Stormy Daniels meets with prosecutors investigating Trump – KGET 17

NEW YORK (AP) – A lawyer for Stormy Daniels said the porn star met with prosecutors Wednesday as former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer testified before a grand jury investigating secret money paid to Daniels on Trump’s behalf.

Daniels’ attorney, Clark Brewster, tweeted that Daniels had met and answered questions from Manhattan prosecutors and was willing to testify. The news came as Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was giving his second day of testimony before a grand jury.

Daniels took to Twitter to thank her attorney for “helping me in our continued fight for truth and justice.”

A message seeking comment was sent to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

“I feel great,” Cohen told reporters en route to what he expected to be his final day of testimony.

In the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen said he paid $130,000 on Trump’s behalf to Daniels, who at the time was in talks to tell her story on television.

Daniels said she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 that she did not want but did not refuse. Trump says that never happened. A lawyer for the former president said Trump has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury but has no plans to do so.

In 2018, federal prosecutors charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes related to the payment, as well as a similar $150,000 payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, alleging that these were impermissible gifts to Trump’s campaign efforts. Trump also denied having an affair with McDougal.

Cohen pleaded guilty. However, federal prosecutors never charged Trump. Prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into whether state laws were violated in connection with the payments or how Cohen was paid by the Trump Organization for his work covering up the alleged affairs.

Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for paying Daniels and to cover bonuses and other alleged expenses. The company has internally classified these payments as legal fees.

Falsifying business records can be a misdemeanor under state law or a felony if the paperwork falsification is done in connection with a more serious crime.

Trump and his lawyers said he was forced to pay money to Daniels and should be considered a victim in the investigation. Daniels and the lawyers who helped arrange the payments denied extorting anyone.