seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, the two women not to disclose alleged affairs with them, thereby influencing voters as to his character. He denies affairs with either woman.
