Michael Cohen, the lawyer-turned-critic of former President Donald Trump, was spotted Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Cohen facilitated payments between Trump and Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have a one night stand with Trump in 2006, and Playboy Platmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had an affair with the married businessman.
He was the only person to go to jail over the hush-money payments when federal investigators were looking into them. Now Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is trying to determine if any state laws were broken.
‘My goal is to tell the truth,’ Cohen told reporters outside the courthouse, dismissing a suggestion that he might be motivated by a desire to see Trump behind bars.
‘This is not revenge,’ he continued. ‘This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.’
Earlier Monday, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina appeared on Good Morning America and said it wasn’t likely Trump would also appear before the grand jury.
‘We have no plans on participating in that proceeding,’ he said. ‘It’s a decision that need to be made still. There’s been no deadline set.’
Michael Cohen, the lawyer-turned-critic of former President Donald Trump, was spotted Monday arriving to testify before the Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election
Cohen facilitated payments between Trump and Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have a one night stand with Trump in 2006, and Playboy Platmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had an affair with the married businessman
Former President Donald Trump (left) will likely face charges for his role in hush-money payments given to porn star Stormy Daniels (right) and Playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Earlier Monday, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina appeared on Good Morning America and said it wasn’t likely Trump would appear before the grand jury
They’ve invited him to testify before a grand jury, which legal experts believe is a sure sign that criminal charges will follow.
Tacopina also said he believed that Trump wouldn’t be indicted, despite The New York Times reporting Thursday that the ex-president’s lawyers were told he could face criminal charges over the $130,000 payment.
‘I expect justice to prevail. And if that’s the case, George, there shouldn’t be an indictment,’ Tacopina told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. ‘I mean, this case is outrageous, really. There should be a healthy dose of disgust from the bar.’
‘It’s not what we do,’ Tacopina continued. ‘We are distorting laws to try and bag President Trump. I don’t know if it’s because he’s leading in all the polls. I don’t know what it is. But clearly the prosecutor in this prosecutor’s office had made an agenda of trying to get him – they’ve scoured his personal and business life for seven years to try and find something.’
Tacopina characterized Trump as an ‘extortion victim’ and said he paid Daniels through his ‘personal funds’ in order to prevent something ’embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son’ from being made public.
Tacopino continued to claim on Trump’s behalf that the affair never happened.
Trump made similar denials on his Truth Social site in recent days.
‘I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.’
He went on to lay the blame at those who want to stop him from winning again in 2024, calling himself the leading candidate in the next presidential election.
He also claimed that ‘Congress, numerous Democrat District Attorneys, Attorneys General, and the Department of Injustice itself, which has unprecedentedly placed top DOJ prosecutors into the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in order to ‘get Trump’, have found that I did nothing wrong.’
‘Now, they fall back on the old, and rebuked case which has been rejected by every prosecutor’s office that has looked at this Stormy ‘Horseface’ Daniels matter, where I relied on counsel in order to resolve this Extortion of me, which took place a long time ago. Since then, I have won lawsuits.’
Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (pictured) office has been investigating whether any state laws were broken over hush-money payments were made to a porn star and Playboy playmate on behalf of Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Former President Donald Trump reacted with vitriol on social media after a report that he will likely face charges for his role in hush-money payments given to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Prosecutors gave Trump the option to appear before a state grand jury that’s been assembled since January and has been hearing evidence in the case, generally a sign that an individual will be indicted.
Several of Trump’s top advisers have been spotted going into the Manhattan district attorney’s office in recent days including former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and ex-White House communications director Hope Hicks.
An indictment of Trump will make American history, as no ex-president of the United States has ever been slapped with criminal charges after leaving office.
President Richard Nixon, who left office over his role in the Watergate break-in, was pardoned by his Republican successor, President Gerald Ford, before any criminal charges could be brought.
A Trump indictment could also complicate the 2024 presidential election, as he announced his candidacy in November and continues to lead most GOP polls.
If Trump was convicted – which is a longshot – he would be sentenced with up to four years in prison, though serving time would not be mandatory, The Times said.
Trump already escaped being charged with a crime for his role in the hush-money payments by federal investigators.
Cohen was the only person ensnared in the federal probe.
Once the federal investigation concluded, Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg took the investigation up, to see if any New York state laws were broken.
Kellyanne Conway was spotted in New York Wednesday walking into one of the Manhattan district attorney’s offices as part of the Stormy Daniels hush-money probe involving former President Donald Trump
Bragg’s prosecutors have not concluded their work in front of the grand jury and he could decide against pressing charges, The Times reported.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has already brought six witnesses in front of the grand jury, the newspaper said.
Cohen has met with prosecutors 18 times through several iterations of the probe he told the Associated Press after another meeting with them last week.
He said the investigation was ‘really progressing’ and he expected to soon be called before the grand jury.
‘The level of specificity to which they are attacking the various issues is extraordinary,’ the former Trump lawyer said.
In his book, he also ties Conway – who made news this week due to her divorce from her Trump critic husband George – to the hush-money payment, writing that she was the person who informed Trump that Daniels had been paid off.
Conway, who served as Trump’s 2016 campaian manager, said ‘she’d pass along the good news’ to Trump, once Cohen gave the money to Daniels, Cohen wrote in his 2020 memoir, Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.
Conway ignored reporters Wednesday when she walked into Bragg’s lower Manhattan office.
Trump’s actions are also under scrutiny in Georgia, as Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis investigates whether crimes were committed when Trump and his allies tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Additionally, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to oversee the Department of Justice’s investigations into whether Trump mishandled classified documents when he left office and his effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
