Trump's $130,000 hush money payment and the path to the guilty verdict

By Luc Cohen

May 30 - A jury convicted Donald Trump on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a $130,000 payment made to buy a porn star's silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said they had.

Below is a timeline of events leading up to the verdict:

JANUARY 2018

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump arranged the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to prevent her from discussing the alleged 2006 sexual liaison. Trump married his third wife, Melania Trump, in 2005.

Trump has repeatedly denied having sex with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford.

FEBRUARY 2018 Michael Cohen, a former private lawyer and fixer for Trump, says he paid Daniels using his own money and was not directed by Trump's company or campaign to make the payment. He says Trump never reimbursed him for the payment.

Cohen would later contradict both statements under oath, stating that Trump did, in fact, direct him to make the payment and reimbursed him.

FEBRUARY 2018 The New Yorker magazine reports that Trump had an affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal from 2006 to 2007. The magazine said American Media Inc, publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story shortly after Trump became the Republican nominee for president in 2016.

The National Enquirer never published the story.

RIL 2018 Trump, asked by reporters if he knew about the payment to Daniels, responds, "No." Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump says, "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen."

MAY 2018 In an ethics disclosure, Trump acknowledges reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000 paid to Daniels.

JULY 2018 Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's personal lawyers at the time, says Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump two months before the 2016 election in which the two discussed a potential payment to McDougal. Trump denies wrongdoing and calls Cohen's tape "perhaps illegal."

AUGUST 2018 Cohen pleads guilty to criminal charges in federal court in Manhattan, including campaign finance violations over the hush money payments to Daniels and McDougal. He testifies that Trump directed him to make the payments "for the principal purpose of influencing the election."

In their indictment of Cohen, prosecutors say a candidate for federal office referred to as "Individual-1," whom they later confirmed was Trump, arranged the payments. Federal prosecutors did not charge Trump with a crime.

DECEMBER 2018 Trump calls the hush money payments a "simple private transaction." In an interview with Reuters, he says the payment to Daniels "wasn't a campaign contribution" and "there was no violation based on what we did."

JULY 2021 Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney at the time, charges Trump's New York-based family real estate company, the Trump Organization, and its top financial executive with tax fraud. Trump himself is not charged, and the indictment contains no references to hush money payments.

DECEMBER 2022 The Trump Organization is found guilty of tax fraud after a trial in New York state court in Manhattan.

JANUARY 2023

Vance's successor as Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, begins presenting evidence of Trump's alleged role in the 2016 hush money payments to a grand jury.

MARCH 2023 Bragg's office says Trump has been indicted. The specific charges remain under seal.

RIL 2023 The indictment is unsealed. It charges Trump with falsely claiming in records held by the Trump Organization that his 2017 reimbursements to Cohen for the Daniels payment were legal expenses.

Prosecutors say the fabricated records were designed to conceal the payment, which they characterized as part of a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election. Trump won the presidency that year, defeating Hillary Clinton, a Democrat.

Trump pleads not guilty to the charges and later tells supporters gathered outside his home in Florida that he was the victim of "election interference," without providing evidence.

RIL 15, 2024 Jury selection begins for Trump's trial.

RIL 19, 2024 Lawyers for both sides finish choosing 12 jurors and six alternates to hear the case.

May 29, 2024

Jury begins deliberations in the case.

May 30, 2024

Jury convicts Trump

after two days of deliberation.

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