The latter document attempts to show how the evidence of falsified business records speaks to a bigger effort to conceal negative stories before the election.
Prosecutors are"saying this was a concerted effort, a group effort, to ‘catch and kill’ stories in different ways," Friedland said.The document said an unnamed Trump Organization lawyer — Cohen — paid $130,000 to an adult film actor shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with Trump. Bragg doesn’t name"lawyer A" or the woman, but the descriptions make clear they are Cohen and Daniels.
In August 2015, two months after Trump announced his candidacy, Trump met with Cohen and the American Media CEO at Trump Tower. The indictment doesn’t name the CEO but at the time it was David Pecker. He agreed to watch for negative stories about Trump and alert Cohen before publishing. In a September 2016 conversation captured on audio, Trump and Cohen discussed how to obtain the rights to the unnamed woman’s account from American Media and reimburse American Media for its payment.
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