A major player in the investigation into Donald Trump’s hush money payments made a return to the location of the Grand Jury Concludes monthly meetings on Monday, hinting that his testimony could be crucial as the prosecution moves toward possible criminal charges.
On March 13, 2023, former President Donald Trump makes a speech at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa. (Photo: Getty Images)
When the grand jury concludes vote on the possibility of indicting the former president is still unknown.
David Pecker, a close friend of Donald Trump and the former CEO of the firm that owned The National Enquirer, was in attendance as the Grand Jury concludes heard statement testimony in the probe for the first time since last week when a witness friendly to the former president appeared.
According to the spokesperson on the record while seeking anonymity to discuss ongoing investigations, the Grand Jury concludes is now back on the Trump case. Investigations are being conducted on the former president’s payments to two women who claimed to have been in relationships or had sex with him while he was running for presidency in 2016.
Stormy Daniels, a porn star, and Karen McDougal, a model, have both been accused of having relationships with Trump, who insists he was the victim of “extortion.”
Michael Cohen, former lawyer and fixer of trump who has claimed to have coordinated the payoffs, is one of the witnesses the Grand Jury concludes has already heard from. Cohen admitted to to federal crimes related to the payments in 2018 and has since grown to be a potentially crucial witness for state grand jury concludes prosecutors.
Pecker is considered important to the investigation because his business, American Media Corp., unwittingly supported Trump’s campaign by paying McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her narrative about an alleged affair with the president in August 2016. After that, the corporation concealed McDougal’s story until after the election, engaging in a questionable journalistic strategy known as “catch-and-kill.”
Cohen recorded a discussion in which he and Trump discussed the decision to pay McDougal via the publisher of the newspaper.
Cohen said to Trump in the audio, referring to Pecker, “I need to put up a firm for the transfer of all of that information regarding our friend, David.”
Cohen informed Trump that he had already spoken with Allen Weisselberg, the longstanding financial director for the Trump Organization, about “how to put the whole thing up.”
Then, Trump questioned, “What are we going to pay for this? One-fifty?”
According to court records from Cohen’s criminal case, Cohen also agreed to pay $125,000 for the nondisclosure portion of McDougal’s contract with AMI through a business he founded called Resolution Consultants LLC. But, Pecker notified Cohen that the transaction was off a few months later, and Cohen never handed over the $125,000.
Separately, Cohen has acknowledged giving Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from speaking to the Enquirer or other media outlets about her experiences.
Trump has claimed that he personally paid Cohen’s reimbursement, not his business.
In 2018, federal prosecutors disclosed that they had agreed not to file charges against AMI. Since then, Pecker has resigned as CEO.
Trump stated he anticipated being arrested last Tuesday in a tweet on his social media platform dated March 18. This heightened speculation that criminal charges were about to be filed against him. Since then, he has used the lack of an indictment to assert—without providing any supporting data—that the investigation is in some way failing.
The former Republican president has also stepped up his rhetoric, stating that any indictment will be followed by “possible murder & destruction.” Along with that, he published a photo of himself swinging a bat next to an image of Democratic district attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump compared Bragg, the first Black district attorney in Manhattan, to a “animal” on Thursday.
Bragg commended the approximately 1,600 employees for persisting despite “increased press attention and security around our office” in a statement to colleagues on Friday. He said that their safety remains the top priority.
As everyone of you does each and every day, Bragg said, “We will continue to apply the law equally and equitably.
Since then, Bragg has received support, and former federal prosecutors in New York City have signed a letter condemning the verbal harassment.
He made the following declaration in his statement: “As former prosecutors, we detest efforts to intimidate the Manhattan District Attorney and we call upon everybody to defend and protect prosecutorial independence and the rule of law.
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