(DCWatchdog.com) – The office of Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is restoring a criminal investigation into alleged hush-money payments made on behalf of former President Donald Trump to porn star Stormy Daniels, according to a report.
The reported resumption of the probe into the alleged Trump – Daniels affair comes after, in February of this year, two prosecutors’ resignations seemed to cause the case to go cold.
The new development was reported by The New York Times, with Manhattan DA’s Office sources confirming it to The New York Post.
One of the sources told the Post that DA Bragg and his subordinates were “optimistic about building a case against” the 76-year-old former US president.
The investigation started in 2018 under the former DA, Cyrus Vance Jr., over claims that Stormy Daniels, 43, was paid $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen claimed he paid off the 43-year-old porn star with his own money and was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization, the former president’s company.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations in a federal investigation.
Under former Manhattan DA Vance, prosecutors investigated if Trump or the Trump Organization had violated state laws with the alleged payments, such as falsifying records.
In late 2019, the DA’s Office subpoenaed the Trump Organization seeking records on the payments Cohen made to Daniels.
The former US president has denied having an affair with the porn star and has said payments to her were not campaign expenditures but a personal matter.
According to the cited source, the new Manhattan DA’s office is looking at whether the former CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, “could be pressured into cooperating with the renewed probe.”
Weisselberg has pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in a case tried by the Manhattan Supreme Court. He has admitted to taking perks worth $1.7 million “off the books” under a scheme to avoid income taxes. These include luxury cars, a free Upper West Side apartment, and tuition fees for his grandchildren.
The former Trump Organization CFO has agreed to be a prosecution witness in a deal that would see him serve five months in prison.
According to the Post’s source, the Manhattan DA is mulling slapping Weisselberg with new charges, which have nothing to do with the alleged hush payments, to get him to cooperate on the suspected Trump – Daniels affair.
“As of this writing, I have not personally spoken to DA Bragg or any member of his team. The Trump-Stormy Daniels saga has been widely reported; including that my actions were done at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump,” former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told the outlet in a statement.
Manhattan DA probing Trump's role in hush money payment to Stormy Daniels https://t.co/GFNQT7ekXL pic.twitter.com/xO6EaqVQLg
— New York Post (@nypost) November 21, 2022
