Donald Trump hush money trial gets underway

A prosecutor told jurors that Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public. The statement came Monday at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial. A defense lawyer countered by saying Trump was innocent and by attacking the integrity of the onetime Trump confidant who’s now the government’s star witness. The opening statements offered the 12-person jury — and the voting public — a roadmap for viewing the allegations at the heart of the case and Trump’s expected defenses.