STORMY WHETHER: Will Trump finally be held accountable for porn star payoff?

Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a…

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Sometimes the wheels of justice turn so slowly, it’s hard to see any motion at all — but in New York, one of the investigations of Donald Trump just made a visible lurch forward.

Prosecutors in Manhattan are presenting to a Grand Jury their case that Trump broke laws by striving during his 2016 campaign to cover up his (alleged) affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump allegedly had a brief affair with Daniels in 2006, while his wife was at home with their newborn child.

Then, when she tried to come forward with her story, Trump is accused of conspiring with David Pecker, the publisher of National Enquirer, to kill the story through a scheme that would pay her for exclusive access so no one else could publish the story, then bury it instead of printing it.

He’s further accused of having his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, make hush-money payments to Stormy to suppress the story — something Cohen has since admitted.

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Trump himself denies everything, including the affair, which he describes as something Daniels might aspire to “in her wildest imagination.”

Now, however, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has moved forward with the investigation, and appears ready to move toward indictment.

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He’s empaneled a Grand Jury, and on Monday, that panel began hearing evidence from witnesses — including the aforementioned tabloid publisher. The New York Times reports:

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“On Monday, one of the witnesses was seen with his lawyer entering the building in Lower Manhattan where the grand jury is sitting. The witness, David Pecker, is the former publisher of The National Enquirer, the tabloid that helped broker the deal with the porn star, Stormy Daniels.”

Others on the Grand Jury’s witness list include Dylan Howard, who was an editor at the National Enquirer at the time in question, and two Trump Organization employees.

They’ve also subpoenaed phone records and other documents that could offer evidence that Trump falsified records or otherwise acted illegally to cover up the affair.

It’s not the first litigation surrounding Trump and Daniels — she also sued multiple times, including once to overturn the non-disclosure agreement, and again to accuse him of defamation.

After she lost the latter case, Trump released an official statement on letterhead, boasting of his win and attacking her further.

“[A]s I have stated many times, I never had an affair with her–nor would I have ever wanted to (even in her wildest imagination!)”

https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1509314808985882629

It’s a significant move forward in the case, at the same time that the public is waiting anxiously to hear the next step in his Georgia case, where a Grand Jury recently finished investigating allegations of election tampering.

There have been no indictments announced yet, but Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stated last week that a decision is “imminent,” and a judge determined that it would be appropriate to delay releasing publicly the findings of the Grand Jury, on the grounds that if Trump or anyone else is charged with a crime, a public release in advance could influence a jury.

Stephanie Bazzle

Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.