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NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND – MARCH 04: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before his speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on March 4, 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland. Trump took questions from reporters over a range of topics including on the progress of his campaign and his opinions on the war in Ukraine. Conservatives gathered at the four-day annual conference to discuss the agenda of the Republican Party. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The New York City grand jury that is weighing whether to criminally charge former President Donald Trump is set to resume work Thursday after an unexpected day off.
The grand jury has been hearing testimony from witnesses since January on a hush money payment porn star Stormy Daniels received shortly before the 2016 presidential election from Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer at that time.
Cohen and Daniels both have said that the $130,000 he gave her was to keep her from talking to journalists about her claim of having sex with Trump once in 2016.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, used the term “legal expenses” in business documents to record payments he made to Cohen to cover the cost of paying off Daniels as well as taxes he owed on that money.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is known to be considering whether to ask the grand jury to indict Trump for violating New York state law by allegedly misclassifying the reimbursement to Cohen as a legal expense.
That is normally a misdemeanor. But it can be elevated to a felony if a business record is falsified to cover up another crime.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal crimes that included breaking campaign finance law by facilitating the Daniels payment to keep her from harming Trump’s chances of winning the 2016 election.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels or with another woman, Karen McDougal, who received a $150,000 payment from the publisher of The National Enquirer that same year to buy her silence about an alleged affair with him that she says began in 2006.
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