It gets complicated again: The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office informed the former President of the United States, Donald Trumpbecause he may face criminal charges related to the fact that he paid hush money to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, as reported tonight (between Thursday and Friday) by the “New York Times” newspaper. According to the report, prosecutors offered the former president to testify before the jury, with such offers often indicating that an indictment will be filed against the accused in the case.
The investigation in Manhattan has been going on for almost five years, when it is suspected that the president paid about 130 thousand dollars to the porn actress. The payment was allegedly made in the last days of the presidential campaigns in 2016, by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. As part of a plea agreement signed with Cohen in 2018, he admitted that he had indeed paid Daniels and that the purpose of the payments was to “influence the results of the elections”.
Donald Trump (Photo: Reuters)
Trump has previously attacked the prosecutors in the case, accusing them of a “witch hunt”. He also personally attacked the Manhattan District Attorney, Albin Bragg, and called him a “racist democrat”, who acts from a political motive. The former president’s spokesman agreed with his words, saying that “the threat of the Manhattan district attorney to file an indictment against President Trump is simply insane, it’s an embarrassment to the Democratic prosecutors and an embarrassment to the city of New York.” Even if Trump is eventually indicted, his conviction will be challenging for the prosecution. If found guilty, the former president will face a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
As mentioned, the payment in the amount of 130,000 dollars came to host that Daniels’ representatives contacted the tabloid National Enquirer, in order to offer them exclusivity about Daniels’ affair with Mr. Trump. David Packer, the tabloid’s publisher, and a Trump ally, even agreed to look for potentially damaging stories during the 2016 presidential campaign, and even agreed to buy a story from another woman who claimed to have had an affair with the former president. However, the story was never published, and instead Packer and the tabloid’s senior editor, Dylan Howard, brokered a deal between Trump’s lawyer and Daniels’ lawyers. After that, Trump paid Cohen in monthly checks.
Donald Trump (Photo: Reuters)
In the federal case against Trump’s lawyer, which as mentioned ended in a plea agreement, the prosecutors believed that the monthly checks were falsely paid as “legal expenses”. In such a case, along with the offense of falsifying documents, the second offense could also be a violation of New York State Election Law. The prosecutors can claim that the payment of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars actually became an “improper” donation for the Trump campaign, under the claim that the money was a hush money for Daniels, and it contributed to his candidacy for the presidency.
Remember, after a long period of insinuations and rumors, the former American president officially announced last November that he intends to run for president in the upcoming elections, in 2024. Since Trump has only served one term as president, there is no bar for him to run again. Trump repeated the slogans that brought him victory in 2016 and declared that “so that America will be great again, I am announcing my candidacy tonight. Until two years ago we were a great nation and we will be a great nation again.”