The 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, is expected to appear before the Manhattan court on April 4. This was reported by the CNN channel with reference to two sources on Friday, March 31.
According to CNN, Trump will stay at his Mar-a-Lago estate for the weekend and head to New York on Monday. He will not be handcuffed, he will be surrounded by armed federal agents for protection. Trump will be fingerprinted and a photo will be taken for his personal file.
On March 30, a jury in New York voted to bring criminal charges against Trump. He was indicted on more than 30 counts related to financial and business fraud, according to CNN.
In early 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 for silence to porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom Trump was in a relationship. Agreements were reached before the 2016 presidential elections. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of a number of crimes, including the embezzlement of campaign funds. Some of them were paid for the silence of ex-model Karen McDougal and ex-porn actress Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels). Their statements could compromise Trump on the eve of the election.
According to the sources of the agency, one of the charges refers to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels so that she would not disclose the fact of a sexual relationship between her and Trump. Thus, Donald Trump will become the first former or current president of the United States to be indicted on criminal charges.
Stormy Daniels (real name - Stephanie Gregory Clifford) is a famous American porn actress and director of porn films, a three-time winner of the "Best Breasts" award from the F.A.M.E.
In April 2010, Stormy Daniels announced her intention to run for the Senate as a Republican, stating that Republicans best represented her libertarian values. However, within a few days, the porn actress announced that she was refusing to participate in the elections due to excessive expenses and a frivolous attitude towards her candidacy.
In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an article detailing a sexual relationship between Stormy Daniels and President Donald Trump in 2006. The article also stated that in October 2006, Trump paid the porn star, through his lawyer Michael Cohen, $130,000 to keep quiet about their relationship.
At first, Cohen denied the fact of an affair between Daniels and Trump, but a month later he admitted that he had indeed transferred this amount to the porn actress from his own funds. At the same time, the lawyer claimed that neither Trump's campaign fund nor the ex-president's company, the Trump Organization, compensated him for this payment.
Trump personally said he knew nothing about the payments to Stormy Daniels. However, on April 26, 2018, he admitted that attorney Cohen represented him in the deal with the porn star. On May 2, Trump's new lawyer Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of New York) announced that Donald Trump had reimbursed Cohen for his expenses.
Entering into a non-disclosure agreement and paying Stormy Daniels is not a crime in itself. However, the Trump Organization framed this payment as a fee for legal services. Under New York State law, this constitutes falsification of a report, which carries criminal liability.
In total, the Trump Organization paid Cohen in the "Daniels case" $420,000 to $130,000 in compensation for money paid to porn stars, plus back taxes and an incentive bonus for Cohen himself, according to the federal indictment.
Donald Trump calls the accusations against him a "witch hunt" and says that he is not going to refuse to participate in the upcoming presidential campaign.
