Former President Donald Trump repeatedly made false statements on business records in New York and “caused others to make false statements’ to hide hush money paid during his 2016 presidential campaign, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Tuesday. ‘These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct,’ Bragg told reporters during a press conference held shortly after Trump’s arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom following a grand jury’s decision to indict him over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The charges came after Bragg conducted an investigation into a $130,000 payment to Daniels made by Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Bragg accused Trump of “paying Mr. Cohen for fictitious legal services in 2017 to cover up an actual crime committed the prior year.” ‘In order to complete the scheme, they planned to mischaracterize the repayments to Mr. Cohen as income to the New York State tax authorities,” he said. ‘The conduct I just described, and that which was charged by the Grand Jury, is felony criminal conduct in New York State,’ he added. In addition to the payment made to Daniels, the charges included an alleged “catch and kill” scheme agreed on by Trump, Cohen and American Media Inc. in 2015, which was ‘a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help Mr. Trump’s chance of winning the election.’ ‘As part of this scheme, Donald Trump and others made three payments to people who claimed to have negative information about Mr. Trump. To make these payments, they set up shell companies and they made yet more false statements,’ Bragg said. He said they are going to conduct a ‘thorough investigation’ at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and left the courthouse after hearing the charges to return to Florida. The judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case has set the next in-person hearing for Dec. 4. He made no statement during the arraignment and was seen sitting alongside his attorneys in the courtroom in a photo published in US media. Ahead of his arrival at the courthouse, Trump said on his social media network that it “seems so surreal” and added “wow, they are going to arrest me.”
Source: Anadolu Agency – English