Timeline: What led to Donald Trump arrest in hush-money case
Adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, speaks outside U.S. District Court in Manhattan in April 2018. Credit: AFP via Getty Images/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
TRUMP CASE TIMELINE:
- April 4, 2023: Former President Donald Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony charges. Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office say Trump paid hush money to quash a story about an affair he was alleged to have had with an adult film star, less than a month before the 2016 presidential election.
- March 30, 2023: The Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announces a grand jury had indicted former President Donald Trump.
- March 24, 2023: Trump says there will be "death and destruction" if he is indicted.
- January 30, 2023: The district attorney's office begins introducing evidence to a grand jury about Trump's alleged involvement in making hush money payments to Stephanie Clifford, an actor and adult film star who also goes by Stormy Daniels.
- Aug. 21, 2018: Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, pleads guilty in federal court to campaign finance violations and tax evasion charges. He admits making the $130,000 payment to Daniels, saying it was to influence an election. Federal prosecutors say the $130,000 payment to Daniels effectively was a campaign contribution to Trump, made in an attempt to silence Daniels to improve Trump's chances for election in 2016. Federal election law forbids individuals from making payments exceeding $2,700.
- May 3, 2018: Trump tweets he paid Cohen back the money, and that it had "nothing to do with the campaign." Trump says, "money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll [sic] in this transaction."
- May 2, 2018: Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney and the former Mayor of New York City, says on Fox News Trump repaid Cohen the $130,000 Cohen gave to Daniels. The money was "funneled … through a law firm and the president repaid it," Giuliani said. Trump "didn't know about the specifics of it, as far as I know," Giuliani said. "But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael [Cohen] would take care of things like this."
- April 2018: Trump says he did not know Cohen had made the payment to Daniels. "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about the payment.
- February 2018: Cohen acknowledges paying Daniels: "The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone," Cohen says in a statement to The New York Times.
- Nov. 4, 2016: The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Enquirer agreed to pay $150,000 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, for her story of an affair she said she had with Trump in 2006. The organization never published that story, in a tactic known in tabloid publishing as "catch and kill."
- October 2016: Cohen, then Trump's personal attorney, pays Daniels $130,000 in an effort to prevent Daniels from speaking about her relationship with Trump, which he denies took place. Daniels had been trying to sell the story to tabloid publications.
- 2006 and 2007: Daniels says on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" she met Donald Trump in July 2006, at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. She says they had an extramarital affair that continued into 2007.
With Laura Mann
Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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