Who is Stormy Daniels and how is she tied to Trump?

Stormy Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — is an adult-film actress who told people that she had an affair with Donald Trump years before he won the presidency in 2016. In her telling, Daniels met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 and had sex with him. Trump has denied any affair. The issue surged into national view in 2018 when the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had negotiated a secret payment to ensure her silence on the issue shortly before the 2016 election.

Who is Michael Cohen and how does he fit into this?

Michael Cohen is a former personal lawyer for Trump who has turned into a staunch critic of the former president. Cohen acknowledged in 2018 that he paid hush money to Daniels. That same year, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he did not know about the payment . Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor turned Trump lawyer, later said that the former president had repaid Cohen. Trump, in turn, admitted reimbursing Cohen , saying in a string of Twitter posts that the lawyer “received a monthly retainer” which was used “to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair.” While Trump was in office, he and Cohen underwent a rather public rupture. That included Trump calling his former lawyer a “rat” and “a weak person,” while Cohen called the former president “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.” Cohen served time in prison after pleading guilty in two criminal cases — including one that involved campaign finance violations related to Daniels and another woman who alleged an affair with Trump. In that case, when Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018, he pointed a finger directly at Trump . Cohen said he had been acting at Trump’s direction, saying the payments to the women were aimed at influencing the looming 2016 election by keeping their stories from becoming public. Prosecutors said that the payments were campaign finance violations, including making excessive contributions to Trump’s campaign. At the time, an attorney for Cohen issued a statement questioning why the payments were criminal for Cohen but not Trump.

What is this $130,000 payoff that keeps getting mentioned?

The $130,000 payment is how much Cohen paid Daniels, so that number will get brought up a lot in stories about the issue.

Who is investigating the issue?

Bragg, the elected Manhattan prosecutor, had convened a grand jury to look at business-related matters involving Trump. That included Trump’s role in the hush-money payments made to Daniels. Bragg, a Democrat, assumed the role at the beginning of 2022, and he has faced public pressure over his office’s handling of Trump-related issues. Two veteran prosecutors in the office resigned in protest last year, feeling frustrated that Bragg would not authorize them to seek an indictment against Trump. Bragg later issued a statement saying criminal probes of Trump’s business practices were still ongoing . The investigation into Trump’s business-related issues appeared to gain traction in recent months after seeming dormant for much of last year. Bragg convened a new grand jury this year to hear evidence focused largely on the Daniels issue.

What could happen going forward, and what kind of charges could Trump face?

Bragg is examining whether Trump broke campaign finance laws with his manner of reimbursing Cohen. Cohen appeared before the grand jury last week and prosecutors have invited Trump to speak to the group as well, which could signal that the investigation is winding down. It remains unclear whether Bragg will seek an indictment, which is a formal document outlining crimes that the grand jury believes someone committed. Prosecutors in Manhattan are believed to be considering state charges of falsifying business records. This count can be a misdemeanor, but it can also be upgraded to a felony if the records are falsified to cover up or commit another crime. The additional crime in this case could involve allegedly concealing the true nature of a campaign donation. Legal experts have expressed varying degrees of confidence in the wisdom of charging Trump over the Daniels payments, noting that the case could face potential hurdles, including the charges possibly being knocked down or reduced before trial. A criminal case against Trump in this matter could also face another hurdle: relying at least somewhat on testimony from Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to, among other things, lying to Congress .

How has Trump responded to Daniels’s allegations and the case?

Trump has pilloried Bragg and his investigations, grouping them in with other inquiries examining the former president that he has denounced as unfair. He has also denied having an affair with Daniels and insulted her appearance. He has also called for protests in response to what he claimed was his imminent arrest in the case.

Is this the only active investigation involving Trump?

It is not. Trump is currently facing investigations related to his handling of classified material at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home and private club, and his attempts to block Joe Biden from taking office after he won the 2020 presidential election. Trump has announced that he is running for president again in 2024, and his advisers have said they are preparing to campaign while he is facing potential criminal charges .

Justice

What we know about the Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels payment case

By Mark Berman

and

Shayna Jacobs

Updated March 20, 2023 at 5:23 p.m. EDT|Published March 14, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Court documents revealed July 18, 2019, showed Michael Cohen repeatedly spoke with former president Donald Trump amid the effort to pay Stormy Daniels. (Video: Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

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5 min

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into former president Donald Trump’s role in hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress, appears to be winding down.

The case involves a $130,000 payment made during the frenetic 2016 presidential campaign, a former Trump lawyer and fixer who served time in prison and a prosecutor who could seek criminal charges against a former president now running for office once again. Here’s a guide to the basics.

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