January 30, 2023

Trump’s Latest Legal Nightmare: A Grand Jury Is Reportedly Investigating the Stormy Daniels Payoff

After high-profile convictions of Trump’s companies, the former president himself may be facing legal jeopardy.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. Alex Brandon/AP

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Fresh off securing convictions against the Trump Organization in a tax fraud case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is reportedly once again investigating Donald Trump over an alleged hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Bragg’s prosecutors are preparing to present evidence to grand jurors in the hopes of bringing criminal charges against Trump personally. Trump’s longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, was seen going into Bragg’s office earlier this month, and the Times said in its report that numerous other potential witnesses have been contacted by investigators or were spotted going into the building where the grand jury meets. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges, admitting he paid Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to cover up an alleged extra-marital affair Trump had with Daniels in 2006. (Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.) Cohen said he made the payments to help the Trump campaign and with Trump’s support.

Bragg’s predecessor, Cy Vance Jr., aggressively pursued possible criminal charges against Trump but was unable to pressure any top Trump Organization executives to testify against their boss. With Trump rarely putting anything in writing, witness testimony was seen as a requirement. Instead, Vance was able to obtain indictments against two Trump-owned companies and Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, on tax fraud charges. Vance stepped down from the DA job—which is an elected position—at the end of his term, and Bragg inherited the ongoing investigation. In his first months in office, he appeared reluctant to pursue charges against Trump personally and dropped the original grand jury investigation.

Bragg’s opinion on the case may have taken a turn as the prosecutions of Weisselberg and the Trump companies progressed. Weisselberg pleaded guilty, and in December, following a month-long trial, a jury quickly returned guilty verdicts on all counts against the companies. Prosecutors initially tried to avoid focussing on Trump personally, but by the end of the trial, they argued that even though Trump himself was not on trial, his company was built on a “culture of fraud.” Jurors who were interviewed after the case seemed to have bought that narrative and said they strongly disliked Trump’s attorneys.

Bragg sat in on key moments of the trial, and following sentencing earlier this month—during which the judge imposed the maximum fine of $1.6 million—Bragg hinted strongly that he was revisiting the idea of pursuing Trump. 

“The sentencing today closes this important chapter of our ongoing investigation into the former president and his businesses,” Bragg told reporters at the time. “We now move on to the next chapter.”

He didn’t elaborate, but the new grand jury appears to be that next chapter.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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