New Delhi: Donald Trump was criminally charged for directing hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign. Trump must now grapple with the charges even as he campaigns for a 2nd presidential term in next year’s race.
Here are 5 facts about the case against Donald Trump:
- Donald Trump, a real estate tycoon then, met an adult film actress Stormy Daniels during a golf tournament in July 2006. Daniels was 27 at the time and Trump 60. His third wife, Melania, had given birth to their son Barron about four months earlier. Daniels recounts her encounter with Trump in her book “Full Disclosure”, which was published in 2018.
- In her book, Daniels said one of Trump’s bodyguards invited her to have dinner with “The Apprentice” star in his penthouse. They proceeded to have what “may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had,” she writes in an account that also includes an unflattering description of Trump’s anatomy.
- Trump has denied they ever had sex and has accused Daniels of “extortion” and a “total con job.”
- Fast forward to 2016 and Trump is the Republican presidential nominee. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has acknowledged arranging a $130,000 “hush money” payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about the 2006 tryst.
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The payment was revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018 and forms the basis for the charges Trump has been indicted for.
