Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters
For most of his 76 years, Donald Trump has avoided significant accountability on a long—and ever-expanding—list of allegations. But on Thursday, he became the first-ever current or former U.S. president to be indicted on criminal charges.
Just a couple of weeks after Stormy Daniels met with prosecutors as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s probe of Trump’s alleged hush money payments to the adult film star in exchange for keeping their alleged affair quiet as the 2016 presidential campaign neared, a grand jury has voted to indict the twice-impeached ex-president.
In a 2018 tweetstorm, Trump all but admitted to making a $130,000 payment to Daniels, via his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen, claiming such things are “very common among celebrities and people of wealth.” He accused Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, of extorting him, and has denied ever having sex with the entertainer.
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