US justice is interested in a payment made to buy the silence of the porn star, in the final stretch of the billionaire’s presidential campaign in 2016.
It would be a first for a former US president. Speaking of himself in the third person and writing, as usual, in capital letters, Donald Trump affirmed on his social network Truth Social, Saturday March 18, that he was going to be “stopped” Tuesday. Entangled in several legal cases, the ex-tenant of the White House, already a candidate for re-election in 2024, has hinted that he could be caught by justice in the scandal Stormy Daniels, from the stage name of a star porn that claimed to have had sex with the billionaire.
No confirmation of this possible date of arrest has been communicated by the American justice. But the Manhattan prosecutor is indeed interested in a payment made to buy the silence of the porn actress, while the Republican was in the home stretch of his victorious presidential campaign in 2016. Franceinfo summarizes this for you long judicial and political soap opera.
1Stormy Daniels claims to have had sex with Donald Trump, who denies
According to him, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, met Donald Trump for the first time in 2006, during a golf tournament organized on the shores of Lake Tahoe, straddling the states of California and Nevada. The future president has been married to Melania for a year. Her exchanges with Stormy Daniels would have resulted, according to her, in a consensual sexual relationship, and the promise, never kept, of Donald Trump to make her participate in his reality show “The Apprentice”. The billionaire and the actress remained in contact for several months, before not speaking to each other, she says.
Before 2018 and the tipping of the affair in the public sphere, Stormy Daniels does not mention this relationship, except in an interview granted in 2011, and initially unpublished, to the magazine In Touch (in English). In 2018, she again recounted her meeting with Donald Trump and their sexual relationship during an interview with CBS television. (in English)in which she also reveals that she was threatened as a result of this relationship by men of the ex-president, and in an autobiographical work entitled Full Disclosure. For his part, Donald Trump still denies having had a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels.
2 The press reveals a financial agreement concluded in the middle of the presidential campaign
Ten years later, at the heart of the 2016 American presidential campaign, negotiations are being played out behind the scenes to prevent embarrassing outbursts targeting the Republican candidate. In August, the tabloid The National Enquirerwhose boss is close to Donald Trump, buys for 150,000 dollars from a model, former playmate of the magazine Playboy, Karen McDougal, the rights to her story about a sexual relationship she claims to have had with the billionaire. Purpose of the operation: cover up the affair. A technique known as catch and kill (“catch and eliminate”) in the United States, where confidentiality clauses are common.
For her part, Stephanie Clifford is put in contact with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. This faithful of the faithful, nicknamed the “pitbull”, will pay, at the end of October 2016, a few days before the presidential election, 130,000 dollars against a confidentiality agreement from the actress on the supposed extramarital affair of the Republican candidate. On January 12, 2018, the wall street journal reveals in an article (in English) the conclusion of this agreement.
3A legal battle begins between the porn star and the American president
Everything accelerates following these revelations. In February 2018, Michael Cohen admits, without giving reasons, having paid this sum into the account of Stéphanie Clifford. On March 6, 2018, Stormy Daniels filed a complaint against the man who had meanwhile become the 45th President of the United States, in an attempt to have the confidentiality clause invalidated following statements by Michael Cohen.
At first, Donald Trump denies having been aware of the existence of this financial agreement. But, on May 2, 2018, another of his lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, contradicted him, saying he reimbursed the money to Michael Cohen. In August, the latter ends up collaborating with justice, and pleads guilty before a federal judge, in particular for tax evasion and violation of the laws on the financing of electoral campaigns. Michael “Cohen made those payments” to buy the silence of the actress “with the aim of influencing the 2016 presidential election”, then said the federal prosecutor’s office. However, he obtained reimbursement of the sums by the Trump Organization and the American justice considers that it may be a hidden donation to the president’s campaign, in violation of the laws of electoral financing. Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018.
4 Justice takes an interest in the billionaire’s electoral campaign
Following these revelations, justice looks into the responsibility of the former president. “There is nothing criminal about the payment itself. What is illegal is falsifying a company’s business records,” John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University, specializing in financial crime, told AFP. “The Trump Organization is a business” and reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen were “declared to be intended to cover legal costs”, he continues. False declarations, according to American justice.
If this single offense is held against Donald Trump by the justice of the State of New York, “it is a misdemeanor”. “But it becomes a felony, which can carry a penalty of up to four years in prison, if prosecutors can convince a jury that the tampering took place in an effort to conceal another crime,” as an illegal donation to the 2016 candidate’s campaign, continues John Coffee.
For his part, the former president has always denied having had a relationship with Stormy Daniels. His lawyers present him as the victim of a “extortion” from the actress. Moreover, in each of the cases that target him, Donald Trump invokes “a witch hunt” policy by Democratic magistrates. The investigations related to the payment of the porn actress are carried out under the aegis of the New York State Attorney for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat. In a press release published last week, Donald Trump thus asserts that the investigation is an attempt to “drop” his candidacy as a Republican for the presidency of 2024, says the New York Times (in English).
5 Trump says his arrest is imminent
If Donald Trump has never been charged, he could see, according to him, this threat materialized soon. On Saturday March 18, he said he was going to be “stopped” the following Tuesday. Evoking a “leak” from the New York prosecutor’s office, the former American president wrote in capital letters: “The Republican Party candidate (…) and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week”before calling for mobilizations in the country: “Protest, take back our nation!”
No official confirmation from the courts has come to corroborate the statements of the former leader. But on March 9, Donald Trump was invited to testify before a grand jury, a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers and responsible for confirming an indictment, reports the New York Times. A possible sign of the desire of the prosecution to prosecute the former president.