A Donald Trump prosecutor has called his Stormy Daniels indictment an “open and shut” case.
Tristan Snell, a legal analyst and former New York assistant attorney who helped lead the prosecution against Trump University, which was successfully sued for deceptive and aggressive marketing practice, called the case “a slam dunk” for the prosecution. Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.
The case regards allegedly falsifying business records over hush-money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret in the weeks before Trump’s 2016 election victory. Prosecutors led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg say the payments were part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about the Republican from becoming public. Trump, the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has denied any wrongdoing in all of his cases.
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I think people have been sleeping on it,” Snell said on MSNBC. “It’s going to be a consequential trial. I do believe there is a stigma attached if he is then voted by a jury to be a convicted felon, and let’s be clear, there definitely was falsification of business records. It is a slam dunk factually.
“The only real issue here is whether or not it was done in service of another crime and there’s multiple different angles that the Manhattan D.A.’s office can pursue to get there. That’s really the big issue here,” Snell added.
On falsifying, Snell said: “We will hear a clear compelling case that, yes, they took these payments to [Stormy] Daniels; they ran it through [former Trump attorney] Michael Cohen; and then they papered it later to make it look like it was legal fees to Michael Cohen.
“And you’re not only going to hear that from Cohen, You will hear it from other people at the Trump organization, and you will hear it from David Pecker, who was the person that received those payments. You’re going to hear it from Daniels’ attorney and representatives at the time. It’s going to be very open and shut.
“There is only this legal issue that we need to hear about. And the entire thing is just going to be extremely tawdry for Trump. It will not paint him in a very good light. It will probably make it worse if he takes the stand,” Snell added.
The case is due to start on March 25. If Trump is found guilty, he could spend between one and four years in prison, according to Norm Eisen, an attorney and former ambassador.
Aside from the Stormy Daniels case, Trump is facing three other criminal indictments; two regarding denying the results of the 2020 elections, and one concerning retaining classified documents when he left the White House in January 2021. He has denied wrongdoing in all of these cases.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.