(22 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
New York, New York – 22 April 2024
1. Former U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward reporters after first day of trial has concluded
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, former U.S. President:
"I think it went very well. So, you heard that yourself: this is a case that nobody wanted to bring, including Alvin Bragg. It was just at the last minute, they decided to do it. It is a case that if you’re looking back, it goes back many, many years, 2015, maybe before that. And it’s a case as to bookkeeping, which is a very minor thing in terms of the law, in terms of all the violent crime that’s going on outside as we speak, right outside as we speak."
3. STILL IMAGES of Donald Trump seated in court
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, former U.S. President:
"This is a case where you pay a lawyer, there’s a lawyer, and they call it a legal expense. That’s the exact term they used, legal expense in the books. This is what I got indicted over? Think of it. I get indicted, I’m the leading candidate. I’m beating Biden and beating the Republicans. Now I have the nomination, and this is what they try and take me off the trail for? That check’s being paid to a lawyer. He is a lawyer or was a lawyer. And also the things he got in trouble for were things that had nothing to do with me. He got in trouble and went to jail. This had nothing to do with me. "
++WHITE FLASHES++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, former U.S. President:
"This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail. So far it’s not working because my phone numbers are higher than ever because the public understands that it’s a witch hunt. Thank you very much."
6. Mid, Trump walks away
STORYLINE:
Court has adjourned for the day in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
Judge Juan M. Merchan had originally planned to adjourn at 2 p.m. because of Passover but agreed to adjourn early to accommodate an alternate juror’s emergency dental appointment.
Merchan plans to adjourn court on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for the holiday.
As he left the court on Monday, Trump told reporters he thought the day’s court session "went very well."
Trump is again taking issue with the indictment, saying "it’s a case as to bookkeeping, which is a very minor thing."
"They called the payment to a lawyer a legal expense," he says. "What else would you call it?"
"I should be allowed to campaign," Trump insisted. "We did nothing wrong."
In opening statements in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial, prosecutors said Monday that the former president “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt” the 2016 presidential election.
Defense attorneys countered, calling Trump “innocent” and saying the Manhattan district attorney’s office “should never have brought this case.”
The commencement of the proceedings set the stage for weeks of unsavory and salacious testimony about Trump’s personal life and placed his legal troubles at the center of his closely contested campaign against President Joe Biden.
A panel of New Yorkers — 12 jurors and six alternates — was sworn in last Friday after four days of jury selection and is hearing what is the first-ever criminal trial against a former U.S. commander-in-chief.
Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories that he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016.
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