Donald Trump arrest: Timeline of Trump’s indictment involving hush money payments
Breccan F. Thies
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Former President Donald Trump appeared in court Tuesday after a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for allegedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair.
The alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, occurred during the 2016 election cycle and came out of the pocket of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who was subsequently reimbursed by the Trump Organization.
Prosecutors in the case opened an investigation into falsified business records claiming the payment to Cohen was a legal expense. Normally a misdemeanor charge in New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is bringing the charges against Trump, elevated the case to a felony, saying the records were falsified for the purposes of concealing another crime.
On March 9, Trump was asked to testify before the grand jury but refused. The former president has denied having an affair with Daniels.
Here is how events developed:
July 2006: Porn star Stormy Daniels meets Donald Trump
Daniels told CBS News she met Trump for the first time in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, at a celebrity golf tournament. The porn star first detailed an affair taking place in 2011, where she claimed the two participated in sexual relations in his hotel room at the golf outing.
In March 2006, Trump’s wife, Melania, gave birth to a son, Barron.
May 2011: Daniels gives interview to In Touch magazine alleging affair
Daniels described her first meeting with Trump in a 2011 interview with In Touch magazine, but the article was not published until 2018 after threats of legal action from Cohen.
In the interview, Daniels describes a dinner with Trump in his Lake Tahoe hotel room, where he allegedly asked her to be on the television show Celebrity Apprentice before initiating the sexual relationship.
In Touch published its 2011 interview in 2018, several weeks before a contemporary 60 Minutes interview with the porn star aired.
2016: Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president and the alleged payment was made to Daniels
Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2015 from Trump Tower in New York City. By July 2016, Trump secured the Republican Party’s nomination.
Daniels, with attorney Keith Davidson, reached out to the National Enquirer, saying she wanted to detail her alleged affair with Trump. The Enquirer contacted Cohen in June, who subsequently offered Daniels the payout for the rights to her story and for her to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Bragg’s filing details an audio recording between Cohen and Trump in September, wherein Trump allegedly said, “So what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”
Cohen apparently suggested opening a shell company for the payment. Resolution Consultants, LLC, was established in Delaware “on or about September 30” and the payment was made.
Shortly thereafter, Trump won the election.
January 2017: Trump is sworn in and Cohen seeks a reimbursement
After Trump won the 2016 election, Cohen sought to be reimbursed for the payment by the Trump Organization by submitting invoices and received checks signed by Trump after he was sworn in as president on Inauguration Day.
2018: Daniels’s claims are made public
On Jan. 12, 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had made the $130,000 payment to Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement. By February, Cohen admitted to the payment but did not mention the Trump campaign.
Trump addressed the allegations for the first time in April, saying he did not know of such a payment.
The FBI conducted a search warrant on Cohen’s residences and office, and on April 21, Trump posted to Twitter suggesting Cohen not “flip if the Government lets [him] out of trouble.”
Claiming payments were made to two women in order to influence the outcome of the election, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges of tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, illegal corporate contributions, and making false statements to a financial institution.
One of the women was Daniels, and the other was Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claimed to have had a 10-month affair with Trump from 2006 to 2007.
By December, Cohen was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
2019: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office subpoenas Trump Organization and Trump tax returns
In the summer of 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office subpoenaed Trump’s company for records related to payments to Daniels and McDougal. On Sept. 17, the office subsequently subpoenaed Trump’s tax returns back to 2011.
Two days later, Trump sued the district attorney’s office to block the subpoenas, claiming immunity.
2020: Supreme Court rules Trump must comply
With a 7-2 decision in the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court ruled Trump must comply with the subpoenas and turn over the requested records.
2021: Trump companies are indicted; Alvin Bragg elected DA
In February, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Trump to keep his tax returns private. The Manhattan DA’s office received his tax documents on Feb. 25.
By July, the Trump Organization and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg were indicted on criminal charges.
Alvin Bragg was elected Manhattan DA on Nov. 2.
2023: Trump indictment imminent
On March 9, the Manhattan DA’s office asked Trump to testify before the grand jury investigating payments to Daniels and McDougal. The grand jury was overseen by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
Trump refused to testify on March 13, but Cohen gave his initial testimony. The former Trump attorney testified again on March 15.
Three days later, Trump posted to Truth Social that he would be arrested, calling the Manhattan DA’s office “corrupt & highly political” and saying Bragg is “funded by George Soros.”
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1643349194332053507?s=20
On March 30, the Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump.
The case, People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, argues the former president “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
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Saying he “orchestrated a scheme” to influence the election, Bragg’s office claims Trump and others identified and purchased negative information to “benefit the Defendant’s [Trump’s] electoral prospects.”
Trump surrendered himself at the courthouse in Manhattan on April 4.