'This case is about a criminal conspiracy,' prosecutor says
"This case is about a criminal conspiracy," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo began his opening statement in Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York.
"The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election," the prosecutor said.
The utterance represents the first time a prosecutor has sought to implicate a former president in a crime at his trial.
![PHOTO: Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sits in court on the first day of opening arguments in his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, April 22, 2024.](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/cf61a829-08ec-4af2-adc9-abb8f9253a0a/trump12-rt-ml-240422_1713796377275_hpMain.jpg)
Colangelo said Trump schemed with his attorney Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker "to influence the presidential election by concealing negative information about former President Trump."
Trump slouched in his seat at the defense table, listening.
"The defendant said in his business records that he was paying Cohen for legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement. But those were lies," Colangelo said. "The defendant was paying him back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election."