Donald Trump’s ‘Access Hollywood’ tapes won’t be played in hush money trial

A New York judge ruled on Monday that the infamous “Access Hollywood” video of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women without their consent will not be shown to jurors in the former US president’s hush-money criminal trial. Play.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said Manhattan prosecutors could still question witnesses about the 2005 recording, which was not made public until the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 White House campaign. But the judge said there was “no need for the tape itself to be admitted into evidence or played to the jury”.

Merchant said he found the tape “relevant to key issues in the case,” including prosecutors’ argument that it helped establish Trump’s intentions and motives in formulating and concealing the hush-money arrangement at the heart of the case.

However, he sided with Trump’s lawyers, saying playing the game could cause undue bias.

Despite last Friday’s (March 15) decision to postpone the trial until at least mid-April to deal with what Trump’s lawyers said was a last-minute evidence dump that hampered their ability, Merchant still made the decision to “walk in.” Hollywood” tapes and other issues ruled. Prepare their defense.

Merchan scheduled a hearing to resolve the issue on March 25, the original trial start date.

Trump’s lawyers have complained that they have only recently begun receiving more than 100,000 pages of documents from the previous federal investigation that landed Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen in prison.

They asked for a three-month delay and for the case to be dismissed.

Trump’s hush-money case, one of four criminal indictments against him, centers on accusations that he falsified company records to hide the true nature of payments to Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Cohen paid $130,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougall $150,000 to suppress claims they had an extramarital affair with Trump years ago.

Trump’s company then reimbursed Cohen and recorded the payments to him as legal fees, prosecutors said.

Trump, now the Republican presidential candidate seeking to re-enter the White House, pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His lawyers argued that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal fees and not part of any cover-up.

Trump said he did not engage in any alleged sexual activity.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations involving hush payments and other unrelated crimes and spent about a year in prison before being released to home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump has not been charged in the federal investigation.

In other rulings Monday, Merchant rejected a defense request to bar Cohen, Daniels and McDougall from testifying as key prosecution witnesses in the Manhattan district attorney’s case. However, he ruled that McDougal could not testify about basic details of her alleged incidents unless prosecutors could prove to him that the information was relevant.

Merchant also again rejected a defense request to bar prosecutors from arguing that Trump tried to improperly influence the 2016 election or that the National Enquirer helped suppress stories about him in a practice known as “catching.” Negative press.

Merchant did not rule on prosecutors’ request for a gag order that would bar Trump from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others involved in the case.The judge said he would rule separately on a defense request asking him to postpone the hush-money trial indefinitely until the Supreme Court rules on a presidential immunity claim

Trump filed the election interference case in Washington, DC.

Prosecutors believe the release of the “Access Hollywood” video and the subsequent surge of women coming forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault accelerated Trump’s efforts to hide negative coverage from the media, thereby paying off for Daniels.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the “Access Hollywood” video “contains evidence of inflammatory and improper bias that has no place in this trial regarding documents and accounting practices.” Merchant said he would reconsider allowing prosecutors to present the tape if Trump’s lawyers opened the door during the trial.

The judge said he would rule later on prosecutors’ request for evidence about some of the sexual assault allegations that emerged after the tape was released, which they say provides key context for the allegations against him.

Before deciding the issue, Merchant said prosecutors will be asked to make additional arguments about the admissibility of that evidence so he can better analyze it under rules governing testimony and evidence of so-called “prior bad conduct.” these evidences.