In a new court filing, local Manhattan prosecutors said that they intend — assuming permission to move forward — to use a slew of Donald Trump’s past legal troubles against him if he takes the witness stand in his current criminal trial in New York City on allegations of falsifying business records. The claims are linked to pre-2016 election hush money that already helped spur a federal criminal case against former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen over, in part, campaign finance law violations.
Specifically, the Wednesday filing in Trump’s New York case states that prosecutors “hereby disclose a list of all misconduct and criminal acts of the defendant not charged in the indictment which the People intend to use at trial to impeach the credibility of the defendant.”
“If the defendant chooses to testify, the People intend to inquire regarding the following acts,” the document continues, referencing Trump. And the list that, if brought up, could erode Trump’s credibility among jurors is substantial.
The list includes Trump’s civil proceedings stemming from claims by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of sexual assault and defamation, and Trump’s highly publicized civil proceedings originating with fraud claims by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, whose broadly upheld allegations led to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties on the former president. Those penalties are currently being held at bay by a bond, about which questions have been raised ahead of a hearing before Judge Arthur Engoron scheduled for April 22.
Also included in prosecutors’ list from Trump’s Manhattan criminal case is his failure in a lawsuit trying to challenge Hillary Clinton and a host of others for alleged misconduct in pushing concerns about potential ties between Russia and Trump, in addition to past litigation around the now defunct Trump Foundation, a purported charitable organization that apparently engaged in a host of financial misconduct.
