Donald Trump’s role in Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ payments examined by Manhattan grand jury

Donald Trump’s role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels will be under the microscope of a grand jury today, it was reported on Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office are laying out their case, which could potentially lead to criminal charges, according to the New York Times. 

She claims to have slept with Trump in 2006, which the former president denies. He was married to former First Lady Melania Trump, who had given birth to their son Barron less than six months before their brief fling. 

Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen previously admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to keep her silent during the 2016 campaign. 

Former President Donald Trump has maintained his denial of the alleged 2006 affair with porn star Stormy Daniels

Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law in 2018 and sentenced to three years in prison for arranging the payment and a nondisclosure agreement. 

He told a judge at the time that they were made ‘in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.’

Now, with Trump several years out of office and running another campaign, witnesses are set to begin speaking before the New York City grand jury as prosecutors make their case for why the former president should be charged. 

Trump’s former ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen admitted to paying hush money to Daniels over the matter

On Monday, among the witnesses seen arriving at the Manhattan judicial proceedings was reportedly David Pecker, former publisher of The National Enquirer.

He previously admitted to prosecutors that he worked ‘in concert’ with the Trump 2016 campaign to arrange hush money payments for Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

A statement from the Manhattan DA’s office at the time said he helped facilitate the payments so the women would ‘not publicize damaging allegations’ about Trump.

Other expected witnesses include former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and two Trump Organization employees, according to the Times. 

It was revealed late last week that federal prosecutors had discussed charging Trump with campaign finance violations over the payments to Daniels and McDougal after he’d left office.

While Justice Department guidance cautioned against charging a sitting president, there were conversations on whether to use the evidence complied from prosecuting Cohen in 2018 to go after Trump when his term was over, according to the book “Untouchable” by CNN analyst Elie Honig.

But that was apparently derailed by the chaos of that month, including the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Honig wrote that such national crises made alleged campaign financial fouls ‘seem somehow trivial and outdated by comparison.’