As reported on X (formerly Twitter) this Monday by legal journalist Lisa Rubin, trial Judge Juan Merchan is allowing the usage of a transcript of an infamous, years-old recording of Donald Trump from an appearance on “Access Hollywood” in which Trump sounded glib about the prospect of perpetrating sexual assault. Trump and his team dismissed the recording as what they infamously deemed “locker room talk.”
Merchan is currently handling the criminal trial against Trump on allegations from Manhattan prosecutors of falsifying business records in connection with hush money provided before the 2016 elections to a woman named Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with Trump and is herself expected as a witness. The circumstances of that “Access Hollywood” recording could help illustrate a claimed backdrop for the hush money, which helped silence Daniels’ story as the 2016 election approached with the Trump team already dealing with the fallout from the recording.
“The DA also has won the right to use a transcript of the Access Hollywood tape, even while the tape itself remains off limits, as well as an email chain showing how @washingtonpost’s questions about the tape reverberated across the campaign—and to Michael Cohen,” Rubin wrote on social media. (Cohen, an ex-Trump “fixer,” is also expected as a witness.)
Trump’s trial was starting off this week with jury selection. He is required to attend the proceedings, which evidently could continue for weeks. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan already threatened the former president and Republicans’ presumptive nominee this year with jail-time if he doesn’t show up — which, no matter any predictable complaints from Trump and his circles, is in line with extensive records of the handling of other criminal trials nationwide.
