Michael Cohen, the lawyer-turned-critic of former President Donald Trump, was spotted Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan grand jury investigating cash payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Cohen facilitated payments between Trump and Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006, and Playboy Platmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had an affair with the businessman married.
He was the only person to go to jail for the silent payments when federal investigators looked into them. Now Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is trying to determine if any state laws were broken.
“My goal is to tell the truth,” Cohen told reporters outside the courthouse, dismissing a suggestion that he might be motivated by a desire to see Trump behind bars.
“It’s not revenge,” he continued. “It’s a question of responsibility. He must be held accountable for his dirty deeds.
Earlier Monday, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina appeared on Good Morning America and said Trump was unlikely to appear before the grand jury as well.
“We do not intend to participate in this procedure,” he said. “It’s a decision that has yet to be made. No deadline has been set.
Michael Cohen, the lawyer-turned-critic of former President Donald Trump, was spotted Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan grand jury investigating silent payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Cohen facilitated payments between Trump and Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006, and Playboy Platmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had an affair with the man. married business.
Former President Donald Trump (left) is likely to face charges for his role in silent payments to porn star Stormy Daniels (right) and Playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
They invited him to testify before a grand jury, which legal experts say is a sure sign that criminal charges will follow.
Tacopina also said he believed Trump would not be charged, although The New York Times reported on Thursday that the ex-president’s lawyers had been told he could face criminal charges over the payment of $130,000.
“I expect justice to prevail. And if it does, George, there shouldn’t be an indictment,’ Tacopina told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “I mean , this case is outrageous, really. There should be a fair amount of disgust from the bar.
“That’s not what we do,” Tacopina continued. “We twist the laws to try to sack President Trump. I don’t know if it’s because he’s leading in all the polls. I do not know what it is. But it’s clear that the prosecutor in this prosecutor’s office had planned to try to catch him – they combed his personal and professional life for seven years to try to find something.
Tacopina called Trump a ‘victim of extortion’ and said he paid Daniels out of his ‘personal funds’ in order to prevent something ’embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son’ from happening. be made public.
Tacopino continued to claim on Trump’s behalf that the affair never happened.
Trump has made similar denials on his Truth Social site in recent days.
‘I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, and I wouldn’t have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.
He then blamed those who want to prevent him from winning again in 2024, qualifying himself as the top candidate in the next presidential election.
He also claimed that ‘Congress, many Democratic district attorneys, attorneys general, and the Department of Injustice itself, which has placed top DOJ prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in an unprecedented way to of ‘getting Trump’, found that I had done nothing wrong.’
“Now they’re falling back on the old reprimanded case that was thrown out by all the DA’s offices that looked at this Stormy ‘Horseface’ Daniels case, where I relied on a lawyer to solve this extortion of me, who has took place a long time ago. Since then, I have won cases.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (pictured) office investigated whether state laws were broken over silent payments to a porn star and Playboy playmate on behalf of Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump has reacted with vitriol on social media after a report that he will likely face charges for his role in silent payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election .
Prosecutors have given Trump the opportunity to appear before a state grand jury that has been meeting since January and hearing evidence in the case, usually a sign that an individual will be charged.
Several of Trump’s top advisers have been spotted in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in recent days, including former adviser to the president Kellyanne Conway and former White House communications director Hope Hicks.
An impeachment of Trump will go down in American history because no former president of the United States has ever faced criminal charges after leaving office.
President Richard Nixon, who left office due to his role in the Watergate break-in, was pardoned by his Republican successor, President Gerald Ford, before criminal charges could be brought.
An indictment of Trump could also complicate the 2024 presidential election, as he announced his candidacy in November and continues to lead most GOP polls.
If Trump were found guilty — which is a long shot — he would face up to four years in prison, although the sentence is not mandatory, the Times said.
Trump has already escaped felony indictment for his role in the silent payments by federal investigators.
Cohen was the only person caught in the federal investigation.
After the federal investigation was completed, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg opened the investigation to see if any New York state laws had been violated.
Kellyanne Conway was spotted in New York on Wednesday entering one of the Manhattan District Attorney’s offices as part of Stormy Daniels’ undercover investigation involving former President Donald Trump.
Bragg’s prosecutors have not completed their work before the grand jury and he may decide not to press charges, The Times reported.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has already brought six witnesses before the grand jury, the newspaper said.
Cohen met with prosecutors 18 times over several iterations of the investigation, he told The Associated Press after another meeting with them last week.
He said the investigation is “really moving forward” and he expects to be called before the grand jury soon.
“The level of specificity at which they attack the various issues is extraordinary,” the former Trump attorney said.
In his book, he also ties Conway — who made headlines this week due to her divorce from Trump critic husband George — to the silent payment, writing that she was the person who informed Trump that Daniels had been paid.
Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, said ‘she would pass on the good news’ to Trump, once Cohen gave Daniels the money, Cohen wrote in her 2020 memoir. , Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former. Personal attorney for President Donald J. Trump.
Conway ignored reporters on Wednesday when she walked into Bragg’s office in lower Manhattan.
Trump’s actions are also under scrutiny in Georgia, as Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis investigates whether crimes were committed when Trump and his allies tried to overturn election results. 2020 presidential.
Additionally, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to oversee Justice Department investigations into whether Trump mishandled classified documents when he left office and his efforts to undo President Joe’s victory. Biden in 2020.
