Former US president Donald Trump has been criminally charged for directing hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
A New York grand jury on Thursday voted to indict Donald Trump in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump is the first former US president to be charged with a crime of this kind.
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed the indictment on Thursday evening, and Trump is expected to surrender to the attorney’s office on Tuesday.
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is a one-time adult film actress who met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California. She has penned down her encounter with the former US President in her book "Full Disclosure", which was published in 2018.
Daniels says she first crossed paths with the real-estate-mogul-turned-politician in the summer of 2006 during a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, on the border between California and Nevada. The actress had just made a brief appearance in the Judd Apatow film, “The 40-year-old Virgin”.
According to Stormy Daniels, she stayed in touch with Donald Trump for a while because he offered her a role on his reality show, The Apprentice. She was negotiating a deal to go on TV during the presidential campaign and discuss the purported sexual encounter with Trump.
Daniels alleged that when she was planning to go on TV during the 2016 presidential campaign and discuss the sexual encounter with Trump, she received what prosecutors say was a $130,000 payment to hush up.
In 2016, when Trump was the Republican presidential nominee, his personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid a $130,000 "hush money" payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about the 2006 tryst.
Donald Trump denied the charges saying that he and Stormy Daniels never had any sexual encounter. He even accused Daniels of "extortion" and a "total con job. However, four years earlier, Trump's lawyer and fixer Cohen turned on him and began cooperating with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal criminal charges that included campaign finance violations for the Daniels payment. He said the payments were done to protect Donald Trump’s chances in the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment has not yet been unsealed, so it's not clear on what charges Donald Trump has been indicted. However, it is believed that Donald Trump could be charged with falsifying business records, which can be a misdemeanour or a felony under New York law.
Minutes after the indictment was announced, Trump released a lengthy statement calling it the next step in a campaign from the left “to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
The former US President will undergo standard booking procedures including fingerprinting and a mug shot when he appears in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan to face charges, according to court officials. However, it is unlikely that he will be handcuffed.
According to reports, it will be up to the state-court judge overseeing Donald Trump's case to decide whether or not to detain him or restrict his travel. It is legal for Trump to continue campaigning while facing criminal charges as there is no constitutional bar on a felon running for office.