CAN'T OUTRUN HIM

The Independent

Donald Trump Jr confirms he signed father’s porn star ‘hush money’ check

In the criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors allege a check made out to Mr Trump’s former ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen was falsely r

Donald Trump Jr. has admitted that he personally signed one of the hush money checks now at the center of his father’s arrest on criminal charges. The former president’s son told right-wing network Newsmax that part of Mr. Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records refers to his own actions.

“That son is me. Like I said, clearly also not a campaign finance violation if it’s from his own trust, not to a campaign, not from the campaign, not from the funds raised from it,” he said.

“So, none of it actually makes any sense.”

In the criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors allege that a check made out to Mr. Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen was falsely recorded as a “retainer” in the Trump Organization’s business records.

The check was signed by former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg – who is now in Riker’s Island on a fraud conviction – “and the Defendant’s son, as trustees”.

The son in question was not named in the charging documents but Don Jr. later confirmed it was him as he joins his father in railing against the charges. Don Jr. has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the criminal case and the payment itself is not illegal.

Instead, prosecutors allege that a crime was committed when this payment – and many others – to Cohen were falsely recorded in the Trump Organization’s business records. The crime then reaches the level of a felony when the falsified records were made while in commission of another crime.

According to Manhattan prosecutors, Mr. Trump and Cohen carried out a “catch and kill” scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Cohen allegedly made hush money payments on Mr. Trump’s behalf to suppress negative information about the presidential candidate. The payments were allegedly made to silence individuals over alleged affairs he had with women.

Mr. Trump “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,” the charging documents read.

Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr. Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.

Mr. Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen but falsely recorded the payments as legal fees.

Back in 2019, Cohen testified before a House committee that Don Jr. signed some of the checks reimbursing him for the payment to Ms. Daniels. Cohen has already served jail time for his part in the hush money case and has now become prosecutor’s star witness in the case against Mr. Trump.

During Weisselberg’s trial last year, he testified that both of Mr. Trump’s adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, signed checks that he used to defraud authorities but insisted that no member of the Trump family played a part in his tax evasion scheme.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal illegal activity connected to his 2016 presidential campaign. Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records.

Mr. Trump surrendered to Manhattan authorities on Tuesday afternoon and was officially arrested on the charges. He then appeared in court for his arraignment before Judge Juan Merchan – the same judge who sentenced the Trump Organization and its CFO last year. Cutting a glum figure, he defiantly pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has continued to lash out at the judge and Manhattan DA in the aftermath.

CNN

Donald Trump indicted by Manhattan grand jury on more than 30 counts related to business fraud

The charges are not publicly known at this time. Trump will likely be arraigned early next week, his defense attorney Joe Tacopina said.

Donald Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in an indictment from a Manhattan grand jury, according to two sources familiar with the case -- the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges.

Trump is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

The indictment has been filed under seal and will be announced in the coming days. The charges are not publicly known at this time.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has been investigating the former president in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election. Grand jury proceedings are secret, but a source familiar with the case told CNN that a witness gave about 30 minutes of testimony before it voted to indict Trump.

The decision is sure to send shockwaves across the country, pushing the American political system -- which has never seen one of its ex-leaders confronted with criminal charges, let alone while running again for president -- into uncharted waters.

Trump released a statement in response to the indictment claiming it was "Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history."

"I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden," the former president said. "The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party -- united and strong -- will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Trump was caught off guard by the grand jury's decision to indict him, according to a person who spoke directly with him. While the former president was bracing for an indictment last week, he began to believe news reports that a potential indictment was weeks -- or more -- away.

"Is this a shock today? Hell yes," the person said, speaking on a condition of anonymity as Trump's team calculated its response.

Bragg's office said it is in touch with Trump's lawyers.

"This evening we contacted Mr. Trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.'s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal," the district attorney's office said in a statement Thursday. "Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected."

The legal action against Trump jolts the 2024 presidential campaign into a new phase, as the former president has vowed to keep running in the face of criminal charges.

Trump has frequently called the various investigations surrounding him a "witch hunt," attempting to sway public opinion on them by casting himself as a victim of what he's claimed are political probes led by Democratic prosecutors. As the indictment reportedly neared, Trump urged his supporters to protest his arrest, echoing his calls to action following the 2020 election as he tried to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump has long avoided legal consequences in his personal, professional and political lives. He has settled a number of private civil lawsuits through the years and paid his way out of disputes concerning the Trump Organization, his namesake company. As president, he was twice impeached by the Democratic-led House, but avoided conviction by the Senate.

In December, the Trump Organization was convicted on multiple charges of tax fraud, though Trump himself was not charged in that case.

Trump's Republican allies -- as well as his 2024 GOP rivals -- have condemned the Manhattan district attorney's office over the looming indictment, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to launch an investigation into the matter.

GOP RALLIES TO TRUMP'S DEFENSE

Congressional Republicans quickly rallied to Trump's defense, attacking Bragg on Twitter and accusing the district attorney of a political witch hunt.

"Outrageous," tweeted House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the Republican committee chairmen who has demanded Bragg testify before Congress about the Trump investigation.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, called the indictment "completely unprecedented" and said it is "a catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system."

But at least one moderate Republican told CNN he trusted the legal system.

"I believe in the rule of law. I think we have checks and balances and I trust the system," said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

"We have a judge. We have jurors. There is appeals. So I think in the end, justice will be done. If he's guilty it will show up. But if not, I think that will be shown too," Bacon told CNN.

INVESTIGATION BEGAN UNDER CY VANCE

Bragg's office had signaled as recently as early March that they were close to bringing charges against Trump after they invited the ex-president to testify before the grand jury probing the hush money scheme. Potential defendants in New York are required by law to be notified and invited to appear before a grand jury weighing charges. But Trump ultimately declined to appear before the panel.

The long-running investigation first began under Bragg's predecessor, Cy Vance, when Trump was in office. It relates to a $130,000 payment made by Trump's then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

At issue in the investigation is the payment made to Daniels and the Trump Organization's reimbursement to Cohen.

According to court filings in Cohen's own federal prosecution, Trump Organization executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover his original $130,000 payment and tax liabilities and reward him with a bonus. The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense in its internal books. Trump has denied knowledge of the payment.

Donald Trump’s mugshot:

Vanity Fair

Report: Trump Was Basically One Step Away From Throwing a “No Indictment” Party

The ex-president apparently believed he was in the clear.

One of the funniest subplots in the Donald Trump Indictment Show—which centers on the hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016—involves the multiple reports that, after predicting to his followers that he would be arrested on March 21, the ex-president and his allies came to believe he was in the clear.

Trump, The Washington Post reported late Thursday, “had grown cautiously optimistic” in recent days, after “advisers had counseled him that a possible indictment by a Manhattan grand jury…would not come for some time—if at all.” The former president, the outlet noted, was apparently so unconcerned about the prospect of being charged that he’d “even begun joking about ‘golden handcuffs,’” which is probably not something one does if one thinks there’s a legitimate possibility they might be indicted, convicted, and sentenced to time in prison. “It was a surprise to everybody,” David Urban, a longtime Trump adviser, told the Post, which noted that “some of his lawyers had been preparing to take a few days off.” Following the indictment, The New York Times similarly reported that “Trump and his aides were caught off guard by the timing, believing that any action by the grand jury was still weeks away and might not occur at all.” The paper of record noted that Trump had recently been “telling nearly anyone that he was in a good mood and that he believed the case against him by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had fallen apart.”

Of course, the biggest indication that Trump indeed believed he’d outrun Bragg? His taking to Truth Social on Wednesday to write: “I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE…. THE GRAND JURY IS SAYING, HOLD ON, WE ARE NOT A RUBBER STAMP, WHICH MOST GRAND JURIES ARE BRANDED AS BEING, WE ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE AGAINST A PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE OR AGAINST LARGE NUMBERS OF LEGAL SCHOLARS ALL SAYING THERE IS NO CASE HERE.” Sure, that could have been an unabashed attempt to sway the jurors through flattery—but, in retrospect, those very much sound like the words of a man who was extremely confident he was not going to be indicted. “Such respect”! “The grand jury system as a whole”! “The grand jury is saying, hold on”! Do you think he still stands by these statements? If there were ever a time for the internet-ism “ROTFLMAO,” it would be now.

In related news, according to the Times, Trump was less focused on “the legal consequences” of the indictment Thursday than “the political implications.” Trump previously said he would not drop out of the 2024 presidential race if charged, boldly claiming that being indicted might actually help his chances of making it back to the White House. One adviser told the Post that the ex-president and current presidential candidate is planning to “milk [the indictment] for all it’s worth politically.” And while Trump has reportedly raised millions since he first claimed he’d be arrested earlier this month, it does not appear that people are reacting exactly as he had hoped.

Per the Post:

"The causeway that leads to Mar-a-Lago has long been a rally spot for Trump supporters, especially during his presidency, when they would regularly gather to cheer on his motorcade. But as the sun set along the causeway Thursday, more people were fishing for sand perch and croaker than had shown up to support the former president. Shortly before 8 p.m., only a half dozen Trump supporters had amassed in their usual spot."

Meanwhile, according to the Times, on Thursday, “a large group of former Trump Organization employees was quietly cheering the latest developments via text messages.”

Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels: A timeline of the hush money case behind indictment

It’s been nearly seven years since the hush money payments at the centre of the historic felony indictment of Donald Trump were allegedly made to cover up reported sexual affairs with two women. The claims in the allegations against Trump from adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Playboy model Karen McDougal go back nearly 20 years. Read more: Donald Trump…

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