Former United States President Donald Trump is set to face his first criminal trial at a New York court on Monday over hush money allegedly paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to his election win in 2016.
In March last year, prosecutors filed an indictment that made Trump the first former president of the US to face a criminal trial. They allege that the payments, falsely recorded as legal expenses, were used to bury allegations that might have hurt him during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The hush money case revolves around allegations that Trump paid off several people during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence their claims that he engaged in extramarital sexual encounters.
Trump is alleged to have made these payments through lawyer Michael Cohen. The key evidence is a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, who was ready to go public about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump.
READ ALSO: Former Trump advisor Navarro begins prison sentence in Florida
He is also accused of facilitating hush money payments of $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal over claims of an affair, and $30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had fathered.
While the payments themselves are not illegal, Trump is accused of violating federal campaign finance laws by failing to disclose money that was supposed to be used to boost his electoral chances, instead recording it as a “legal expense”.
Trump now faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to the payments in this New York state criminal trial.
Credible News.ng
