Manhattan authorities investigating hush-money payments made on Donald Trump’s behalf have now spoken to the woman at the center of the inquiry: Stormy Daniels herself.
Clark Brewster, her lawyer, tweeted on Wednesday that he and Daniels met with investigators at the request of the district attorney’s office. “Stormy responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed,” he said, suggesting that Daniels has not testified before the grand jury weighing whether to indict the former president.
Daniels responded to Brewster’s tweet, thanking him “for helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice.”
On his social media platform TruthSocial, Trump said he did “NOTHING wrong” and accused Daniels of “trying to drum up some publicity for herself.”
“She knows nothing about me other than her conman lawyer, Avanatti, and convicted liar and felon, jailbird Michael Cohen, may have schemed up. Never had an affair with her, just another false acquisition by a SleazeBag. Witch Hunt!,” he said.
Prosecutors in Alvin Bragg’s office are currently investigating the extent of Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, an adult-film star, in exchange for her silence about an affair she alleges she had with Trump in the early 2000s. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, arranged the deal in the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, who publicly denies the affair ever took place, reimbursed Cohen for the payment and the probe seeks to determine whether business records were falsified in order to hide the payment and whether that was done to cover-up what was essentially a donation to the presidential campaign. It’s possible that Trump could be charged with a felony.
Cohen has personally met with prosecutors several times and testified before a grand jury twice this week. After his final meeting before the panel, Cohen spoke to the media Wednesday, saying he was “relieved” that his role in this matter seems to be over.
“My position is that, at the end of the day, Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds if in fact that’s the way that the facts play out,” he said. “Plain and simple. This is not about him. This is about holding accountability, truth to power and everything in between.”
Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s lawyers, took aim at the credibility of Cohen, who would likely be a witness in a trial.
“Look, Alvin Bragg once said — I hope he remembers these words — he can’t see a world in which he would base a prosecution of Donald Trump on the word of a convicted perjurer and felon like Michael Cohen,” Tacopina said during a CNN interview. “He is still a convicted perjurer, he’s someone convicted of lying, and it’s not about vengeance. It’s all about vengeance for him.”
When asked about Tacopina’s comments during his own interview on CNN, Cohen hit back.
“I think he’s a fool,” Cohen said.
“Yes, I was convicted. I pled guilty to a 1001 violation,” he said, referencing a federal law, “but I did it at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald Trump.”
