This Thursday, a New York grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in a case related to paying porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence. With this indictment he became the first former president of the United States to face criminal charges.
The 76-year-old former president, a candidate for the presidency of the United States again in the 2024 elections, is being investigated for paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to allegedly buy her silence for an alleged ten-year extramarital affair before, denied by Trump.
Donald Trump was charged: what is known about the case
Prosecutor Alvin Bragg is believed to be considering filing charges in the bribery case, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before a jury. Local police chiefs are bracing for potential public safety consequences as a result of an unprecedented indictment of a former US president.
But no deadline was publicly announced for the grand jury’s work, which is done in secret. Testimony is awaited from at least one other witness, indicating that a possible indictment has not been put to a vote, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so publicly.
Separately, the grand jury in Manhattan has been listening to witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who alleges he arranged payments in 2016 to two women to stop talking about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump over a decade ago. before.
Trump denies any such encounters occurred, maintains he did nothing wrong and that the investigation is actually part of a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor hell-bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Prosecutor Bragg was apparently looking into whether state laws were violated in connection with the alleged payments or how Cohen was compensated by Trump’s company for his work to silence the two women.
Cohen said that, under Trump’s orders, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payments were to stop them from talking about their relationship with Trump, who was in the midst of his first presidential campaign.
Daniels and at least two former Trump aides, former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks, are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.
*News in development