Prosecutors ask Trump to explain $130 payment to porn actress
Last week, the New York Times reported that Manhattan prosecutors have invited Trump to testify before a grand jury this coming week regarding a $130 payment to Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels: the porn star who received a check from Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen. for the specified amount allegedly for silence about sex with Trump in 000. Cohen himself said that he paid 2006 thousand for silence, and then Trump gave him this money. From Trump's invitation to testify, the newspaper concludes that he is about to be indicted, since under New York law the accused has the right to appear before the Grand Jury, and according to practice, the accused is questioned at the very end of the investigation.
At first I decided not to write about the article: you never know what the sources say. Maybe yes maybe no. Maybe he will be indicted, or maybe the Grand Jury will refuse to indict... However, new information came this week: it became known that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to the Grand Jury on Monday in a Manhattan court. At the same time, Trump's current lawyer Joe Tacopina said in an interview that the arguments about the connection between Trump and Miss Clifford were false, and the payment had nothing to do with the election campaign: Trump simply did not want false rumors to be spread, so that they would not affect his family. All in all, it looks like the Manhattan prosecutor is really close to filing charges (if the Grand Jury agrees). True, it is not entirely clear what exactly Trump is accused of. While the most popular version is falsification of accounting records (if the mentioned $130 was returned to Cohen as payment for legal fees), however, Trump's current lawyer insists that the money was paid from the businessman's personal property, and not on behalf of the companies, so there is no falsification of business records -there can be no transactions.
Author: Igor Slabykh
