Former President Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The grand jury indictment is under seal. At this point, it is unclear exactly what the former president has been charged with, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
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These include the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and the $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
hush money payments made to both McDougal and Daniels, revealed and reported by Fox News in 2018, were allegedly made to prevent them from going public with details of alleged affairs with Trump–affairs Trump has repeatedly denied.
Those payments had been investigated by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
TRUMP INDICTED AFTER MANHATTAN GIVES PROBE FOR HUSH MONEY PAYMENTS
Here’s what you need to know about the payments:
In 2016, then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen, in the weeks before the presidential election, issued a $130,000 payment to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
In September 2016, Cohen also arranged the $150,000 payment to McDougal, through the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc.
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The payments to Daniels were first revealed in January 2018 in a Wall Street Journal report that said Cohen and Daniels’ lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump, who sit at the heart of a potential historic first indictment against a former US president. (AP)
At the time, though, Cohen, Trump, and even Stormy Daniels denied the arrangement.
In January 2018, Cohen said the alleged encounter between Daniels and Trump was a rumor that had circulated “since 2011.”
And in a letter dated Jan. 10, 2018, obtained and reviewed by Fox News, Daniels also denied the allegations.
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“I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false,” Daniels wrote. “My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.”
Michael Cohen leaves his apartment to report to prison. May 6, 2019. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY/File Photo)
Daniels wrote in the letter that when she met Trump, he was “gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence.”
“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” the letter read. “If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true .”
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But in March 2018, Daniels changed her story. During an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Daniels claimed she had a one-time, unprotected sexual encounter with Trump.
At the time, Trump said he was not aware of the payment made to Daniels.
When asked in April 2018 why Cohen made the payment, Trump responded: “You have to ask Michael Cohen — Michael’s my attorney.”
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Initially, there were questions about whether the non-disclosure agreement that was signed by Daniels — but not by Trump — was valid.
Daniels began legal efforts to depose Trump and Cohen over the payment. She also filed a defamation suit against Cohen, following a cease-and-desist letter sent by Cohen’s attorney that directed her to refrain from any further “false and defamatory” statements about Cohen following her de ella tell-all “60 Minutes” interview.
Both Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels denied reports of a ‘hush money’ payoff in January 2018. (Reuters)
By 2017, Cohen was facing his own legal trouble. A federal investigation into Cohen began in 2017, a year before the FBI raided his home and his business.
In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, after pleading guilty to federal charges that included lying to Congress, campaign-finance violations and tax evasion. The charges against Cohen arose from two separate investigations – one by federal prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the other by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
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Cohen pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, and hiding the fact that he continued to speak with Russians about the proposal well into the 2016 presidential campaign.
In the New York case, prosecutors accused Cohen of a years-long “tax evasion scheme” to avoid paying federal income taxes on more than $4 million made through a number of ventures, including through his ownership of taxi medallions, his selling of real estate in Florida and his consulting work for other clients.
Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the $130,000 payment to Daniels and a payment of $150,000 to model Karen McDougal to prevent them from going public with alleged affairs with Trump. Trump has repeatedly denied those alleged encounters.
As for the McDougal payments, American Media Inc. allegedly bought McDougal’s story from her, in which she claimed a past affair with then-candidate Donald Trump, for $150,000 in September 2016—weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Federal prosecutors in SDNY decided in 2018 not to bring charges against American Media Inc. for spending $150,000 to buy, then conceal, McDougal’s story.
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At the time, American Media Inc., “admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”
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Meanwhile, as part of his plea deal and during the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, Cohen said that Trump directed the payments.
As recently as this month, Cohen told Fox News Digital that the payments were made “at the direction of, in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald.”
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which logged the payments as “legal expenses.”
President Trump and his legal team have denied making a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal. (Bennett Raglin 2010)
The Trump Organization “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed the 2018 criminal charges against Cohen for the payments.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made, and has repeatedly said the payments were “not a campaign violation,” but rather a “simple private transaction.”
Federal prosecutors in the US attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal.
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Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. opened an investigation into Trump in 2019. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
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The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into Trump was opened in 2019 by then-DA Cyrus Vance. The probe was focused on possible bank, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially involved financial deals of Trump’s Manhattan properties, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre Seven Springs estate in Westchester.
The investigation last year led to tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization, and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty.
A view of Trump Tower in New York City on January 13, 2023. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Alvin Bragg took over the investigation into Trump last January when he became district attorney. At the time, Bragg expressed doubts about the case, and suspended the investigation, leading two top prosecutors, Mark Pomerantz and Casey Dunne, to resign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on September 08, 2022. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Pomerantz published a book this year, criticizing Bragg.
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Despite federal prosecutors and the FEC opting out of bringing charges against Trump, Bragg continued to pursue felony charges against the former president, signaled by the empaneling of a grand jury in the investigation.
