| The first of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trials is set to begin in New York today. |
 Former President Donald Trump appears with his lawyer Susan Necheles for a pre-trial hearing in criminal court in New York City on March 25, 2024. (Mary Altaffer-Pool/Getty Images) |
| The case revolves around alleged hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels—and specifically around claims that Trump mislabeled these payments in campaign filings. |
| Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump wrongfully labeled his payments to Daniels—legal in and of themselves—in financial disclosures, and charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump recorded his payments to Daniels, around $130,000 total, delivered by his then-attorney Michael Cohen, as “legal retainer” fees. |
| However, some critics have argued that Trump’s actions were totally legal under relevant laws, and that Daniels’ threats to make allegations of adultery against Trump amounted to extortion. Trump has persistently denied the allegations leveled by Daniels. |
| Normally, the charges being leveled against Trump would be misdemeanor counts. However, Bragg has charged Trump with several felonies, taking advantage of a law allowing prosecutors to raise the level of fraud charges if the fraud was conducted to conceal another crime. |
| The 34-count indictment was unusual in that it didn’t specify the crime for which his charge would be elevated to a felony. Bragg has said that “the indictment doesn’t specify it because the law does not so require.” |
| The district attorney has suggested violations of three possible additional crimes: federal campaign finance laws, a state election law, and a tax fraud law. None of these allegations have been pursued by the federal Department of Justice. |
| The challenge for prosecution will be to prove that Trump mislabeled his payments to Daniels as “legal retainer” fees with the criminal intention of hiding illegal conduct. Again, critics are dubious, given the fundamental legality of the payments themselves. |
| Trump, meanwhile, has blasted the judge presiding over the case, New York Judge Juan Merchan, saying that the judge didn’t give his legal team enough time to review the “hundreds of thousands” of documents involved in the case. |
| Trump has also said he plans to testify in the trial. |
| “I’m testifying, I’ll tell the truth,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago last week. “I always tell the truth, and the truth is they have no case.” |
| The trial comes on the heels of a $175 million bond payment the former president made in relation to his loss in a civil fraud lawsuit, also in New York. |
| As in his other pending cases, Trump has argued that presidential immunity protects him from criminal prosecution. That argument was rejected earlier this week by Merchan, who argued that Trump waited too long to make that claim. |
| Regardless, the trial’s subject matter and proximity to Trump’s immunity appeal at the Supreme Court will likely heighten political tensions and reignite the debate over presidential powers and privileges. |
| —Joseph Lord and Sam Dorman |
| WHITE HOUSE SEEKS DE-ESCALATION AFTER IRAN ATTACK |
| The White House and other world leaders are scrambling to prevent an escalation in the Middle East after Iran on Saturday evening launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel. |
 WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 13: (EDITOR’S NOTE: This Handout image was provided by a third-party organization and may not adhere to Getty Images’ editorial policy) In this handout photo provided by the White House, US President Joe Biden meets with members of the National Security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks on Israel from Iran, on April 13, 2024 in the White House Situation Room in Washington, DC. (Photo by Adam Schultz/The White House via Getty Images) |
| Iran claimed the strikes were revenge for a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria in early April. The attack marks the first time that Tehran has ever launched a direct military assault on Israel. |
| Supported by the U.S. and other allies, Israel successfully intercepted 99 percent of the missiles and drones used in the strike. |
| Since Israel was able to successfully defeat this unprecedented attack, President Joe Biden and his team are of the view that the Israeli government should not pursue any further escalation. |
| “We don’t seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for escalation here,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told NBC on Monday. |
| Media reports say that during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden echoed that sentiment. |
| “I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks – sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel,” Biden said. |
| The Israeli war cabinet convened yesterday to discuss retaliation, but no decision was made. The White House said the United States would not participate in any retaliation as it seeks to avoid a wider conflict in the region. |
| This week, Congress will return and is expected to again take up the issue of funding for Israel. |
| However, it could again stall in Congress due to political disagreements, as was the fate of three earlier Israel support packages. |
| The issue could especially ignite tensions if legislation brought to the floor includes funding for Ukraine—an issue that has almost evenly divided House Republicans as the Eastern European conflict has raged on with no clear path to victory in sight. |
| —Joseph Lord and Emel Akan |
| BOOKMARKS |
| House Speaker Mike Johnson says that the House will “try again” on Israel funding after two earlier bills failed to make it to the president’s desk, The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord reports. The U.S. has sent no aid to Israel since the conflict began over six months ago, largely due to ongoing political disagreements between the Republican House and Democratic Senate and White House. |
| Johnson is defending himself after conservative backlash over his vote to kill an amendment that would have required intelligence agencies to get a warrant to query Americans’ data under a controversial spying authority, The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord reported. Johnson, who doesn’t always vote, cast the vote that killed the warrant amendment, sending it to a tie. |
| Trump’s lawyers are pushing for his federal classified documents case to be delayed due to his ongoing case in New York City, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. They argued this is necessary because several lawyers on his legal team are also working on the New York case. |
| Voters have a far more pessimistic outlook on the government under Biden than they did under Trump, The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek reported. A study found that 10 percent fewer Americans have a favorable opinion of the government now than they did in April 2019. Only 22 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of the federal government. |
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