Records: Trump discussed quashing stories about affairs
— Court records NEW YORK released Thursday show Donald Trump was aware of efforts to keep a porn star and a Playboy centerfold silent in the days leading up to the 2016 election.
But despite Trump’s knowledge of those efforts— and the involvement of several others in his orbit — federal prosecutors in New York decided not to file any additional charges in their investigation of the illegal hush money payments made to silence both women who say they had sex with Trump before he was president, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The people briefed on the decision weren’t authorized to speak about it publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Court records released Thursday offered new details about the role Trump played in his campaign’s frenetic efforts effort to quash stories about the alleged affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment. But prosecutors confirmed in a court filing made public Thursday that they not only investigated Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, but whether other people “may be criminally liable” in the scandal, “made false statements, gave false testimony or otherwise obstructed justice.”
Trump initially insisted he was unaware of the hush money payments that Cohen orchestrated to Daniels and McDougal, who claimed they had affairs with Trump. Trump denies the allegations.
The search warrants revealed Thursday cite phone records showing Trump spoke on the phone with Cohen at least five times between Oct. 8 and Oct. 28, as Trump’s campaign sought to contain the impending stories.
On Oct. 28, 2016, as Cohen was finalizing payments meant to secure the silence of Daniels, the attorney spoke by phone with Trump for about five minutes, and later traded texts with Keith Davidson, a lawyer who was representing Daniels. According to the documents, Cohen thanked him and said, “I hope we’re good.” And Davidson replied, “I assure you. We are very good.”
Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations, lying to Congress and financial crimes, remains the only person to be charged in the scheme to protect Trump’s reputation during the 2016 presidential campaign. But prosecutors previously implicated the president in court filings, saying he directed Cohen to arrange the hush money payments.