manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg may soon be pressing charges against former President Donald Trump regarding the former president’s alleged involvement in providing hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, Trump confirmed on social media after multiple outlets reported the news.
Bragg, a Democrat, offered Trump the opportunity to testify to a grand jury next week, according to multiple media outlets. This move signals that Bragg may be pressing criminal charges soon, as New York laws require that prospective investigation targets be presented an opportunity to testify before a jury before the defendant is indicted.
It is unclear at this point what the exact charges would be. Based on the former president’s statements on social media Thursday, the charges would likely center around a claim by Daniels that she had received $130,000 of hush money from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen before the 2016 presidential election, which she said was intended to cover an alleged 2006 tryst between her and Trump. Trump denied all allegations made by Daniels.
Daniels sued Trump in 2018 to break that non-disclosure agreement about the alleged liaison. After the court dismissed the case, Daniels unsuccessfully sued Trump again for defamation after Trump mocked some evidence she presented as a “con job.”
A criminal charge against Trump would be the first-ever indictment of a former president and would add to the legal challenges faced by Trump as he seeks the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Trump currently faces several challenges, including a special purpose grand jury investigation into alleged election interference activities and a consolidated Department of Justice probe into his handling of classified documents on his property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
