Trump criminal trial wraps for the day after opening statements and first witness

In his opening statement on Monday, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo sought to reframe the case against Donald Trump - saying it was about much more than the hush money he allegedly paid to cover up negative information about him.

Instead, Colangelo said, Trump, along with his attorney Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the former chairman of the National Enquirer’s parent company AMI, “formed a conspiracy … to influence the presidential election.”

“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” the prosecutor said. “Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again."

“It was election fraud, pure and simple,” Colangelo told the jury.

The scheme was three-pronged, Colangelo said: the trio sought to help Trump kill negative stories about Trump - a process known as “catch-and-kill” - publish favorable stories about Trump and publish negative stories about Trump’s political opponents.

He laid out three different instances where the trio allegedly conspired to prevent harmful information about Trump from becoming public prior to the 2016 election.

The first, prosecutors said, was a $30,000 payment to a former Trump Tower doorman who alleged Trump fathered a child - an allegation that ended up not being true: “It was the first time that David Pecker had ever paid anyone for information about Donald Trump,” Colangelo said.

Pecker, the prosecutor said, was “not acting as a publisher. He was acting as a co-conspirator.” Even after the allegation was determined to be false, Cohen instructed the Enquirer’s parent company not to release the doorman from a non-disclosure agreement until after the presidential election.

The second catch-and-kill deal involved Karen McDougal, who alleged she had an affair with Trump. Trump, Colangelo said, “desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about the election.” AMI paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story, the prosecutor said.

"The real reason Pecker directed AMI to make this payment to McDougal was to make sure she didn’t publicize" her account of her affair with Trump before the 2016 election, Colangelo says.

The third alleged instance involved the much-publicized payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she also had an affair with Trump. Trump has denied both affairs with McDougal and Daniels.

“Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign,” Colangelo told the jury. “So at Trump’s direction, Cohen negotiated the deal to buy Daniels’ story," and prevent it from becoming public before the election.

Prosecutor Matthew Colaneglo described how on Election Night in 2016, as news outlets got closer to announcing Donald Trump as president, the lawyer who cut deals for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Keith Davidson, texted National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard: "What have we done?"

Prosecutor Matthew Colaneglo said after the "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced an adult film star alleged she had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump.

“That woman was an adult film actress, a porn star named Stormy Daniels," he says.

David Pecker, then-chairman and CEO of American Media Inc., was never paid back for the doorman or the model and actress Karen McDougal deals but he was willing to help as long as someone else put up the money.

Cohen's hope was to delay payment to Daniels until after the election and then not pay at all. But Daniels and her lawyer realized they were being strung along, Colangelo said.

Donald Trump didn’t want to write a check himself to make the $130,000 payment, so he asked Michel Cohen and Allen Weisselberg to “figure out some other way” to make the payment, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement.

"Before putting up his own money Cohen confirmed with Trump that Trump would pay him back," Colangelo said.

At Trump’s request, Colangelo noted, Cohen agreed to use out his own money to "keep Stormy Daniels quiet" two weeks before the 2016 election.

Donald Trump's campaign went into "damage control mode" following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape and initially described it as "locker room talk," Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo explained.

Colangelo said Trump's campaign insiders were concerned Trump's words were caught on video.

As prosecutor Matthew Colangelo talks about the "Access Hollywood" tape" in his opening statement, Trump passed a note to his attorney Emil Bove.

Trump also whispered to his attorney Todd Blanche.

Warning: This post contains graphic content.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo read Donald Trump's words to the jury from the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"I just start kissing them… .It’s like a magnet... I don’t even wait....When you’re a star they let you do it.... Grab them by the pussy," he read.

"Those are Donald Trump's words," Colangelo said. As the words were read, Trump did not seem to be paying attention or reacting at all.

Colangelo said "the impact on the campaign was immediate and explosive."

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo says that the Washington Post's October 2016 report on the "Access Hollywood" tape "turned the rest of the presidential campaign entirely upside down."

Colangelo begins introducing the Stormy Daniels' story starting with the Post's report. Prosecutors have argued the campaign's reaction to the "Access Hollywood" tape was one reason they were so concerned about Daniels' allegation.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury that AMI paid Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story.

Colangelo said the evidence will show that Donald Trump was informed about the McDougal situation, and that "the defendant desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about the election."

Colangelo said David Pecker started "getting antsy and frustrated" because he was concerned Trump wouldn't pay him back for the McDougal pay off.

To show good faith with Pecker, Michael Cohen used his cell phone to record a conversation with Trump about the McDougal payment in September of 2016.

The jury will hear that recorded call at trial, Colangelo says.

"Just as Cohen was doing, Pecker also used a middleman to hide the true nature of the transaction," Colangelo said.

The prosecutor said that Pecker eventually told Cohen that the "deal was off" and that AMI would "eat the cost" of paying McDougal.