Stormy Daniels: Donald Trump legal team ‘pushing to end money case’ | Donald Trump

[ad_1]

Donald Trump’s legal team recently urged the Manhattan district attorney’s office not to prosecute the former president over his role in paying hush money to a porn star, arguing that the payments were made without regard to his 2016 presidential candidacy, sources familiar with the matter said. said.

The lawyer who represented the Trump team at the meeting with the district attorney’s office, Susan Necheles, also argued that the campaign funds were not used for payments to the porn star, known as Stormy Daniels, and therefore not a campaign finance violation. laws.

The arguments presented to the district attorney’s office mark the most formal defense the Trump team has mounted to date, as they try to craft a strategy to avoid conviction in the event the former president is charged with a misdemeanor or felony. on payments.

Trump may face an uphill battle with those arguments, given the fact that having “mixed motives” to protect himself personally and to protect his campaign could leave him liable, and the timing of the payments suggests that there is a need to pay the money before the end of the 2016 campaign.

Efforts to convince the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, not to file charges may also prove futile amid mounting signs that an indictment is likely.

On Wednesday, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified for about two hours before the grand jury and told the Guardian he gave the most complete account of the hush money scheme. He added that each juror asked one question, which suggested a particularly dedicated grand jury.

That’s a typical sign for prosecutors as they weigh potential charges, legal experts say, because it could indicate a grand jury found him a persuasive witness — and a jury in a trial on finally can be convinced too.

Cohen is the key witness because he made the $130,000 payment to Daniels in late October 2016, buying her silence about the story of an affair with Trump. Trump later paid him as president, with monthly $35,000 checks from his personal checking account, and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges involving hush money.

The district attorney’s case is likely to focus on how Trump and the Trump Organization handled the reimbursements. According to court filings in the federal case, the Trump Organization falsely recorded the payments as legal expenses, referring to a legal retainer to Cohen that did not exist.

Falsifying business records can be a misdemeanor in New York. But it can rise to a felony if prosecutors can show beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant’s “intent to defraud” included an effort to commit or conceal a second crime.

What is unclear in this investigation is the potential secondary crime, though Bragg could tie the forgery to a violation of state election law, arguing the payment to Daniels was a prohibited contribution to the Trump campaign, because the money kept Daniels going and helped his campaign.

Also Wednesday, Daniels himself met with the district attorney’s office at their request, his attorney said in a tweet. Daniels responded to the questions, he said, “and agreed to make himself a witness, or for further questioning if necessary”.

The district attorney’s office has questioned at least seven other people before the grand jury and Cohen is expected to be one of the last witnesses to take the stand. Trump was also recently invited to testify, but his legal team is understood to have declined the offer.

The district attorney’s recent moves suggest that criminal charges against Trump may be imminent. It is rare for a prosecutor to question every relevant witness in a high-profile white-collar criminal case and ultimately decline to plead guilty.

[ad_2]