Trump willfully skirted legal prohibitions on contributions from companies or from individuals in excess of $2,700, he said. A criminal conviction would require proof Mr. Trump’s involvement in the payments, by itself, wouldn’t mean he is guilty of federal crimes, according toĪ law professor at University of California, Irvine, who specializes in election law. Clifford without leaving the candidate’s fingerprints on the deal.
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Trump and a Trump Organization executive about how to pay Ms. Cohen has also described to prosecutors his discussions with Mr. The former adult-film star known professionally as Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about her allegations of a sexual encounter with Mr.
Trump in the weeks before the 2016 election about paying He told federal prosecutors he conferred with Mr. Mueller and with federal prosecutors in New York, seeking to provide information that could mitigate his punishment. Cohen, who implicated the president in his crimes when he pleaded guilty in August, has met with investigators for Mr. Cohen are now examining business dealings by the Trump Organization. Manhattan federal prosecutors who investigated Mr. Trump’s involvement in the hush-money deals come as special counselĬontinues his probe into Russian electoral interference, and as a newly elected Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has signaled its intention to investigate the Trump administration when it takes power. Trump, according to people familiar with the document.
The unnamed campaign member or members referred to Mr. Cohen “coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments.” Cohen pleaded guilty that month to campaign-finance violations, prosecutors filed a 22-page charging document asserting that Mr. Trump’s role-without specifically naming him-in a roughly 80-page draft federal indictment they had been preparing to file against Mr. Trump played any role in the two hush-money deals when they were first reported in the Journal.įederal prosecutors in Manhattan came to believe otherwise. Cohen, who left the Trump Organization to serve as the president’s personal attorney in early 2017, and other aides denied Mr. Cohen as a “public-relations person” who “represented me on very small things.” Trump declined to address whether he had ever discussed the payments with Mr. Trump’s involvement in the hush deals to the president’s outside counsel On Thursday, the White House referred questions about Mr. Trump’s participation in the transactions. attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Mr. He directed deals in phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer,Īnd others. Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. They also raise the possibility that the president of the United States violated federal campaign-finance laws. Trump, his legal team and his advisers that he was involved in payoffs to Ms. Taken together, the accounts refute a two-year pattern of denials by Mr. Here’s a timeline of Trump’s personal involvement. While President Trump publicly fought with women leading up to the 2016 election, in private he directed schemes to silence their stories of two alleged affairs.