Saying it was his fifteenth time talking to prosecutors, Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen met with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office who are investigating hush money payments Trump and others made to protect his 2016 presidential bid.
The Associated Press notes that Cohen has been working with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who recently seated a new grand jury to investigate the legality of payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and a content contract given by the publisher of the National Enquirer to Karen McDougal. Both women say they had extramarital affairs with Trump while he was married to his current wife, Melania, Trump’s third spouse.
Trump wrote checks, including while he was in the Oval Office, to Cohen to filter the money that went to the women, with American Media Inc. paying McDougal to write a fitness column and pose for magazine covers. Having served jail time for his part in the scheme, Cohen laundered the money to avoid violations of election law and to make it moderately less easy to track, unlike Florida Man Matt Gaetz who paid his pimp, Joel Greenberg, via a financial app for the exact amount of money his two underage sex workers got from Greenberg. (Allegedly.)