german strain paid off next fo trump with the nationa enquirer company making anothe payment to keep another stor quiet, - trump in the election. the second instance it was 150,000 dollar payment to this woman, whose name is karen mcdougal in both of those instances prosecutor alvin bragg sai today that the book keepin around those payments, the payment of the door man, the payment to karen mcdougal, resulted in false business statements being made on the books of the parent compan that owns the national
mcdougal in both of those instances prosecutor alvin bragg sai today that the book keepin around those payments, the payment of the door man, the payment to karen mcdougal, resulted in false business statements being made on the books of the parent compan that owns the national enquirer now, that ends up bein important to all of ou understanding here into th eventual fate of donald trum because that factor ends u being important to the crimes, the alleged crimes, bein charged against trump as felonies the contention from prosecutor today, which we did not know was coming in this exact way the contention from prosecutor today is that this overall scheme was a violation of ne york election law, because new york election law makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means. and what prosecutors said toda is that part of the unlawful means alleged here is that thi company paid all these people with weirx storie about donald trump and the recorded it in their busines re
president trump, inwhich president trump acknowledges the hush payment and suggest the payments be made in cash we have another witness, apart from michael cohen, mr. david pecker, the publisher of the natio national enquirer and ot documents. that s a smart way to build an indictment what we don t know and one of the greater weaknesses is how the felony charges will hold up when they are challenged by mr. trump s defense attorneys, whether or not these election law violations will truly result in felony charges after the judge reviews these argument s. we will have to say. the false business statements were made to conceal another crime. that s what stepped it up to a felony he didn t specify, but they certainly in the narrative allude to tax problems and conspiracy as i understand it in talking to our lawyers yesterday, in real time, they don t have to charge him with the other crimes. they don t have to charge him
to charge it do you believe you have new evidence that let to you charge this or why now as you i just mentioned, we ve had available to the office additional evidence that was not in the office s possession prior to my time here as to part of your question about the federal, i would say they have a strong and profound interested in new york state this is the business capital of the world. we regularly do cases involving false business statements, but the bedrock, the basis for business integrity and a well financials business marketplace is true and accurate recordkeeping. new york state business records. [ inaudible question ] reporter: tax pumps, which you made your statements you
these are felony crimes in new york state no matter who you are. we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct we have a distinct and strong, i would say profound independent interest in new york state. this is the business capital of the world. we regularly do cases involving false business statements. for trump, the ultimate indignity is he got away with the access hollywood tape politically, but he will now have to pay for it legally at the hands of manhattan prosecutors and the people of the state of new york. joining me now is hugo lowell, political investigations reporter for the guardian who was in the courtroom today for trump s arraignment. katie phang, host of the katie phang show on msnbc, and charles coleman jr., former brooklyn prosecutor, civil rights attorney, and msnbc legal analyst. thank you all for being here hugo, i m very excited to hear from you please talk about the atmosphere