Fearing arrest, Trump calls for protest: A look back at hush-money case

Former US President Donald Trump asked his supporters to “protest, take our nation back”, after claiming that he might be detained on Tuesday in connection with a six-year-old hush-money case involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels. If accurate, it would be the first time in history that a US president would be charged with a crime.  

The Republican leader has denied all allegations, describing the investigation as a 'witch hunt' operated by a prosecutor working for the Democratic Party with the aim of undermining the 76-year-old’s presidential campaign in 2024. 

The investigation is about how the $130,000 payment was made to Stormy Daniels over her alleged affair with Trump. According to The Times report, Trump’s team paid off Daniels to kill the controversy of sexual allegations against Trump. 

Trump asserts that the statute of limitations “expired long ago” as six years have passed and refers to the situation as “old news.” 

The statute of limitation is the time limit for filing charges against the defendant. The general federal statute of limitation for felonies stands for the proposition that the government can no longer file criminal charges for an offense once 5 years have passed. However, there are exceptions when a potential defendant remains outside the state for an extended period of time. According to the New York Times, Trump spent very little time in New York during his four years as president and now primarily resides in Florida and New Jersey. 

Since hush money isn’t illegal, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Michael Cohen -- Trump's former attorney -- for his work to keep the allegations quiet.  

Bragg’s office, earlier this month, invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the hush money payments, according to Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles.

Daniels allegedly received the hush money from Cohen in 2016, who established a shell company called Essential Consultants and sent $130,000 to Daniels’s attorney. Later, when Trump won the election Cohen was reimbursed in 2017. According to a BBC report, the record for the reimbursement to Cohen was termed as “legal fees”. 

The New York Times reported that the Trump Organisation grossed up Cohen’s reimbursement for tax purposes. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York later alleged that this violated campaign finance law. They argued that since this money was spent to help Trump win the election, it should have been disclosed as campaign spending and subject to legal limit on donations. Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments, however, he insisted he was following Trump’s instructions at the time. In 2018, Cohen received a three-year prison term for federal offences.  

In a meeting with the prosecution on March 15, Daniels agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry, if needed.