They were made to “protect his candidacy,' Conroy added. The payments were part of “an unlawful plan to identify and suppress negative information that could have undermined his campaign for president,' Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy said in court. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.Īs alleged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the charges arose from a series of checks that Trump or his company wrote during the presidential campaign to his lawyer and fixer for his role in making a payment to a porn actor who alleged an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. The statement of facts released alongside the indictment offers a more detailed account of the alleged crimes in Trump's 'catch and kill' scheme during a two-year period to keep potentially damning information from preventing the former president's path to the White House. The indictment was unsealed in a brief proceeding before Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial of the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer. The 76-year-old Trump denied dozens of charges of falsifying business records for his alleged role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as his 2016 presidential campaign wrapped up. president, sitting or former, to be criminally charged. The 76-year-old Trump also faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington D.C.Ī stone-faced Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday in connection with a 34-count felony Manhattan grand jury indictment claiming he illegally influenced the 2016 election through a series of hush money payments, cementing him in history as the first U.S.

Hundreds of protesters on both sides flanked streets around Trump Tower in midtown and the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, including appearances by several members of the U.S.Former President Donald Trump pleaded no guilty before a Manhattan judge Tuesday on charges of falsifying business documents before returning to Florida to deliver a public address from Mar-a-Lago.

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