Case against Trump over porn-star hush money claims brought before grand jury

A grand jury is hearing evidence in New York over former US president Donald Trump’s alleged role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels made during his 2016 presidential campaign, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

A grand jury could lay the groundwork for possible criminal charges against the former president by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, adding to his legal troubles.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified before the grand jury, a source said. Mr Pecker was seen entering the lower Manhattan building where the grand jury is empanelled, according to the New York Times, which first reported on the grand jury on Monday. Mr Pecker could not immediately be reached for comment.

The publisher had offered to help Mr Trump by buying rights to unflattering stories and never publishing them.

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Prosecutors have also begun contacting officials from Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, a source said. In a sign that they want to corroborate these witness accounts, the prosecutors recently subpoenaed phone records and other documents that might shed light on the episode.

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A conviction is not a certainty, in part because a case could hinge on showing that Mr Trump and his company falsified records to hide the payout from voters days before the 2016 election, a low-level felony charge that would be based on a largely untested legal theory. The case would also rely on the testimony of Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer who made the payment and who himself pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money in 2018.

The moves are an indication that the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is closer to a decision on whether to charge Mr Trump. Mr Bragg’s office declined to comment on the Times report.

Ms Daniels said she had a sexual liaison with Mr Trump and received $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for not discussing her encounter with him. Mr Trump denies it happened and in 2018 told reporters he knew nothing about a payment to Ms Daniels.

Mr Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in federal court in New York for orchestrating hush payments to Ms Daniels and another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had a months-long affair with Mr Trump before he took office.

Ms McDougal has said she sold her story for $150,000 to American Media Inc (AMI), but it was never published. The incident involved a practice known as “catch and kill” to prevent a potentially damaging article from being published.

Mr Pecker, AMI’s former chief executive officer and a longtime friend of Mr Trump and Cohen, told prosecutors of their hush-money deals with Ms McDougal and Ms Daniels before the 2016 US election won by Mr Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2018. – Reuters/New York Times