Oh Stormy, bring back that sunny day…

Created
Sun, 12/03/2023 - 09:00
Updated
Sun, 12/03/2023 - 09:00
It appears that Donald Trump may be on the verge of indictment in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. Philip Bump has all the details: The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) has extended an unwelcome invitation to former president Donald Trump: come offer testimony before a grand jury probing his business. In the state of New York, potential targets of criminal investigations can request the opportunity to offer testimony to a grand jury, an alert that can serve as a sort of early-warning flag for potential indictments. Trump, like most of those who are invited to testify before possible indictment, is unlikely to actually show up for questioning. But the invitation itself suggests that Bragg’s office may be close to actually filing criminal charges. One possible focus of an indictment is the 2016 payment of $130,000 to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels facilitated by Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. The focus of a grand jury’s work is sealed, but both The Washington Post and the New York Times have reported that the hush-money payment is a likely focal point of the probe. With that in mind, it’s worth walking through what we know about the payment, how it violated federal law and what charges Trump might face. Let’s start at the beginning. The encounter Despite Trump’s reiteration on social media this week that he “never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels,” it seems pretty obvious that he did, in fact, have an affair with…