Iran Press/ America: This is the first time a current or former President of the United States faces criminal charges. The indictment is underseal and will be announced in the coming days. The charges against Trump are not known at this time.
The case centers around a $130,000 payment made by Attorney Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen, who was not Trump's lawyer at the time, was then paid by the Trump campaign. Those payments were labeled as legal expenses and were not included in the campaign's finance reports.
Cohen plead guilty in 2018 to charges related to tax fraud and campaign finance violations. He claimed that Trump ordered him to make the payments to Daniels and then reimbursed him in monthly installments and a bonus.
The payments were part of a non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed to prevent her from going public about accusations that she had a sexual relationship with Trump, something that Trump denies.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the investigation, as well as the various other legal challenges he is facing, as politically motivated witch-hunts.
Legal observers say the charges will likely focus on falsifying business records because the Trump campaign reported that the payments were for legal services that Cohen never rendered. That would only result in a misdemeanor, but it has been suggested that conspiracy charges could be included to bump it up to a felony.
Trump's attorney Alina Habba released a statement after the news broke, calling Trump a victim of a corrupt justice system.
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