Main characters in the Donald Trump Investigation

 The former president was indicted by a grand jury in New York. A look at the case's major players.

Donald Trump Investigation

During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, prominent associates reportedly paid off two women who were considering going public with claims of extramarital affairs with the Republican.

The bribes, and the manner in which Trump's corporation accounted for one of them, are thought to be at the focus of a grand jury inquiry that resulted in a criminal indictment, which might result in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

Stormy Daniels

Stormy Daniels

Daniels, a pornographic actress who has also appeared in mainstream films such as the 40-year-old Virgin, was paid $130,000 to stay silent about what she describes as an unpleasant and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006. Trump has denied having sexual relations with Daniels.

Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, got the funds in the closing weeks of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign after her representative stated that she was prepared to make public comments to the National Enquirer or on television confirming a sexual encounter with Trump.

Daniels attempted to capitalize on her newfound celebrity after the payment was revealed, embarking on a nationwide strip club tour in 2018. Daniels was detained during a traffic stop in Columbus, Ohio, on suspicion of improperly touching an undercover cop, but the charges were dropped hours later.

Michael Avenatti, Daniels' former attorney, is serving an 11-year jail sentence for racketeering and fraud, including a conviction for taking $297,000 from the revenues of Daniels' 2018 book, Full Disclosure.

KAREN MCDOUGAL

Karen McDougal

McDougal, a former Playboy model who claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s, was paid $150,000 in 2016 by the National Enquirer's parent business for the rights to her account about the alleged affair. Trump denies having an affair.

The story was never made public. The business kept the McDougal story under wraps until after the election, a questionable journalistic tactic known as "catch and kill." American Media Inc. has admitted that the payments to McDougal were made expressly to aid Trump's presidential campaign and were undertaken "in conjunction" with his campaign.

McDougal claims Trump tried to pay her off after their first sex encounter in a Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow in 2006. McDougal stated that she prolonged her connection with Trump for nearly ten months until ending it in April 2007 due to remorse.

Michael Cohen

Cohen, a trained lawyer, served as an adviser to Trump for the Trump Organization from 2006 until 2017. He once boasted that he would "take a bullet" for his employer.

Cohen took the initiative to arrange the payment to Daniels, routing it via a business he established for the purpose. He claims he was later compensated by Trump's firm, which classified the payment and accompanying incentives as "legal expenditures."

A few months before, Cohen negotiated for the publisher of the National Enquirer to give McDougal a comparable $150,000 fee for the rights to his tale about an alleged affair with Trump.

Cohen taped a discussion in which he and Trump discussed paying McDougal through the newspaper. "How much do we have to pay for this?" Trump said at one point. "One hundred fifty?" Trump denies having an affair.

Following Trump's election, Cohen positioned himself as someone who could advise business clients on the incoming government, collecting large payments from firms wanting influence in the new White House.

Federal prosecutors accused Cohen in 2018 with tax evasion relating to his taxi ventures, lying to Congress, and campaign finance crimes linked to hush money payments.

Cohen, who blamed Trump for his legal woes, pleaded guilty and served nearly a year in prison before being placed on home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He pleaded guilty and served time in federal prison and is now a key prosecution witness in the Manhattan district attorney's investigation.

Allen Weisselberg

Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's longstanding top financial officer, made important choices regarding how the firm handled its records but did not appear to be complying with the secret money probe.

During his congressional testimony in 2019, Cohen stated that Weisselberg was the one who chose how to arrange his reimbursement for the Stormy Daniels payment. Cohen stated that Weisselberg paid the money over a 12-month period "to make it appear like a down payment."

In exchange for his grand jury testimony in their investigation of the payments, federal prosecutors gave Weisselberg partial immunity from prosecution. But, the Manhattan district attorney's office later filed separate charges against Weisselberg for failing to pay income taxes on work benefits received from Trump's corporation, including a free apartment and a luxury automobile.

He pleaded guilty and is serving a short prison term that will expire in April.

David Pecker 

Pecker, a former National Enquirer editor and close Trump buddy, testified twice before the grand jury about the tabloid's role in burying bad news about Trump.

During the 2016 Trump campaign, Pecker met with Cohen and stated that the Enquirer's parent company would assist buy and hide potentially damaging information about Trump's interactions with women.

Pecker, who was president and CEO of the Enquirer at the time, committed to keep Cohen informed of such reports. He informed Cohen in June 2016 that McDougal's lawyer had approached the newspaper about selling his tale about an alleged affair with Trump.

American Media Inc., the Enquirer's owner at the time, agreed to pay McDougal for "limited living rights" to the account of her connection with "any individual married at the time." In exchange for $150,000, the publisher stated he would put her on two magazine covers and print more than 100 of her pieces.

Cohen agreed to buy out the nondisclosure clause of McDougal's contract for $125,000 through a business he founded, but Pecker then called the transaction off, asking Cohen to break it.

In 2018, federal prosecutors decided not to charge American Media in exchange for its assistance in the campaign finance probe that resulted in Cohen's guilty plea and jail term. The Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, calling McDougal's treatment a "prohibited corporate in-kind contribution."

Alvin Bragg

The Enquirer's owner at the time, American Media Inc., agreed to pay McDougal for "restricted living rights" based on her relationship with "any individual married at the time." The publisher indicated that in exchange for $150,000, he would place her on two magazine covers and print more than 100 of her articles.

Cohen agreed to buy away McDougal's nondisclosure agreement for $125,000 through a company he formed, but Pecker suddenly called the transaction off, ordering Cohen to break it.

In exchange for its aid in the campaign financing investigation that culminated in Cohen's guilty plea and prison sentence, federal prosecutors chose not to punish American Media in 2018.

Mueller suspended a probe into Trump's business practices shortly after taking office, which was considered as creating momentum for possible impeachment. Burr summoned a second grand jury to investigate the hush money payments after his prosecutors won a trial last year in which Trump's firm, the Trump Organization, was convicted of tax fraud.

Susan Necheles

Necheles is a New York City defense attorney who defended Trump's corporation in his tax fraud trial last year and has been working on the former president's criminal defense behind the scenes, meeting with prosecutors in an attempt to avoid charges.

She formerly worked as an attorney for late Genovese crime family underboss Venero Mangano, also known as Benny Eggs, and defended John Gotti's attorney, Bruce Cutler, in an early 1990s contempt of court case. 1990. The Yale Law School graduate has recently defended liquor heiress Clare Bronfman in the NXIVM cult lawsuit.

Necheles, like Tacopina, is a former Brooklyn prosecutor.

He referred to Trump as "President Trump" during the Trump Organization trial.

"This is not a political statement," he told the jury. "My parents were both immigrants and migrants," she went on to say. "And in my home, whether we favored or disagreed with the idea, we referred to all prior presidents as presidents."