The criminal charges facing Donald Trump in New York stem from three separate cases in which the former president and his associates are accused of making hush payments during his 2016 campaign: To two women, including a porn star, for prevent the release of information about extramarital sexual encounters they claimed they had with Trump years earlier, and another to a former Trump Tower doorman who said he had a story about a child the former president allegedly fathered out of wedlock.
Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying accounting records. On Tuesday he turned himself in to authorities in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Here’s a look at the three cases cited by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges:
THE CASE OF THE TRUMP TOWER PORTER
Bragg first mentioned the incident involving a former Trump Tower doorman who was paid $30,000 after he claimed he had information about a child Trump had fathered out of wedlock.
The doorman, Dino Sajudin, was paid by the parent company of the National Enquirer newspaper in exchange for giving up the rights “in perpetuity” to a rumor that Trump had fathered a child with an employee of the Trump World Tower, a skyscraper. which is owned by the former president and is located near the United Nations headquarters.
The contract between Sajudin and American Media Inc. would penalize Sajudin $1 million if he divulges the rumor or the terms of his agreement with the newspaper’s parent company. In an interview with The Associated Press in August 2017, the woman at the center of the rumor denied that she had an affair with Trump.
THE CASE OF KAREN MCDOUGAL
The district attorney also addressed the case of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was paid $150,000 by American Media after she claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. The payment was made in order to obtain the rights to McDougal’s story, but never to release it. The parent company of the National Enquirer has acknowledged that the payments were made specifically to help Trump’s presidential campaign.
Bragg said Trump “explicitly” instructed attorney Michael Cohen, then working for the Trump Organization, to reimburse American Media in cash, and Cohen later told Trump that the payment was better made through a shell company. The alleged relationship between McDougal and Trump remained hidden until the Wall Street Journal published a report days before Election Day 2016. Trump has refuted the former model’s statements.
THE CASE OF STORMY DANIELS
The third case involves porn actress Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Trump in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006. Trump has denied the encounter.
Bragg said that 12 days before the presidential election held on November 8, 2016, Cohen had transferred $130,000 to the account of Daniels’ lawyer through a shell company he founded through a Manhattan bank.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, received the money after saying she was willing to talk to the National Enquirer or television stations to confirm the sexual encounter.
In April 2018, Trump insisted on board Air Force One that he did not know about the payment made to Daniels through Cohen. But Bragg said Thursday that Trump repaid Cohen’s payment after his 2016 victory with money from two sources: A trust holding the assets of the Trump Organization and from his personal bank account.
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