Donald Trump Indictment: How Did We Get Here?

Donald Trump, the former US President, is facing charges over allegations of covering up a crime. The former president was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan on Thursday 30 March 2023, which makes him the first current or former US president to be charged with a crime. The district attorney’s office is focused on the role that Donald Trump played in the payment of “hush” money to a former star in the adult film industry, Stormy Daniels, over an alleged affair.

An indictment as defined by the US Department of Justice is a process where an individual gets a formal notice that it is believed they committed a crime. This paper will explore the events that have led up to the indictment on Donald Trump.

The Background on Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford is a high profile porn star. According to Ms. Daniels, when she was 27 years old in 2006, she met Donald Trump in at a celebrity golf vent held in Utah. This encounter led to consensual sex. They would later meet again but they never had another sexual encounter. In 2011, Donald Trump wanted to run for presidency and Ms. Daniels thought that was her best chance to sell her story but Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, threatened to sue her and quashed a magazine interview. When Trump run for President in 2016, a former playboy model Karen McDougal, come out with a story about having an affair with Trump but the story never made it to media. In the same year October, a month before Election Day, the “Access Hollywood Tape” came out where he bragged that he groped women. More allegations from different women came out accusing Trump of sexual misconduct. Ms. Daniels also decided to come out with her story but Trump’s lawyer, Cohen, worked out a deal with Ms. Daniels to get $130000 to ensure her silence.

In 2018, in an interview with CBS, Ms. Daniels stated that she accepted the money for her silence because she was scared that her family, including her daughter was in danger. She alleged that she was threatened legally and physically if she did not stay silent. Ms. Daniels stated that she was approached by an unknown man while she was with her infant daughter in Las Vegas and she was told not to speak. She also stated that she was approached by a shell company linked to Cohen and threatened with a lawsuit amounting to $20m because she had broken the NDA that she signed. The deal was worked out by Cohen and the chief financial officer of Tramp Organisation, Allen Weisselberg. Mr. Weisselberg is currently in prison for tax fraud. Days before the election in 2016, Ms. Daniels signed a non-disclosure agreement that barred her from publicly discussing her affair with Trump and in exchange she was given the $130000. This deal was signed with Keith Davidson, Ms. Daniels lawyer and Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer. When the story of Ms. Daniels broke in 2018 in the Wall Street Journal, Cohen denied that it happened and Trump also denied it saying he was not aware of the deal. However, a month later, Donald Trump stated that he paid Michael Cohen a retainer that had nothing to do with the campaign because it was concerning a private contract between two parties (non-disclosure agreement). Trump maintained that he didn’t have sex with Ms. Daniels. Cohen stated that Trump directed him to pay Ms. Daniels from his personal accounts and he would later be reimbursed. According to Trump, Cohen was reimbursed in 2017 to the expenses in the amount of $250000.

In the same year, there was fallout between Cohen and Trump, who was president at the time, because he didn’t give Cohen a role in the White House. The FBI agents raided Cohen’s office in 2018 and Cohen Flipped on Trump. In August 2018, Cohen pled guilty to violations of campaign finance because of the payments to Ms. Daniels among other charges on tax evasion. He was sentenced to 3 years in Prison in December 2018 and in the following year, February 2019, Cohen outlined Trump’s affair with Ms. Daniels to a House oversight committee. In the same year, the investigations towards Trump’s financials continued which led to Mr. Weisselberg pleading guilty and being jailed for tax fraud. The investigations were carried out under Alvin Bragg. In the same year, Mark Pomerantz, a prosecutor working for Alvin Bragg, resigned from office because the DA was too slow in filing charges against Trump. In February 2023, Mr. Pomerantz released a book about the Daniels payment but news also emerged that Bragg was moving forward with indicting Trump because of the Daniels payment. The news broke on Thursday of the indictment on 34 counts that cover the checks that Trump sent to Cohen.

The Indictment

Early 2023, Alvin Bragg the District Attorney for New York City, set up a grand jury to investigate if there was sufficient evidence for the prosecution to pursue a case against former president Donald Trump. A grand jury is held secretly behind closed doors and it is set up by the prosecutor. On Thursday, the grand jury voted to being charges against Trump. Although it is not considered illegal to pay someone hush money, the illegality in Trump’s case was that the money was paid one month before the presidential elections. As such, the money can be considered as a campaign violation. Although at the start Trump denied knowing anything about the payments, he later stated that he paid the money to avoid a scandal and protect is reputation against false accusations. He still maintains that has no sexual relations with Ms. Daniels. The specific charges against Trump are not clear, there have been reports stating that the charges are about trump reimbursing Cohen and labelling them as legal expenses. These charges are normally misdemeanours but they can become felony if the prosecutor links the payments to violations against election law.