Talking Points Memo

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged Tuesday that former President Donald Trump conducted a "catch and kill" scheme to suppress negative information about himself during the 2016 presidential election.

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Bragg's comments, delivered during a press conference Tuesday following Trump's historic arraignment, shed additional light on the charges levied against the former commander-in-chief. The indictment in the case, unsealed during the arraignment, includes 34 felony counts for falsification of business records.

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Bragg alleged that Trump falsified business documents between 2015 and 2017 to hide payments to individuals, including adult film actress Stormy Daniels, with negative information about Trump, thereby "catching" the information and "killing" it with hush-money payments.

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"That is exactly what this case is about – 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes," Bragg told reporters Tuesday. "These are felony crimes in New York State no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct."

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"The defendant repeatedly made false statements on New York business records," Bragg continued. "He also caused others to make false statements to defend a claim that he was paying Michael Cohen for legal services performed in 2017."

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Bragg added that, for nine straight months, Trump held documents with the "key lie" that he paid his former attorney, Michael Cohen, for legal services in 2017. But the payments were actually for hush-money payments, not legal services, the district attorney said.

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"Donald Trump, executives at the publishing company American Media Inc., Mr. Cohen and others agreed in 2015 to a 'catch and kill' scheme," Bragg continued. "That is a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help Mr. Trump's chance of winning the election. As part of this scheme, Donald Trump and others made three payments to people who claimed to have negative information about Mr. Trump."

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"One of the three people that they paid to keep quiet was a woman named Stormy Daniels. Less than two weeks before the presidential election, Michael Cohen wired $130,000 to Stormy Daniels' lawyer. That payment was to hide damaging information from the voting public," he added.

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"The scheme violated New York election law, which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means. The $130,000 wire payment exceeded the federal campaign contribution cap, and the false statements in AMI's books violated New York law."

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Hush-money payments made to both Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were revealed and reported by tranganhnam.xyz in 2018. Those payments had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.

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However, federal prosecutors opted against charging Trump in the case.

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On Tuesday, following Bragg's opening remarks at the press conference, reporters pressed the district attorney on why he saw fit to pursue the case when federal prosecutors and his predecessor, Cy Vance, declined to charge Trump.

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Bragg responded that his office had obtained new evidence in the case amid its investigation.

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"We have had available to the office additional evidence that was not in the office's possession prior to my time here," Bragg said.

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"We have a distinct and strong, I would say, profound independent interest in New York state," he added. "This is the business capital of the world. We regularly do cases involving false business statements. The bedrock, the basis, for business integrity and a well-functioning business marketplace is true and accurate recordkeeping. That's the charge that brought here: falsifying New York state business records."

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During the arraignment, Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers were expected to file a motion to dismiss the case.

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The historic court appearance came less than a week after Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.

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