“Witch-hunt”. Trump responds to summons to prosecutors over payments to porn star Stormy Daniels

Former US President Donald Trump has been called by the New York District Attorney’s office to testify in the case of payments to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, which almost inevitably means that the former leader of the United States will face criminal charges.

The New York Times writes about this, citing informed sources.

Offers like this almost always mean that an indictment is near.

“It would be unusual for District Attorney Alvin Bragg to notify a potential defendant without eventually securing charges,” the publication says.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, became the subject of public attention in 2018. Then The Wall Street Journal, citing a source, wrote that shortly before Trump’s candidacy in the presidential election, his lawyer Michael Cohen paid the actress $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement about her relationship with the president. The White House denied this information.

According to the publication, federal charges may be based on the fact that Trump’s company “falsely counted” Cohen’s monthly payments as legal expenses. In addition, the prosecutor’s office can reclassify the case as a violation of New York state election laws. Prosecutors may argue that the $130,000 payment effectively became an improper campaign contribution because it “benefited” the Trump campaign.

Later, Donald Trump commented on the summons to the prosecutor’s office and called it a “witch hunt” and an attempt to remove “the leading candidate from the Republican Party,” writes the New York Post.

“I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, and I would not want to … This is a political witch hunt, an attempt to remove the leading candidate from the Republican Party,” Trump was quoted as saying from a post in social networks Truth Social, with which he reacted to the message in the media.

Recall that Stormy Daniels wrote a book of memoirs about her sex adventures with Donald Trump, not bypassing such intimate details as “pubic hair like Bigfoot” and “dick like a mushroom.”

Stormy Daniels even took a polygraph test to prove she was telling the truth about her connection to Trump. They allegedly had an affair in 2006, when Melania gave birth to a son to Donald.