New York prosecutors double down on their election fraud allegations against former president Donald Trump in their opening statements for the erstwhile U.S. leader's hush money trial. Don Tagala reports. #TFCNews Like and follow TFC News Facebook: https://facebook.com/TFCNewsNow Twitter: https://twitter.com/TFCNewsNow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tfcnewsnow/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@tfcnewsnow Website: https://mytfc.com/news News website: https://news.abs-cbn.com/tfcnews Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch full episodes on iWantTFC for FREE here: http://iwanttfc.com Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abscbnnews #TFC #TheFilipinoChannel #TFCNewsNewYork #ABSCBNNews #TVPatrol #DonaldTrump #Trump

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With 12 jurors and 6 alternates in place, the historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump

is now underway at the New York Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan.

Prosecutors made their opening statements on Monday,

alleging Trump falsified business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment

to silence adult film star Stormy Daniel just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo considers this a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,

saying Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election, then covered it up.

Meanwhile, Trump's defense team painted a different picture, saying the former president is innocent.

His attorney Todd Blanch stresses that Trump did not commit

any crimes. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

But prosecutors say Trump falsified checks and invoices to disguise $420,000 in payments

to his fixer Michael Cohen as legal services, when in fact,

they were meant to reimburse him for paying Daniels to silence her.

The jurors also heard briefly from the prosecutor's first witness,

former National Enquirer publisher David Packer.

Who prosecutors say participated in a catch-and-kill scheme that suppressed negative stories about Trump

to help him get elected in 2016.

Prosecutors portrayed the hush money payment as a criminal effort to deceive voters

at a time when Trump was facing other accusations of crude sexual behavior

right after the infamous Access Hollywood hot mic comment.

Colangelo calls this a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy

to influence the 2016 election.

To help Trump get elected, through illegal expenditures,

the prosecutor also refers to it as election fraud, pure and simple.

Meanwhile, across the street from the courthouse,

reporters and their coverage teams outnumbered protesters and supporters

who showed up on Monday.

It's a big day for New York and I'm just very proud that the city is handling it so well.

It's very quiet here. It's very peaceful here.

There's no crowds at all. There's a lot of police presence.

And I just hope for the best.

That whatever is going on in the building behind us will show the country that justice will prevail.

While Trump was quiet inside Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom, outside he voiced out his frustration

that while Biden is on the campaign trail, his Republican challenger was on criminal trial.

But they take this payment and they go at a legal expense and you heard it today for the first time.

This is what I got indicted over. This is what took me off and takes me off the campaign trail

because I should be in Georgia now. I should be in Florida now.

I should be in a lot of different places right now campaigning and I'm sitting here.

And this will go on for a long time. It's very unfair.

This first criminal trial of a former U.S. President will resume on Tuesday.

Don Tagala, ABS-CBN News, New York City.

Thank you for watching!