Hush money payment to porn star
Trump apparently does not want to testify before the grand jury
03/13/2023 8:59 p.m
Will Ex-President Trump Be Charged With Hush Payment To Porn Star Stormy Daniels? The grand jury will have to decide that. But one thing seems to be becoming increasingly clear: Trump is not particularly interested in testifying in court.
Former US President Donald Trump apparently does not want to testify before a so-called grand jury in the affair about a hush money payment to a porn actress. Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said on US broadcaster ABC that there were “no plans to be involved in this process.” At the same time, Tacopina did not completely rule out a statement from the ex-president. “No deadline has been set. So we’ll wait and see.”
The Manhattan Attorney’s Office in New York had invited Trump to testify before the lay panel known as the Grand Jury in the case of the hush money payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels. The grand jury will have to decide whether or not to indict the ex-president. The affair involves a payment of $130,000 (around 122,000 euros) that Trump’s private attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had an affair with Trump years before the election, which Trump denies. The payment was apparently intended to prevent Clifford from going public, which could have harmed Trump during the election campaign. However, the cash flows may have violated campaign finance laws. Michael Cohen – now a well-known Trump critic – was due to testify before the grand jury on Monday.
Trump in the sights of the investigators
Should Trump be indicted, it would be the first time a former US President has been indicted. The 76-year-old Republican announced a new presidential bid last November and wants to retake the White House in the 2024 elections. Trump has described the Manhattan Attorney’s Office’s investigation as a “political witch hunt.” With regard to the hush money payment, he described himself as the victim of “blackmail”.
Trump is not only in the sights of investigators in the Stormy Daniels affair. In the southern state of Georgia, investigations are underway into possible illegal attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. A US special investigator is also examining Trump’s responsibility for the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and the taking of numerous secret documents from the White House to Trump’s private estate Mar -a-Lago in the state of Florida after the end of the Republican term. However, Trump has not been charged in any of these investigations, at least so far.