As Donald Trump fought his way to the White House in 2016, key allies tried to smooth his path by paying off two women who had been thinking of going public with allegations of extramarital encounters with the Republican.
The payoffs, and the way that Trump's company accounted for one of them, are believed to be at the centre of a grand jury investigation that led to a criminal indictment and could result in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a former US president.
Here's a look at key figures in the case:
Stormy Daniels
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign after her representative said she was willing to make on-the-record statements to the National Enquirer or on television confirming a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
The President denies their tryst.
Karen McDougal
A former Playboy model who said she had a ten-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s, McDougal was paid $150,000 in 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship. Trump denies any affair.
The story never ran. The company suppressed McDougal’s story until after the election, a dubious journalism practice known as “catch and kill.” American Media Inc. has acknowledged that its payments to McDougal were done specifically to assist Trump’s election bid and were made “in concert” with his campaign.
Michael Cohen
A lawyer by training, Cohen worked for the Trump Organisation from 2006 to 2017, serving as Trump's pitbull fixer. He once proudly proclaimed he’d “take a bullet” for his boss.
Cohen took the lead in arranging the payment to Daniels passing it through a corporation he established for the purpose. He says he was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the payment and related bonuses as “legal expenses.”
A few months earlier, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer to make a similar $150,00 payment to McDougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with evading taxes related to his investments in the taxi industry, lying to Congress and with campaign finance violations related to the hush money payments.
Allen Weisselberg
The longtime chief financial officer at the Trump Organisation, Weisselberg made key decisions in how the company kept its books but did not appear to be cooperating with the hush-money investigation.
During testimony before Congress in 2019, Cohen said it was Weisselberg who decided how to structure his reimbursement for the payment to Stormy Daniels. Cohen said Weisselberg paid the money out over 12 months “so that it would look like a retainer.”
Weisselberg was later jailed for dodging income taxes on job perks he got from Trump's company, including a rent-free apartment and a luxury car.
David Pecker
The National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime Trump friend, Pecker testified twice before the grand jury about the tabloid's involvement in suppressing negative stories about Trump.
Pecker met with Cohen during Trump’s 2016 campaign and said the Enquirer's parent company would help buy and bury potentially damaging stories about Trump’s relationship with women.
Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute American Media in exchange for its cooperation in the campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen’s guilty plea and prison sentence.
The Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, deeming the McDougal deal as a "prohibited corporate in-kind contribution.” Pecker stepped down as CEO of the publisher in 2020.
Alvin Bragg
Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, Bragg could become the first prosecutor anywhere to bring a criminal case against a former U.S. president. The Democrat inherited an investigation of Trump when he took office in January 2022.
Joseph Tacopina
A Brooklyn-born lawyer known for his sharp suits and celebrity clientele, Tacopina is the public face of Trump’s defence team.
Trump is just the latest big name to turn to Tacopina, whose past clients have included the rappers Meek Mill, Jay-Z and A$AP Rocky and baseball great Alex Rodriguez.
Susan Necheles
Nechelesis a New York City defence lawyer who represented Trump’s company at its tax fraud trial last year and has been working behind the scenes on the former president’s criminal defence, meeting with prosecutors in an attempt to head off potential charges.
In the past, she served as counsel to the late Genovese crime family underboss Venero Mangano, known as Benny Eggs, and defended John Gotti’s lawyer, Bruce Cutler, in a contempt-of-court case in the early 1990s.
In recent years, the Yale Law School graduate has represented liquor heiress Clare Bronfman in the NXIVM cult case.
Matthew Colangelo
Bragg hired Colangelo in December to lead the investigation.
They previously worked together on Trump-related matters as senior officials at the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
