Trump’s Trial Marks the Return of “Individual-1”
Trump’s Trial Marks the Return of “Individual-1”The justice system finally caught up with Individual-1—a.k.a. Donald J. Trump. On the opening day of Trump’s historic trial for his porn star/hush-money caper—no former president has ever been on trial for criminal charges—New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan had to clear up a few pending legal issues before moving to the arduous task of selecting jurors. One of those matters concerned the criminal case of onetime Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who, according to filings submitted by federal prosecutors, broke the law at the behest of a person identified as “Individual-1.” The immediate question for Merchan was whether and how prosecutors in New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office could refer to 2018 Cohen’s guilty plea for violating election law. Cohen was nabbed for making the illegal in-kind contribution to Trump’s 2016 campaign at the center of this case: the $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels to…