"Prosecutors say a misdemeanor state conspiracy statute spells out the underlying crime Trump aimed to conceal when he made hush money payments in 2016."
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"The law — Section 17-152 of the state’s election code — makes it a misdemeanor for two or more people to “conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.” Trump is not being charged under that statute, ... though it is a key factor in his case. "
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"The former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up $130,000 paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her allegations of a sexual affair hidden from voters."
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"In bringing the felony charges, prosecutors are required to prove not just that Trump doctored records, but that he did so to commit or conceal another crime. The underlying crime that motivated Trump’s alleged misconduct, prosecutors said in court, was a conspiracy to defraud voters in his presidential campaign."
'“The primary crime that we have alleged is New York state election law section 17-152,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan during Trump’s trial on April 23. “There is conspiracy language in the statute. The entire case is predicated on the idea that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016.”"
"Prosecutors say Trump falsely recorded payments to his then-attorney Michael Cohen as a legal retainer instead of what they really were: reimbursement for the payoff to Daniels. In legal filings last year, Bragg’s team members cited statute 17-152 as one of three possible underlying crimes to help make their case. The others they cited were that Trump sought to skirt New York tax laws and that he violated federal campaign finance regulations."
"Anna Cominsky, associate professor at New York Law School, said focusing on the state election law statute is a way for prosecutors to present the most straightforward case to jurors. Bragg’s team does not have to prove Trump violated the statute but merely demonstrate that he was falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a broader scheme to improperly influence the 2016 election."
"prosecutors in Trump’s case might be leery about directly tying his charges to federal campaign finance law over concerns about legal jurisdiction.
“They may be trying to avoid that complication,” Smith said. “They can say, ‘We’ve got this New York law right here, a statute that says you cannot conspire to illegally promote or prevent an election,’ and they’re choosing that as a perfectly legitimate way to do that.”"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/06/trump-hush-money-trial-election-law/
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