Welcome to the news hour. Opening statements began today in the first criminal

trial of former President Donald Trump. Prosecutors accused Mr. Trump and his

associates of falsifying business records during his 2016 campaign for president in an effort to conceal

an alleged extramarital affair.

But the former president's attorney said he was not involved in the payments, which they

argue were not illegal and did not commit a crime.

Our William Bringham was in the courthouse today following it all.

So William, we know that the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, very much wants this case to be seen as a case about interference

in the 2016 election and less about alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

How much of that came out in the prosecution's opening

statement today? I mean Jeff it came out an enormous amount. I mean it was one of the

very first things out of prosecutor Matthew Colangelo's mouth. He was arguing that Donald Trump engaged

in and coordinated a conspiracy to corrupt the 2016 election as you're talking about.

That's the frame that they want jurors to see

this entire case through. Now the tricky part is it's not what they're charging. There's no

allegation or insinuation that they broke campaign finance laws here.

They're talking about prosecuting Donald Trump for falsifying business records, but they want

those 34 charges of what they call cooking the books

to be seen in service of that larger, more nefarious goal. And prosecutors today

took the jurors back in time to 2016.

It was the end of the presidential election and the Access Hollywood tape had just dropped.

And Donald Trump's campaign was in panic mode.

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