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The Justice Department for the first time connects Trump to a federal crime when saying that Trump directed illegal payments to buy the silence of two women who claimed having sexual affairs with Trump
Saturday, December 08, 2018
Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen - Donald Trump - Adult Film star Stormy Daniels |
Donald Trump and Adult Film staer Stormy Daniels |
Jessica Drake (R), who works for an adult film company, stands with a photo of her meeting with Donald Trump, beside attorney Gloria Allred as they talk about allegations of sexual misconduct against the Republican presidential hopeful during a press conference in Los Angeles on October 22, 2016. (Credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
VietPress USA (Dec. 8, 2018): The VLADTV on Jan. 12,
2018 wrote: "The Wall Street Journal recently published a report that
Michael Cohen, a Trump Organization lawyer at the time and now Trump's personal
lawyer, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual
encounter with the President.
According to the Journal, Trump paid
Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, a month before the presidential
election as part of a nondisclosure agreement. This was also around the same
time that the now-infamous Access Hollywood "grab them by the p***y"
tape was released.
Clifford reportedly told sources interviewed by
the Journal that she and Trump had a consensual sexual encounter in 2006, a
year after marrying Melania, while in Lake Tahoe."
Trump denied the hush money, but after that
Trump confirmed that he repaid the amount of USD130,000.00 back to his longtime
personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump then fired Michael Cohen and FBI raided
Cohen's office, home and hotel and seized many documents and tapes related to
Trump business, including the taped recorded by Cohen about Trump and Cohen
discussion on the hush money to the women.
In last August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal
charges, including campaign finance violations, and detailed an illegal
operation to stifle sex stories and distribute hush money to buy the silence of
porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who had
both claimed they had affairs with Trump. Trump has denied having an affair.
But today on Dec. 8, 2018, AP News reported that the Justice
Department says that President Donald Trump directed illegal payments to buy
the silence of two women whose claims of extramarital affairs threatened his
presidential campaign, the first time prosecutors have connected Trump to a
federal crime.
Read this news from AP on Yahoo News at:
https://news.yahoo.com/prosecutors-illegal-hush-money-paid-trumps-direction-022350118--politics.html
VietPress USA News
For first time, prosecutors connect Trump to a federal crime
MICHAEL BALSAMO,
In a court filing , prosecutors said former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen arranged the secret payments at the height of the 2016 campaign "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump. Cohen has previously said Trump was involved in the hush-money scheme, but court documents filed ahead of Cohen's sentencing made clear prosecutors believe Cohen's claim.
The filing stopped short of accusing the president of committing a crime. Whether a president can be prosecuted while in office remains a matter of legal dispute.
But there's no ambiguity in Friday's filing that prosecutors believe Cohen's act was criminal and Trump was directly involved, a remarkable disclosure with potential political and legal ramifications for a president dogged by investigations. The payments are likely to become a target for House Democrats gearing up to investigate the president next year. It's unclear whether Trump faces legal jeopardy over his role.
Federal law requires that any payments made "for the purposes of influencing" an election must be reported in campaign finance disclosures. The court filing Friday makes clear that the payments were made to benefit Trump politically.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign finance violations, and detailed an illegal operation to stifle sex stories and distribute hush money to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who had both claimed they had affairs with Trump. Trump has denied having an affair.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement signed days before the 2016 election and is currently suing to dissolve that contract.
Trump denied in April that he knew anything about Cohen's payments to Daniels, though the explanations from the president and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have shifted multiple times since then.
Another attorney for the president, Jay Sekulow, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Trump, in a Saturday morning tweet, said: "AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!
In August 2016, the National Enquirer's parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. In 2015, the company's chairman met with Cohen and Trump and "offered help with negative stories" about Trump's relationships with women by buying the rights to the stories, prosecutors said.
After McDougal contacted the Enquirer, the chairman of its parent company, American Media Inc., contacted Cohen about the story. After Cohen promised the company would be reimbursed, the Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000, according to court documents.
An audio recording released by Cohen in July appeared to capture Trump and Cohen discussing buying the rights to McDougal's story from the Enquirer's parent company. Trump's lawyers have said the payments were never made.
Legal experts have said the issue of whether Trump violated the law would come down to whether Trump tried to influence the election and whether he knew it was legally improper.
Former Sen. John Edwards, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, was indicted in 2011 in connection with payments made on his behalf by a wealthy campaign donor to keep Edwards' mistress quiet, which prosecutors argued amounted to illegal campaign contributions.
Edwards argued the payments were meant to keep his wife from learning about the affair — not to protect his campaign — and were therefore not political donations.
A jury acquitted the North Carolina Democrat of one charge and deadlocked on the rest in 2012. The Justice Department did not retry the case.
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