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Court documents released Tuesday claim that former President Donald Trump and ex-lawyer Michael Cohen met in the Oval Office just weeks after inauguration to discuss the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The court filings also claim that Trump tried to delay paying Daniels because it wouldn’t matter if her story came out after the 2016 election.
Tuesday’s 16-page unsealed indictment of Trump included an additional 13-page backgrounder that shed light on the conversations New York prosecutors believe Trump had with Cohen and other allies about the payments.
Trump was arraigned in New York Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon and Thursday’s indictment was unsealed showing that the ex-president was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
The statement of facts said that from between August of 2015 to December of 2017, Trump ‘orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit [Trump’s] electoral prospects.’
Court documents released Tuesday claim that former President Donald Trump and ex-lawyer Michael Cohen (pictured) met in the Oval Office just weeks after inauguration to discuss the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels
Former President Donald Trump is seen in court Tuesday as he is arraigned on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree – charges related to hush-money payments given to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election
The court documents said that at Trump’s request, ‘Lawyer A,’ known to be Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to ‘an adult film actress,’ which was Daniels, in advance of election day.
After the election, Cohen was paid back through a series of monthly checks.
‘Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, and each check was disguised as a payment for legal services rendered in a given month of 2017 pursuant to a retainer agreement,’ the court filing explained. ‘The payment records, kept and maintained by the Trump Organization, were false New York business records. In truth, there was no retainer agreement, and Lawyer A was not being paid for legal services rendered in 2017.’
‘The Defendant caused his entities’ business records to be falsified to disguise his and others’ criminal conduct,’ the court document said.
The background information on the indictment also included details about the catch-and-kill schemes used by American Media, Inc., the owner of the National Enquirer.
A stony-faced former President Donald Trump snubbed reporters and walked silently into the courtroom after being fingerprinted and processed at the New York Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon
Cohen was involved with a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels
The company’s former CEO David Pecker was one of the last witnesses to come before the grand jury before they voted to indict.
The court document details an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting in which Pecker, identified as ‘AMI CEO,’ agreed to act as the ‘eyes and ears’ for the Republican candidate, who was two months into his presidential campaign.
Pecker would assist the campaign by looking out for negative stories about Trump and alerting Cohen about their existence.
One such story – which was later found to be false – was from a doorman of Trump’s, who alleged he knew about a secret lovechild produced by the now ex-president.
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Court documents said that Pecker wanted to release the doorman from a $30,000 deal for exclusive rights to his story, but Cohen instructed him not to do so until after the presidential election.
The documents also detail how former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal – called ‘Woman 1’ in the filing – was paid $150,000 by American Media, Inc. for the exclusive rights to her story about how she had an affair with the married Trump.
The filing said prosecutors had an audio recording from September 2016 in which Trump and Cohen discussed how to obtain the rights to McDougal’s account and how to reimburse AMI.
In the recording, Trump suggests paying by cash and then by check, but Cohen ultimately created a shell company called Resolution Consultants, LLC.
A deal to transfer McDougal’s story to Resolution Consultants, LLC. ended up falling through, under the advisement of AMI’s lawyer.
The court document then details how the infamous ‘grab them by the p****’ Access Hollywood tape was released, which appeared to derail Trump’s presidential bid.
Shortly after its release, AMI’s editor-in-chief warned Pecker that another woman – the porn star Daniels – was alleging that she had a tryist with Trump while he was married.
On October 10, 2016, weeks before the election, Cohen was connected to Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson through AMI’s editor-in-chief and he negotiated that Daniels would receive $130,000 for her silence.
Trump directed Cohen to delay the payment to Daniels for ‘as long as possible,’ the filing said.
‘He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public,’ the filing said.
The court document said there were texts and emails between Cohen, Davidson and AMI’s editor-in-chief showing that there was an attempt to delay the hush-money from being paid.
Ultimately Trump ‘agreed to the payoff and directed Lawyer A to proceed’ and there were discussions between Trump, Cohen and the CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg.
Trump told the two men to figure out how to make the payment, as he didn’t want to do it himself.
Cohen agreed to make the payment, with the filing saying he confirmed with Trump that he would be paid back.
After Trump won the White House, notes Weisselberg took – that prosecutors had – showed how the $130,000 paid to Daniels by Cohen would be paid back.
The lawyer would make, in total, $420,000.
‘The Trump Organization CFO memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the bank statement that Lawyer A had provided,’ the court documents said.
Trump, Weisselberg and Cohen decided that Cohen would ask for a montly retainer fee of $35,000 throughout 2017.
Manhattan prosecutors found that Trump and Cohen then met in the Oval Office in February 2017 ‘and confirmed this repayment arrangement.’
‘The checks and stubs bearing the false statements were stapled to the invoices also bearing false statements. The Defendant signed each of the checks personally and had them sent back to the Trump Organization in New York County,’ the document said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
