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A hush money payment made to an adult film actress nearly seven years ago is at the center of a criminal probe that could potentially result in criminal charges filed against a former U.S. president.
Former President Donald Trump is currently under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office as part of a probe into a payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential race.
No current or former U.S. president has ever been indicted for criminal conduct.MORE: Trump could still be elected president if indicted or convicted, experts say
The hush money probe had languished even as other investigations into Trump moved forward — until Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury to revive the probe at the start of this year, according to sources.
Trump was invited to appear before the grand jury in recent weeks, sources , in a sign that the DA could be moving closer to a charging decision. The former president’s attorney said Trump has no plans to testify. Trump himself speculated over the weekend that he would be arrested Tuesday in the probe, but Tuesday passed with no action on the DA’s part.What is the case about?
The investigation centers around a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels just days before the 2016 election by Trump’s then-attorney, Michael Cohen, in order to prevent her from going public with her allegations of a 2006 affair with Trump, which he has long denied.
Cohen executed the transaction through a shell corporation, Essential Consultants LLC, which Cohen had set up just days prior, according to court filings.
„Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign,“ Cohen testified before Congress in 2019.
When Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment, his company logged the payments as a „monthly retainer“ for Cohen’s legal services, according to Trump and court documents from Cohen’s subsequent plea deal. Prosecutors are considering whether Trump should be charged with falsifying business records, sources say.
Trump initially claimed he didn’t know about the payment to Daniels, telling reporters in April 2018 to „ask Michael Cohen“ about where the money came from. But a month later he posted to Twitter that the payment to Daniels was part of a nondisclosure agreement to keep her from making false accusations.
„Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA,“ Trump tweeted.
