Michael Cohen, the lawyer turned critic of former President Donald Trump, was seen Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of 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 married businessman.
He was the only person to go to jail for the hush money payments when federal investigators investigated. Now Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is trying to determine if any state laws have been 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.
“This isn’t revenge,” he continued. “It’s all about accountability. 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 have no plans to participate in that proceeding,” he said. “It is a decision that has yet to be made. No deadline has been set.’
Michael Cohen, the attorney turned critic of former President Donald Trump, was seen Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan Grand Jury investigating hush money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of 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 married businessman
Former President Donald Trump (left) is likely to be charged for his role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels (right) and Playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election
They’ve 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 indicted, despite The New York Times reporting Thursday that the ex-president’s lawyers were told that he could face criminal charges for paying $130,000.
“I expect justice to prevail. And if that’s the case, George, there shouldn’t be any charges,” Tacopina told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “I mean, this case is really outrageous. There should be a healthy dose of disgust coming out of the bar.’
“It’s not what we do,” Tacopina continued. “We are falsifying laws to get to 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 of this prosecutor’s office had a plan to get him – they’ve been searching his personal and business life for seven years to try and find something.’
Tacopina characterized Trump as a “victim of racketeering” and said he paid Daniels through his “personal means” to prevent anything “embarrassing himself, his family, his young son” from being 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 have done absolutely nothing wrong, I have never had an affair with Stormy Daniels and I would never have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.”
He then laid the blame on those who want to prevent him from winning again in 2024, and declared himself the leading candidate in the next presidential election.
He also claimed that “Congress, countless Democratic prosecutors, attorneys general, and the Department of Injustice itself, have put that unprecedentedly high-level DOJ prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to ‘get Trump.” , have discovered that I have done nothing wrong. .’
“Now they fall back on the old and rebuked case that has been rejected by every prosecutor who has looked into this tempestuous ‘Horseface’ Daniels case, where I relied on counsel to solve this extortion of mine, which took place a long time ago. time ago. Since then I’ve won lawsuits.’
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured) has been investigating whether state laws were broken over hush money payments to a porn star and Playboy playmate on behalf of Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Former President Donald Trump reacted with vitriol on social media after a report that he is likely to be charged for his role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Prosecutors gave Trump the option of appearing before a state grand jury assembled since January that has heard evidence in the case, usually a sign that a person will be charged.
Several of Trump’s top advisers have been spotted entering the Manhattan district attorney’s office in recent days, including former counsel to President Kellyanne Conway and ex-White House communications director Hope Hicks.
An indictment against Trump will make American history, as no ex-president of the United States has ever been criminally charged after leaving office.
President Richard Nixon, who left office over his role in the Watergate burglary, was pardoned by his Republican successor, President Gerald Ford, before criminal charges could be brought.
An impeachment against Trump could also complicate the 2024 presidential election, as he announced his candidacy in November and continues to lead most GOP polls.
If convicted — which is a chance — Trump would be sentenced to four years in prison, though serving time would not be mandatory, according to The Times.
Trump has already escaped charges for his role in hush money payments by federal investigators.
Cohen was the only person caught up in the federal investigation.
Once the federal investigation concluded, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg took over the investigation to see if any New York state laws had been broken.
Kellyanne Conway was spotted in New York on Wednesday walking into one of the Manhattan District Attorney’s offices as part of the Stormy Daniels hush money case involving former President Donald Trump
Bragg’s prosecutors have not yet completed their work before the grand jury and he could decide not to press charges, The Times reported.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has already brought six witnesses to the grand jury, the paper said.
Cohen has met with prosecutors 18 times during different iterations of the investigation, he told the Associated Press after another meeting with them last week.
He said the investigation is “really progressing” and he expected to be subpoenaed before the grand jury soon.
“The level of specificity with which they attack the various issues is extraordinary,” said the former Trump attorney.
In his book, he also links Conway – who made headlines this week for her divorce from her Trump critic husband George – to the hush money payment, writing that she was the person who told Trump that Daniels had been paid off.
Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, said she would “pass on the good news to Trump” once Cohen gave the money to Daniels, Cohen wrote in his 2020 memoir, Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump.
Conway ignored reporters Wednesday when she walked into Bragg’s lower Manhattan office.
Trump’s actions are also under scrutiny in Georgia as Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis investigates whether crimes were committed as Trump and his allies attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In addition, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified documents when he left office and into his attempt to secure President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 undone.