好英语网关于特朗普面临的刑事指控，你应该知道的
Criminal charges against Donald J. Trump were unveiled on Tuesday, as prosecutors accused him of participating in a scheme to cover up potential sex scandals during the 2016 presidential campaign.
周二，针对特朗普的刑事指控公之于众，检察官指控他在2016年总统竞选期间参与了一个旨在阻止性丑闻曝光的阴谋计划。
Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, all of them focused on his involvement in the payment of hush money to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with him.
特朗普对34项伪造商业记录的重罪指控拒不认罪，所有这些指控都集中在他参与了向色情明星斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付封口费的问题上，后者称她与特朗普有婚外情。
曼哈顿地区检察官阿尔文·布拉格紧盯特朗普参与向色情明星斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付封口费一事，后者称自己与特朗普有染。
Mr. Trump was indicted last week, becoming the first current or former American president to be charged with a crime. His arraignment on Tuesday was the culmination of a nearly five-year investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and it also sets in motion a lengthy legal process. Any potential trial would likely be next year at the earliest.
特朗普于上周被提起公诉，成为现任或前任美国总统当中面临刑事指控的第一人。周二的传讯是曼哈顿地区检察官办公室为期近五年的调查的成果，同时也标志着一个漫长的法律程序的启动。任何可能的审判最早会在明年进行。
What happens next?
接下来会发生什么？
In the coming months, prosecutors and defense lawyers will exchange documents and evidence and file motions.
在接下来的几个月里，检察官和辩护律师将交换文件和证据，并提出动议。
Under New York law, the district attorney’s office must turn over most of its evidence to the defense — a process called discovery — within 65 days of a defendant’s first appearance in court.
根据纽约州法律，在被告首次出庭后的65天内，地区检察官办公室必须将大部分证据移交给辩方——这一过程称为证据开示。
Prosecutors said at Tuesday’s hearing that discovery would not start until they and defense lawyers agreed on a protective order governing how the materials would be handled or discussed.
检察官在周二的听证会上说，在他们和辩护律师就一项保护令达成一致，从而明确处理或讨论这些材料的规则之前，不会启动证据开示程序。
Prosecutors are seeking to prohibit Mr. Trump from posting evidence on social media or otherwise providing it to the media. They have also asked that Mr. Trump only be allowed to review certain sensitive case material in his lawyers’ office and that he be prevented from using evidence in the case for political purposes. Mr. Trump’s lawyers objected to at least one of those requests, and the protective order had not yet been finalized on Tuesday.
检察官正在寻求禁止特朗普在社交媒体上发布证据，或以其他方式把证据提供给媒体。他们还要求特朗普只能在他的律师的办公室查看某些敏感的案件材料，并防止他将案件中的证据用于政治目的。特朗普的律师团队至少反对其中一项请求，保护令在周二未能最终敲定。
How might Trump’s legal team respond?
特朗普的法律团队会如何回应？
One of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, said before Tuesday’s hearing that he anticipated filing a motion to dismiss the case — an attempt to have the charges thrown out entirely.
特朗普的律师团队成员约瑟夫·塔科皮纳在周二的听证会前表示，他预计将提出撤案动议——力求完全撤销这些指控。
Such motions are routinely filed but seldom result in dismissal. After the arraignment, Mr. Tacopina said that it was too soon to talk about specific details.
此类动议很常见，但很少会导致撤案。传讯结束后，塔科皮纳说，现在谈论具体细节还为时过早。
Mr. Trump’s lawyers might also seek to have the case moved to another court, another long-shot motion known as a change of venue. The former president has written repeatedly on Truth Social, the social network that he founded, that he does not believe he can get a fair trial in Manhattan, a liberal enclave where he is deeply unpopular. He suggested the trial be moved to the far more conservative borough of Staten Island.
特朗普的律师团队可能还会寻求将案件转移至其他法院，即改变庭审地点，这也是一项难以成功的动议。这位前总统曾多次在他创建的社交网络“真实社交”上写道，他不相信自己能在曼哈顿得到公平的审判。曼哈顿是一块自由派飞地，他在那里非常不受欢迎。他建议将审判转移到更为保守的斯塔滕岛。
The judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, set a deadline for Mr. Trump’s lawyers to file all their motions by Aug. 8. Prosecutors will have until Sept. 19 to respond.
负责此案的法官胡安·M·默钦为特朗普的律师设定了在8月8日前提交所有动议的最后期限。检方将在9月19日之前做出回应。
When is the next scheduled hearing in the case?
案件的下一次听证会安排在什么时候？
Justice Merchan has set the next hearing in Mr. Trump’s case, when he will rule on motions, for Dec. 4.
默钦大法官已将下一次听证会的时间安排在12月4日，届时他将对动议做出裁决。
Prosecutors said they would like a trial to begin in early January 2024, but Mr. Trump’s lawyers have said that is too soon and that they are looking toward a date later in the spring. Justice Merchan has not yet set a date.
检察官表示，他们希望能在2024年1月初开始庭审，但特朗普的律师团队表示，这个时间太早，他们希望在春季晚些时候。默钦法官尚未确定日期。
So why was Donald Trump indicted?
特朗普因何受到公诉？
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, began scrutinizing the hush-money payment to Ms. Daniels — which was made by Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s fixer at the time — last summer. Prosecutors impaneled a grand jury in January, and the jurors voted to indict Mr. Trump last week.
去年夏天，曼哈顿地区检察官阿尔文·L·布拉格开始调查丹尼尔斯封口费一案，这笔钱是由当时特朗普的平事人迈克尔·D·科恩支付的。检方于今年1月选定大陪审团，其成员在上周表决起诉特朗普。
At first, Ms. Daniels’s representatives contacted The National Enquirer in an attempt to sell the exclusive rights to her story. David Pecker, the tabloid’s publisher and a longtime ally of Mr. Trump, had agreed to look out for potentially damaging stories about him during the 2016 campaign, and at one point even agreed to buy the story of another woman’s affair with Mr. Trump and never publish it, a practice known as “catch and kill.”
丹尼尔斯的代理人起初联系了《国家问询报》，试图出售独家报道权。这家小报的出版人戴维·派克是特朗普的长期盟友，曾答应在2016年竞选期间留意可能有损特朗普声誉的报道，甚至一度同意购买另一名女性与特朗普有染的新闻并彻底压下，这种手段被称为“捕杀”。
But Mr. Pecker didn’t purchase Ms. Daniels’s story. Instead, he and the tabloid’s top editor, Dylan Howard, helped broker a separate deal between Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels’s lawyer.
但派克没有买下丹尼尔斯这件事的报道权。相反，他与该小报主编迪伦·霍华德帮助科恩和丹尼尔斯的律师达成了另一项协议。
Mr. Cohen paid $130,000, and Mr. Trump later reimbursed him after he had won the election and taken office.
科恩支付了13万美元，特朗普在赢得大选并上任之后给他报销了费用。
In 2018, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to a number of federal crimes, including campaign finance violations involving the hush money. The payment, the federal prosecutors concluded, amounted to an improper donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign.
2018年，科恩承认了多项联邦罪名，包括与支付封口费相关的竞选财务违规行为。联邦检察官的结论是，这笔钱相当于对特朗普竞选活动的不当捐赠。
In the days after Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea, the district attorney’s office opened its own criminal investigation into the matter. While the federal prosecutors were focused on Mr. Cohen, the district attorney’s inquiry would center on Mr. Trump.
科恩认罪后不久，地方检察官办公室就对此案展开了独立刑事调查。联邦检察官只关注了科恩，但地方检察官的调查重点是特朗普。
So what did Mr. Trump potentially do wrong?
特朗普可能犯了什么法？
When pleading guilty in federal court, Mr. Cohen pointed the finger at his boss. It was Mr. Trump, he said, who directed him to pay off Ms. Daniels, a contention that federal prosecutors later corroborated.
科恩在联邦法庭认罪时将矛头指向了他的老板。他说，是特朗普指示他付钱给丹尼尔斯，联邦检察官后来证实了这一主张。
Those prosecutors also raised questions about Mr. Trump’s monthly reimbursement checks to Mr. Cohen. They said in court papers that Mr. Trump’s company “falsely accounted” for the monthly payments as legal expenses and that company records cited a retainer agreement with Mr. Cohen. Although Mr. Cohen was a lawyer and became Mr. Trump’s personal attorney after he took office, there was no such retainer agreement, and the reimbursement was unrelated to any legal services Mr. Cohen performed.
检方还对特朗普每月支付给科恩的报销支票提出质询。他们在法庭文件中表示，特朗普的公司将每月支付的费用“虚报”为法律费用，公司记录中还引用了一份科恩的聘用协议。科恩虽然曾是律师，并在特朗普上任后成了他的私人律师，但没有相关聘用协议为证，而这些报销费用与科恩提供的任何法律服务都没有关系。
Mr. Cohen has said that Mr. Trump knew about the phony retainer agreement, an accusation that could form the basis of the case against the former president.
科恩曾表示，特朗普清楚虚假聘用协议的存在，这一指控可能成为这位前总统受审的基础。
In New York, falsifying business records can amount to a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. To elevate the crime to a felony charge, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors must show that Mr. Trump’s “intent to defraud” included an intent to commit or conceal a second crime.
在纽约，伪造商业记录可能构成犯罪，但只属于轻罪。要将其上升为重罪，布拉格手下的检察官必须证明特朗普的“欺诈意图”包括实施或隐瞒二次犯罪的意图。
Prosecutors do not have to charge Mr. Trump with that secondary crime, or prove that he committed it. They have not yet said definitively what crime or crimes they intend to rely on to escalate the charges to a felony level.
检方不一定以次生犯罪对特朗普提起指控，也不需要拿出其证明。他们尚未明确打算依据哪一项或几项罪行将指控升级为重罪。
Will it be a tough case to prove?
举证会否很困难？
Convicting Mr. Trump or sending him to prison could be challenging. For one thing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have already begun attacking Mr. Cohen’s credibility by citing his criminal record. Prosecutors may counter that the former fixer lied years ago on behalf of his boss at the time and is now in the best position to detail Mr. Trump’s conduct.
将特朗普定罪或判刑可能非常困难。首先，特朗普的律师已经开始列举科恩的犯罪记录，以此打击他的可信度。检方可能反驳称，这位前平事人多年前就曾为他的上司撒谎，现在是最适合详细揭露特朗普行径的人选。
According to legal experts, New York prosecutors have never before combined the falsifying business records charge with a violation of state election law in a case involving a presidential election, or any federal campaign. If the prosecutors choose to use a state election law as a secondary crime — a possibility that Mr. Bragg mentioned on Tuesday — it is possible that a judge could throw it out or reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor.
法律专家表示，在涉及总统大选或任何联邦竞选的案件中，纽约检察官从未将伪造商业记录的指控与违反州选举法的行为结合起来。如果检方将州选举法作为次生犯罪——布拉格在周二提及这种可能性——法官可能将其驳回，或将重罪指控降为轻罪。
Even if the charge is allowed to stand, it amounts to a low-level felony. If Mr. Trump were ultimately convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of four years, though prison time would not be mandatory.
即便这项指控成立，也相当于低级别的重罪。如果特朗普最终被定罪，他将面临最高四年的有期徒刑，但刑期并不是强制性的。
How did Mr. Trump respond to the charges?
特朗普如何回应这些指控？
Mr. Trump spoke little during his arraignment, saying fewer than a dozen words. He did not speak to reporters in New York, instead returning to Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where he gave a speech decrying the case against him.
特朗普在传讯过程中几乎没有说话，只说了不到十几个字。他没有在纽约接受记者采访，而是回到他在佛罗里达州棕榈滩的度假地马阿拉歌庄园。在那里，他发表演讲，谴责针对他的案件。
Surrounded by his family and Republican Party officials, Mr. Trump called Mr. Bragg a “criminal,” asserting without evidence that the Manhattan district attorney had leaked information from the grand jury.
在家人和共和党官员的簇拥下，特朗普称布拉格为“罪犯”，并在没有证据的情况下断言，这位曼哈顿地区检察官泄露了大陪审团的信息。
He also accused Justice Merchan of bias, labeling him “a Trump-hating judge” and attacking his family.
他还指责默钦法官有偏见，称他是“仇视特朗普的法官”，并攻击法官的家人。
Throughout the investigation, Mr. Trump has said the district attorney’s inquiry and others he is facing are politically motivated. Shortly after he was indicted, he called the Manhattan grand jury’s decision “political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”
在整个调查过程中，特朗普一直表示，地区检察官的调查以及他面临的其他调查都是出于政治动机。在被起诉后不久，他称曼哈顿大陪审团的决定是“历史上最高程度的政治迫害和选举干预”。
Yet even as Mr. Trump was blasting prosecutors, his campaign used the criminal charges against him in a fund-raising push, creating a $36 T-shirt an image mocked up to look like the former president’s mug shot — even though the authorities did not take a booking photo when Mr. Trump was in custody.
然而，就在特朗普猛烈抨击检察官的时候，他的竞选团队却利用对他的刑事指控来筹集资金，他们制作了一件价值36美元的T恤，其图案模拟了这位前总统的入狱大头照——尽管当局在扣押特朗普期间没有拍摄登记照片。