President Trump faces new legal troubles stemming from recent developments in the sprawling federal investigations into his associates and 2016 campaign. It’s unclear what legal…
President Trump faces new legal troubles stemming from recent developments in the sprawling federal investigations into his associates and 2016 campaign.
It’s unclear what legal jeopardy, if any, Trump might be in, and longstanding Justice Department guidelines state that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
But the sentencing of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and revelation that the parent company of the National Enquirer has turned state’s evidence establish clear links between the president and illegal actions his former allies say he directed.
Cohen and American Media Inc. (AMI) now say they made payments to a former Playboy model and adult film actress to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, a move that federal prosecutors say was a campaign finance violation. The two women — Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels — allege they had extramarital affairs with Trump, and the government says he directed the payments with the intention of buying their silence in the weeks before Election Day.
Those new admissions conflict with Trump’s evolving explanations for the payments. The president earlier this year denied any knowledge of the hush-money arrangements but has said in recent days that the payments were legal.
Even though Trump has been implicated in a federal crime, he has not been directly accused of violating the law. And Justice Department rules could prevent prosecutors from bringing charges against him while he is in office.
Nonetheless, legal experts say Trump’s legal exposure is serious.
“It’s just another domino falling,” said Elie Honig, former assistant U. S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “If he wasn’t president, he’d be expecting an indictment any day.”
While the payments to Daniels and McDougal appear to pose the most danger to Trump, new prongs of the investigation begun by special counsel Robert Mueller are sprouting up and moving closer to the besieged president.
Federal investigators are said to be probing the Trump Organization’s role in the hush-money payments, and they could acquire a valuable witness in Allen Weisselberg, its chief financial officer. He has worked for Trump for decades and was deeply involved in the president’s business practices.
Prosecutors reportedly struck an immunity deal with Weisselberg during the Cohen investigation, but it remains unclear what information, if any, he has provided to the U.
