The D.A. claims, starting in August 2015, Trump “orchestrated a scheme” to suppress information from surfacing about sexual encounters with two different women as he was getting ready to run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
The claim states a lawyer (Michael Cohen) covertly paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to “prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant (Trump).
Investigators say Cohen made the $130,000 payment through a shell corporation. This payment was illegal and Cohen has served prison time for it.
After winning the 2016 election, the D.A. claims Trump paid Cohen back for the illegal payments, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and then from his own bank account.
The Trump Organization deposited the checks, each one “disguised as a payment for legal services” in 2017. However, the D.A. says there was “no retainer agreement”.
Back in 2015 when Trump announced he was running for president, Trump and Cohen met with the AMI CEO at the Trump Tower to act as “eyes and ears” to watch for negative stories.
The AMI CEO learns a former Trump Tower doorman was trying to sell information that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.
AMI CEO paid the doorman $30,000 for exclusive rights to the story, purchased without fully investigating the claims. One AMI CEO concluded the doorman’s story wasn’t true, but Cohen insisted on keeping the agreement in place.
In June, 2016 the National Enquirer and AMI CCO told Cohen that Karen McDougal claimed she had a sexual relationship with Trump while he was married.
AMI paid McDougal $150,000 for her silence and “falsely characterized” the payment in books and records. The understanding was that Cohen would pay AMI back.
In September a recording between Trump/Cohen, suggests paying McDougal in cash.
Cohen disagreed and Trump then suggested paying by check. That led to the creation of a shell company called Resolution Consultants.
Now in October 2016 AMI Editor-in-Chief connected Cohen with Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and they worked out a deal for $130,000 to ensure her silence over a sexual encounter while Trump was married.
Trump told Cohen to delay payment to Daniels “as long as possible”.
Trump said “if they could delay until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether” because, at that point, it “would not matter” if the story became public.
In the final weeks of the election campaign, Trump agreed to the $130,000 and told Cohen to pay it.
Cohen then opens a bank account “Essential Consultants LLC” – and transfers $131,000 from his personal home equity line of credit.
The next day, Cohen wired the $130,000 to Daniels’ lawyer.
In November 2016 after Trump won the presidential election, AMI released both “The Doorman” and McDougal from their non-disclosure agreements.
In January of 2017, Cohen & Trump Organization CEO meet on how Cohen will get paid back for the $130,000 to Daniels.
They said the Total repayment will be $420,000 to Cohen, $130,000 payment + $50,000 for any other expense that Cohen absorbed.
The two agreed to double it to $360,000 (for tax purposes) and a $60,000 “year-end bonus”. Cohen was paid twelve monthly payments of $35,000 over the course of 2017.
Cohen was to send an invoice to Trump through the Trump Organization employees, falsely requesting $35,000 for legal services.
Now, in August of 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty in the federal investigation to the payoffs for both McDougal and Daniels.
Trump, took to Twitter saying “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
