The fact that Donald Trump was the first president to be twice impeached by the House of Representatives during his time in office made for an uncomfortable record.
He is currently the first ex-president to be charged.
In a New York state court on Tuesday, Trump was charged with 34 felonies in connection with payments his lawyer made to a porn star who claimed to have an affair with Him just before the 2016 presidential election. To each charge, he entered a not-guilty plea.
One of several legal matters that Trump is dealing with is the indictment. A summary of the current situation for the former president is provided below, along with a list of other impending issues.
Why Were New York City Prosecutors Investigating Trump?
And in 2016, when he was running for president, Trump was charged with breaking state law in New York.
Michael Cohen, one of Trump’s former attorneys, testified in federal court that he gave porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election to prevent her from speaking out about an alleged affair she had with Trump.
In court documents, Cohen also acknowledged that Trump’s real estate company in New York City reimbursed him the following year, but the payments were covered up as a sizable monthly retainer.
Trump has refuted claims that he had an affair with Daniels and bought her silence. She has been accused of extorting money from him by one of his current attorneys. The Manhattan grand jury invited the former president to testify, but he declined.
What Are the Charges?
Trump is charged with 34 separate violations of the law, which is a felony punishable by up to four years in state jail and a $5,000 fine, and prohibits fabricating company documents to hide another crime.
The charges pertain to 11 checks issued to Cohen in 2017 as well as the related invoices and account entries.
Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg Jr. claimed in a statement of facts concerning the case that the payments were a component of a plan hatched by Trump “that obscured negative information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
The statement claims that as part of that strategy, Trump and ‘Lawyer A’ — Cohen — paid individuals to either bury or purchase the silence of accusations made by a former Trump Tower doorman and two anonymous women in 2015.
The statement claims that the editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer was a part of the scheme and agreed to pay the doorman $30,000 and one of the ladies $150,000 so they wouldn’t talk about their claims that Trump had extramarital affairs.
It appears that the lady in question is Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year who sued the National Enquirer’s parent business in 2018 to be released from a contract that forbade her from disclosing the alleged affair she had with Trump. Trump denies having an affair with McDougal as he did with Daniels.
The statement claims that the Trump Organization paid Cohen back through monthly checks in 2017 that it represented as a legal retainer, even though “there was no such retainer arrangement” and Cohen delivered no services that year.
Trump signed nine of the checks himself, the statement claims; the other two were signed by one of Trump’s sons and the Trump Organization. The statement claims that the accusations in the indictment pertain primarily to the payment Cohen has confessed to making to the second woman, Daniels.
Trump came to the city on Monday for the arraignment on Tuesday because New York requires offenders to appear in person to be booked. He handed himself in at a Manhattan courthouse early on Tuesday afternoon while being accompanied by Secret Service officials. He was booked, but no mugshot was taken.
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What Happens Next?
According to New York law, prosecutors have a little over a month to provide the defense team for Donald Trump with the pertinent evidence they have obtained.
The next significant step in the case will be the consideration of motions, which the court, Justice Juan Manuel Merchan, set up a schedule for.
The defense is anticipated to submit a variety of motions, such as petitions to drop the charges or, if they cannot be dropped, to transfer the case to a different court.
Trump won’t have to post bail since the accusations weren’t serious enough to warrant it, and he can carry on with his campaign.
His next court date is set for December 4, which is two months before Iowa caucuses formally kick off the Republican presidential primary season.