Donald J. Trump first ran for president as a Republican nearly a decade ago.
Now, as he runs for re-election in the political climate he helped create, his Manhattan criminal trial is partly a referendum on his campaign tactics. that first.
The premise of the trial is that prosecutors believe that Mr. Trump orchestrated an election interference plot. Facing damaging stories could doom his campaign, prosecutors said — sex scandals involving a porn star and a Playboy model, for example. – he hid them.
But in a development that will strengthen their case, prosecutors on Monday received permission from a judge to admit evidence related to Mr. Trump’s overall political strategy in 2016. Much of the that bears the former president’s hallmarks: aggressive tweets, false denials, coordination with a group of tabloid publishers and more.
The judge’s ruling shows that the weapons that once worked so well against Mr. Trump are now turning against him in the courtroom.
The techniques that prosecutors emphasized on Monday were not invented by Mr. Trump for use in his campaign; those are behaviors he has displayed throughout his life as a businessman and a reality TV star. But in modern American political history, such crude tactics have rarely been seen at such a high level.
One example is Mr. Trump’s relationship with the tabloid The National Enquirer and its publisher, David Pecker, who is expected to appear as a witness.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, received permission from a judge on Monday to present evidence related to a 2015 meeting between Mr. Trump, Mr. Pecker and Mr. Trump’s former fixer, Michael D. Cohen. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Monday that the three men “conspired to influence the 2016 election.”
That meeting laid the groundwork for hush money agreements with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. But another result of that meeting, Mr. Steinglass said, was explosive headlines about Mr. Trump’s opponents in the Republican primaries, including those who said Ben Carson had committed a crime. “medical malpractice” and that Sen. Ted Cruz has “family connections to the assassin of JFK.” .”
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, objected to the admission of evidence related to that meeting, saying that newspaper publishers met with candidates “all the time” and that there was nothing wrong with it. illegal, let alone illegal.
That admission worked against him. Judge Juan M. Merchan said he was happy that Mr. Blanche believed there was nothing wrong with the meeting — because it meant he should not be concerned about the evidence being presented.
“There is no reason not to let it in,” Judge Mercan said.
Mr. Steinglass won again when he persuaded Judge Mercan to admit evidence that Trump’s campaign was in crisis after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was published in 2016, in which Mr. Trump bragged brags about grabbing women by their genitals.
“The video has sent the campaign into a tailspin,” Mr. Steinglass said.
He showed an email sent by a Washington Post reporter to Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign spokeswoman. Mr. Steinglass said that Ms. Hicks relayed the exchange to Stephen K. Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and other members of the campaign team, “suggesting that their response should be denial, denial, denial .” Ultimately, he said, Mr. Bannon sent it to Mr. Cohen.
Mr. Blanche objected again but was refused again. The judge said he would allow jurors to see the email and said the next topic was relevant.
The exchange that prosecutors and defense attorneys argued about on Monday underscored Mr. Trump’s tendency to delegate the dirty work to others, giving him some distance in the process.
The hush money deals worked out that way: Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels, while The National Enquirer bought Ms. McDougal’s silence. (Mr. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the reimbursements to Mr. Cohen.)
That habit is still on display this year and may come in handy because Judge Mercan has barred Mr. Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and the judge’s own family.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump posted on social media a video of Laura Loomer, a political ally, in the park outside the courthouse. Mrs. Loomer, speaking through a loudspeaker, insinuated that the judge’s family had been politically damaged.
If Mr. Trump said it himself, he would risk violating a judge’s gag order.
