The first question is — is it even a misdemeanor?
$130,000 is chump change to a billionaire and he could easily get the money from his personal bank account.
Exactly what NY law did Trump break in paying for Daniel’s silence regarding the alleged affair?
He isn’t being tried for the payment itself.
He’s being tried for falsifying business records. A misdemeanor.
It becomes a felony if the records were falsified in an attempt to conceal another crime which in this case would be an illegal campaign contribution.
David Pecker testified that the efforts to hide bad stories about Trump, and push bad stories about Cruz, Carson, Clinton etc were all in an effort to help the campaign and discussed the plan with Trump and Cohen.