The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg has now reportedly informed the legal team representing President Donald Trump that he may be subject to criminal charges for his alleged role in the payment of hush money to pornstar Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
According to a new report from The New York Times, the grand jury that has been hearing evidence related to the case has has now decided to extend an invitation to President Trump to testify before it.
The report mentioned that the offer for Trump to testify almost always indicates a criminal indictment is close and that it would be unusual for any district attorney to give a potential defendant that notification without ultimately seeking charges against them.
Five years have passed since the beginning of the criminal inquiry into whether or not Trump broke the law by paying Stormy Daniels, who claims that she had an affair with the president, $130,000 in hush money.
This lawsuit includes a payment that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels before the election.
Cohen has already pleaded guilty to criminal charges linked to the payment.
Throughout the course of the campaign, agents for Daniels got in touch with the National Enquirer regarding her tale, but the journal did not express any interest in purchasing the exclusive rights to it.
The agreement between Cohen and Daniels was made possible thanks to the efforts of the publication’s publisher.
The issue for Trump is on the manner in which Cohen’s hush money was paid for by his firm.
The cost was recorded by the corporation as a legal expenditure, and the justification given was a retainer agreement with Cohen.
Since the retainer agreement did not exist and the payment was not tied to any legal services from Cohen, the groundwork had been laid for a possible charge of manipulating business records, which is a class A misdemeanor in the United States.
The prosecutors say that the second crime is that the $130,000 hush payment was an inappropriate gift to the Trump campaign since the money was intended to halt a story in order to promote Trump’s campaign.
If former President Trump were to be found guilty in this matter he might face a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
In response to the news, Trump issued a long statement denying that he had ever had an affair with Daniels and claiming that the potential prosecution was a politically motivated “witch-hunt.”
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