New York: Prosecutors laid out a case of lies against former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday over hush-money payments made to a star to conceal possibly harmful information ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.
The indictment handed down by a Manhattan grand panel and opened on Tuesday charges the former president Trump with 34 crime counts of fabricating business records linked to a 130,000 dollars payment made to star Stormy Daniels.
US Politics and Donald Trump
As per New York law, a defendant convicted of fabricating business records can receive between 1 and 4 years in prison.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg the scheme involved Donald Trump, his ex-personal attorney, and executives at American Media Inc.
He said they all were involved in what he termed a “catch and kill” operation in order to “buy and suppress adverse information to help Trump’s chance of winning the polls.”
Donald Trump was accused of arranging the money to Daniels via Cohen just days before the 2016 election in order to buy her silence.
Cohen has also acknowledged paying money to Daniels on Donald Trump’s behalf and was sentenced to 3 years in prison for the case, tax evasion and several other crimes.
The former president has rejected the allegations and says he is the prey of a political “witch hunt” by Bragg, intended to derail his 2024 election campaign.
Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in a crowded courtroom to the thirty-four counts, which one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, rejected following the hearing as “boilerplate.” Blanche said that they are going to fight the case. Bennett Gershman, a legal expert said that Trump is fundamentally accused of arranging a “grand scheme” to undermine the process of democracies.
