It’s Not A Hush Money Trial
After a week of jury selection, opening statements are scheduled for today in a New York criminal courtroom in a case where former president Donald Trump is the defendant.
TV outlets and web sites love to call it a “hush money trial”…it’s not. Granted, that phrase is far more salacious than what the charge really is…filing a false document.
Try searching online for “Donald Trump New York Document”…you’re hard pressed to find anything about the case; instead, you are taken to stories about the presidential documents case, which is completely different.
Search for “Donald Trump New York Hush Money”…and you’ll find all manner of stories that may point out the real charges, but are quick to use the phrase “hush money” because of how it sounds.
Mr. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The records have to do with how payments were categorized, not what the payments were for. The payments were listed as legal expenses, because they were paid to a lawyer who then distributed the financial settlement. You may find that to be a technicality, but it is how things are normally done when someone receives a financial settlement in exchange for releasing any claims, and for not disclosing information.
All of that—the payments themselves, even—are legal. There is actually nothing illegal about paying a former porn star to keep allegations about an affair quiet.
The allegation is that the documents calling these legal expenses were falsely drawn up to avoid embarrassment during a future run for president, and that Trump did that deliberately. That’s the entire nature of the criminal case: false documents.
But calling it “hush money” gets you far higher ratings and more clicks on the web…and shows a very clear bias against the defendant.
I’m not condoning the practice, the underlying behavior if true…none of that. But the trial needs to be covered accurately and fairly. Anytime you hear that Trump is accused of paying “hush money”—that coverage is not accurate, and not fair.
