Trump’s Scandals Captivate the Courtroom, but Case Hangs on Dry Details

Donald J. Trump is on trial for 34 felony counts of what could be the dullest sounding crime in New York’s penal code: falsifying business records.

Yet, across nine witnesses and two weeks of testimony, jurors have been treated to hours of mesmerizing courtroom theater.

There was talk of a sex scandal with a porn star, a surreptitious recording of a future president and the tearful testimony of a former confidante in the glare of the witness stand. There was even a celebrity roll call: Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and the reality television star Tila Tequila were all name-checked this week, drawing chuckles in the Lower Manhattan courtroom.

The phrase “falsifying business records,” however, was not uttered to the jury during testimony. Not even once.

That striking omission underscores the prosecution’s strategy for the opening phase of testimony: Spotlight the sleaze, and soft-pedal the records. Although the defense has already taken a swipe at the approach, legal experts say it represents the prosecution’s best shot at winning the case, the first criminal trial of an American president.

In their opening statement, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office previewed the false records to the jurors, casting them as straightforward paper “lies” that covered up a hush-money payment to the porn star. But tying Mr. Trump to those records is hardly simple. Only one witness directly links Mr. Trump to falsifying the records, and that person, as the defense is fond of noting, is a convicted liar.