Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to his charges yesterday in a historic arraignment related to payments he made to cover up his sexual encounters during his first presidential campaign in 2016.
Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded in various internal company documents as being for a legal retainer that prosecutors say didn’t exist.
The case centres on payoffs to two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged the former president had out of wedlock.
Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to false statements testified before the grand jury and is expected to be a star prosecution witness in the case.
Here is an outline of the three cases as they were cited by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg:
"It’s not just about one payment. It is 34 false statements and business records that were concealing criminal conduct,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters when asked how the three separate cases were connected.
Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin
Mr Bragg first listed the incident involving a former Trump Tower doorman who was paid $30,000 after he claimed he had information about a child who Trump had out of wedlock.
That doorman, Dino Sajudin, received the payment from the parent company of the National Enquirer in exchange for signing over the rights, “in perpetuity,” to a rumour that the president had fathered a child with an employee at Trump World Tower, a skyscraper he owns near the United Nations.
The contract between Mr Sajudin and the American Media Inc. would penalize Mr Sajudin for $1 million if he disclosed either the rumour or the terms of his agreement with the tabloid's parent company.
In an interview with The Associated Press in August 2017, the woman at the centre of the rumour denied that she had had an affair with Trump.
Former Playboy model, Karen McDougal
The prosecutor also cited the case of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who received $150,000 from American Media after claiming she had a 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s.
The money was to gain the rights to Ms McDougal's story but to never run it — a practice known as “catch and kill.”
The National Enquirer's parent company has acknowledged that the payments were done specifically to help Trump’s presidential campaign.
Mr Bragg said Trump “explicitly” directed lawyer Michael Cohen, then working for the Trump Organization, to reimburse American Media in cash, then Cohen indicated to Trump that the payment should be made instead by a shell company.
The alleged relationship between Ms McDougal and Trump remained concealed until a Wall Street Journal report days before Election Day in 2016. Trump has denied her allegation.
Porn actress, Stormy Daniels
The third case involves the porn actress Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter with Trump at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006. Trump has denied the encounter.
Mr Bragg said that 12 days before the election on November 8, 2016, Cohen had wired $130,000 to Daniels' lawyer by using a shell corporation funded through a Manhattan bank.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid after indicating she was willing to speak to either the National Enquirer or on television to confirm the encounter.
Trump insisted to reporters on Air Force One in April 2018 that he didn't know about the payment made to Daniels through Cohen.
But Mr Bragg said Tuesday that Trump reimbursed Cohen after his 2016 victory with money from two sources: a trust that held the Trump Organization's assets and from his personal bank account.
