Cohen Gives 2nd Day of Testimony to Grand Jury Probing Trump payments to porn star Stormy Daniels
Stormy Daniels, who said she was paid $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about a one night stand she said she had with Donald Trump a decade earlier, met with prosecutors who are probing the payment. Trump denies the fling.
| 16 Mar 2023 | 04:08
Stormy Daniels, who said she was paid $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about a one night stand with Donald Trump, has met with prosecutors in the Manhattan DAs office but has not yet testified before the grand jury that on March 15th heard its second day of testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Photo: © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com, Wikimedia Commons
Michael Cohen, the former attorney and “fixer” for Donald Trump gave his second day of testimony to a grand jury involved in the Manhattan DAs probe of payments the former president is said to have made to woman in exchange for silence prior to the 2016 election. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York grand jury investigating Donald Trump was hearing more testimony Wednesday from Michael Cohen, who paid off a porn star in 2016 to keep her from going public about a claimed sexual encounter with Trump a decade before he was elected president.
Meanwhile, Clark Brewster, an attorney for Daniels said she met with prosecutors from the Manhattan DAs office, although that does not mean she has been called as a witness before the grand jury. “At the request of the Manhattan DA’s office Stormy Daniels and I met with prosecutors today. Stormy responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed,” Brewster said.
Cohen, in contrast arrived at around 12:45 p.m. March 15 at the Manhattan building where the grand jury meets to give his second day of testimony.
“I feel great,” he told reporters as he entered the building, adding that he had no sense on when the grand jury might be asked by prosecutors to make a decision about an indictment. Cohen said he didn’t expect to be back for a third day of testimony.
In the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen said he made a $130, 000 payment on Trump’s behalf to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, who at the time had been in negotiations to tell her story on television.
Daniels says she had an unwanted sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump says it never happened. The former president’s lawyer said Trump was invited to testify before the grand jury but has no plans to do so.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes related to the payment, and a similar $150,000 payout he helped arrange to the Playboy model Karen McDougal, arguing that they amounted to impermissible gifts to Trump’s election effort. Trump also denied having an affair with McDougal.
Trump was never charged by federal prosecutors, however. Manhattan prosecutors have been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Cohen was paid by the Trump Organization for his work to cover up the alleged affairs.
Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for the payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses.
Falsifying business records can be a misdemeanor under state law, or a felony if the fudging of paperwork is done in connection with a more serious crime.
Trump and his lawyers have said he was extorted into paying the money to Daniels and should be considered the victim in the investigation. Daniels and the lawyers who helped arrange the payment have denied extorting anyone.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press.
“At the request of the Manhattan DA’s office Stormy Daniels and I met with prosecutors [March 15th].” Clark Brewster, attorney for Stormy Daniels