According to the accusations, in 2006, while Melania Trump was pregnant, her husband had an affair with Stormy Daniels. To prevent the affair from becoming public, the former president's then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, He gave US$130,000 to Daniels, but to do so he falsified invoices and documents in order to protect the electoral campaign, which means having lied to the electorate and broken the rules to participate in the elections, according to Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
Trump's lawyers are trying to argue that the payments to the actress were only to protect her private life, so This is a minor case of tax irregularities.
The trial is underway and, according to a compilation made The universal, These are the most important figures who will decide the legal future of the former president United States:
- Michael Cohen. As Donald Trump's personal lawyer from 2006 to 2018, he was in charge of paying Stormy Daniels the US$130,000 before the 2016 elections to prevent her from making the sexual encounter public.
- Allen Weisselberg. He is the former chief financial officer of the Trump organization. In 2019, Michael Cohen told lawmakers that he knew about and helped plan the strategy to buy Stormy Daniels' silence.
- Alvin Bragg. New York County district attorney who charges Trump on all 34 counts in this case.
- Karen McDougal. She is a model and actress who appeared in Playboy magazine and claims to have had an affair with Trump before he was elected president. She claims that she was paid US$150,000 for her story, but that it was never published. A testament to the money Trump's team allegedly paid to keep stories that could damage her image from coming to light.
- David Pecker. Former executive director of American Media and editor of National Enquirer. He is accused of having bought the rights to stories that could damage Trump's reputation before the presidency and never publishing them.
- Judge Juan Merchan. He is in charge of supervising the criminal case against Trump. He has served on the New York Supreme Court since 2009.
- Tood Blanche. He was hired by Trump in 2023 to handle his case. He has served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
- Susan Necheles. Lawyer representing Trump, defending him and his company since 2021.
Other reasons why Trump will go to trial
In addition to the Stormy Daniels case for which he is facing trial today, Donald Trump also has three more accusations against him. Two of them due to their intervention in the 2020 presidential elections.
Because of this situation, Trump is accused of committing four serious crimes. Well, furthermore, it is said that pHe repressed several officials in his administration to overturn Biden's victory. The trial is expected to resume at the end of April.
In the state of Georgia, one of the places where the 2020 elections were closest, a judge is accusing Trump of spreading rumors about alleged electoral fraud and to call the Secretary of State to give victory to the Republican party.
The latest accusation against the former president is related to having taken classified papers from the White House and taken them to his mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he hid them and refused to return them. For this reason he is expected to go to trial in May.
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