By Aaron Miller-
Prosecutors from The New York district attorney have revisited hush money payments from the Trump Organisation to women with whom the U.S president allegedly had affairs before he came into power.
The investigation was reopened last month by the district attorney who are probing payments made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal during the 2016 presidential campaign. The reopening of the case shows the determination of the authorities to find some dirt on the U.S president, who so far has overcome all efforts to incriminate him sufficiently for impeachment. Trump has held firm to denials of the affairs believed to be true by most of the American public mainly because of the lengths Daniels has gone to verify her claims.
Subpoenas were sent to the Trump Organization and American Media Inc. to unearth as much information as possible in relation to records falsification in violations of New York state law. Last year, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about talks to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He also pleaded guilty to paying $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from publicizing the affair before the election. He claims to have made the payments at the president’s behest.
American Media Inc., has already admitted paying McDougal $150,000 in coordination with Cohen, signed a non prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which closed its own investigation in July, alleged that the Trump Organization paid Cohen $420,000 to reimburse him for the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels, boosting the total to include taxes and a bonus. Cohen was interviewed at the Federal prison in Ottisville where he is serving a 3 months sentence for campaign violations.
Claims by the company that the fees were legal expenses were rebutted by prosecutors who alleged that Cohen did no legal work for the business in 2017.