Let’s take a moment to zoom out, and look at what the case is all about.
Donald Trump has been charged with business fraud over hush-money payments to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claims she and Trump had sex, and that she accepted $130,000 (£104,500) from his former lawyer before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about the encounter.
Prosecutors allege Trump had his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, make the payments, and then they claim Trump fraudulently recorded the transaction in his company’s books as legal expenses when in fact he was paying Cohen back for the hush-money payments.
Paying hush-money is not illegal, but the prosecution says how the payment was recorded amounts to election fraud. They say it denied voters information about a presidential candidate.
Since the allegations surfaced in 2018, the former president has denied any sexual involvement with Daniels.
He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
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