A New York grand jury voted Thursday to charge former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in a case related to paying porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence, according to The New York Times. The newspaper, which quotes four people familiar with the matter, points out that the first indictment for criminal offenses against a former US president will be announced in the coming days and by then the Manhattan Prosecutor’s Office will have asked Trump to turn himself in to be summoned for the charges, which are not yet known.
The grand jury, a body that studies cases and decides whether or not there is a basis for holding a trial, has been followed with great media attention since Trump himself assured ten days ago that its 23 members were going to confirm his accusation and immediately afterwards he would be arrested, which finally did not occur.
As of Wednesday, it was believed that the grand jury would postpone its decision until the end of April.
For its part, The Wall Street Journal maintains that the grand jury has examined in its latest meetings -which are not public, so their content is only known through leaks- a second case of another Playboy model who also accuses Trump of having paid him in exchange for keeping quiet about a sexual relationship.
The model Karen McDougal, who was “Playboy girl” of the year in 1998, says she had a sexual relationship with Trump for ten months in 2006, and reached an agreement to publish her story with The National Enquirer in exchange for $150,000 (137,500 euros at today’s exchange rate), but the newspaper -whose owner is a friend of Trump- bought his testimony to hide it.
The detail is important, because it would mean that the accusation of Stormy Daniels is no longer isolated and that there is a pattern of conduct on the part of Trump, which makes his guilt more likely.