The hush money trial is hovering around Trump. And his lawyer on Mey 16th played a recording in the courtroom that can be heard Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer saying ” I truly f***** hope that Donald Trump ends up in prison”.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold and you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family,” Cohen says in the recording from a podcast he appeared on.
Why Trump’s close ally turned against him?
Until 2016, Cohen was Trump’s true and collest allies, but after Trump did not give him seat in his administration he turned against him.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that, shortly before the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, Trump made several arrangements to prevent the public disclosure of allegations against him that might negatively affect his election.
First, Trump arranged with American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, to “catch and kill” stories that might be embarrassing to Trump. The National Enquirer paid for and killed two potential stories: one from a doorman who alleged that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock, which proved to be untrue, and a second from a former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump during his marriage.
Second, and more importantly, for the actual charges in the indictment, Trump arranged with his then-lawyer and now chief nemesis, Michael Cohen, to pay $130,000 in “hush money” to Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, who is described by Wikipedia as “an American pornographic film actress, director and former stripper,” to prevent her from disclosing a sexual relationship with Trump.
Trump disguised the hush money payments by having Cohen make the payments, and then reimbursing him using business entries that called the payments “attorney fees”.
Trump has never been charged with a crime for making the hush money payments or arranging with AMI to catch and kill stories. The underlying charges were investigated by the US Attorney General’s office, and they decided not to bring criminal charges against Trump.
DEFINITION: According to Merriam-Webster, it’s money paid so that someone will keep information secret. In other words, money that a person pays someone to hush up something.
EXAMPLE: Three payments that prosecutors say were made on Trump’s behalf to bury marital infidelity claims during his 2016 presidential campaign. They are the National Enquirer’s $30,000 payment to a Trump Tower doorman and $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and the $130,000 that Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen arranged to pay porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Paying hush money isn’t illegal on its own, but authorities say the payments made to suppress stories about Trump amounted to illegal campaign contributions. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a federal campaign violation, among other unrelated crimes. The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., entered into a nonprosecution agreement in exchange for its cooperation with prosecutors. The Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, declaring that the McDougal deal was a “prohibited corporate in-kind contribution.”
