Donald Trump indicted in Stormy Daniels hush money probe by Manhattan grand jury
Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday over hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 elections — marking the first-ever criminal case against a former US president.
The sealed indictment was filed with the clerk’s office in Manhattan Supreme Court in lower Manhattan Thursday evening, sources told The Post. The specific charges were not made public, but sources said Trump is facing over two dozen counts related to business fraud.
CNN reported, citing two sources, that Trump is facing over 30 counts connected to business fraud.
The unprecedented indictment comes as Trump, 76, is attempting to regain the White House for a third time, running for the 2024 Republican nomination. It follows a five-year investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into Trump and his business dealings — a probe that Republicans have blasted as a politically motivated crusade.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday.
His attorneys, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, told The Post that Trump “did not commit any crime” and vowed to “vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”
A spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg confirmed the indictment and said the office had contacted Trump’s team to arrange his surrender.
Trump is expected to surrender to law enforcement Tuesday, his attorneys told The Post.
The indictment will be unsealed at his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court, which is also expected to take place Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers and a court administrator said.
Trump was in Florida when the indictment came down and was reportedly caught off guard by it.
His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he spoke to Trump after he was indicted and the ex-president was “shocked.”
At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the mood Thursday night was “very somber,” insiders told The Post. “Reality has settled in with a thud,” a source said.
Since January, the grand jury that returned the indictment had been hearing evidence and witness testimony related to a hush-money payment made ahead of the 2016 election by then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels to her silence her about an affair she claimed to have had with Trump in 2006.
The panel also heard about a separate $150,000 “catch and kill” payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal — suggesting that the former president could be charged in connection to both payments, sources confirmed to The Post Thursday.
Trump has denied the alleged affairs and any wrongdoing in connection to the payments.
Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes related to the Daniels payment and another to McDougal he helped arrange prior to the 2016 election.
Trump, who was president at the time of Cohen’s guilty plea, did not face charges by federal prosecutors over the payments.
The Manhattan DA’s Office then launched its probe, with the case gaining momentum in recent months.
“Today’s indictment is not the end of this chapter; but rather, just the beginning,” Cohen told The Post in a statement Thursday evening. “Now that the charges have been filed, it is better for the case to let the indictment speak for itself. The two things I wish to say at this time is that accountability matters and I stand by my testimony and the evidence I have provided to DANY.”
Daniels’ attorney Clifford Brewster said in a statement that the indictment “is not cause for joy.”
“The hard work and conscientiousness of the grand jurors must be respected. Now let truth and justice prevail. No one is above the law. #teamstormy,” he tweeted.
Daniels, meanwhile, couldn’t hide her elation.
“Thank you to everyone for your support and love! I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond . . . also don’t want to spill my champagne,” she tweeted. “#Teamstormy merch/autograph orders are pouring in, too! Thank you for that as well but allow a few extra days for shipment.”
Cohen paid Daniels personally, but was reimbursed by the Trump Organization under the guise of legal expenses — but federal prosecutors said the money had been falsely accounted for.
Bragg’s case hinges on the allegation that the crime of falsifying business records — bookkeeping fraud — was done in the commission of another crime, a campaign finance violation, The New York Times reported in March. Trump’s charge would amount to a “low-level” felony, punishable by up to four years in prison if convicted.
The charge usually has a five-year statute of limitations as a felony, but those are extended when a defendant continuously lives out of state, as Trump did during his presidency, the Times reportd. The statute of limitations was also extended by more than a year in New York due to the pandemic.
Trump in mid-March was invited by Bragg’s office to testify before the grand jury. His attorney, Tacopina, at the time waved off the invitation as “much ado about nothing,” saying he didn’t believe the Democratic DA had a case.
“It’s just another example of them weaponizing the justice system against him. And it’s sort of unfair,” he said.
Several figures close to Trump were spotted in March heading into the DA’s office for meetings with prosecutors, including his former political adviser Kellyanne Conway, ex-spokesperson Hope Hicks, as well as Cohen.
Robert Costello, a lawyer loyal to Trump, testified before the grand jury as a rebuttal witness to the DA’s case last week. He briefly advised Cohen when he was being raided by the FBI in 2018. After more than two hours of testimony, Costello told reporters that Cohen told him he had masterminded the hush-money agreement all by himself, without consulting Trump.
Cohen told him he drew up the payment agreement with Daniels’ lawyers and used a loan to cover it, saying he “wanted to keep this secret, even secret” from his wife, Costello said.
Cohen was questioned about McDougal when he testified before the grand jury, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
David Pecker – the former publisher of the National Enquirer – testified twice before the grand jury, most recently Monday.
His tabloid, through parent company American Media Inc., bought the publishing rights to McDougal’s affair claims but never reported on it.
Bragg is facing scrutiny from House Republicans over the probe, which they called an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”
In addition to the Manhattan case, Trump is facing far-reaching legal exposure on a number of fronts.
In Georgia, a local prosecutor is investigating whether or not he committed a crime in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
He also faces a federal investigation headed by a special counsel who is probing his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House and his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, calling the probes into him a “witch hunt.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Priscilla DeGregory
