General Discussion

JOSH KOVENSKY
|
10:40 a.m.
Moving Fast

Opening statements in criminal cases, particularly white collar matters, can last for hours, or even days of trial.

Colangelo is moving swiftly. He summarized the crime early on, hitting a main theme: it was, in prosecutors’ telling, an effort to corrupt an American election, by using dirty money to hide information from the public.

He’s now into the weeds, explaining the results of the grand jury’s investigation.



JOSH KOVENSKY
|
10:37 a.m.
Keeping Things in Context

Colangelo is running through the scheme, first in broad brushstrokes and then in detail.

A conspiracy, he says, was “formed” early on in the Trump campaign at a meeting with Michael Cohen to keep negative stories out of public view.

To do that, Colangelo alleges, Trump falsified business records as part of the effort to reimburse Cohen for his efforts.

All of it, Colangelo says, was “to influence a presidential election.”

As we all know, these allegations aren’t new. But it’s the first time we’re ever — in American history — seeing a scandal of this nature end up in a criminal case.