Dodgy checks, a ‘secret child’, and the Oval Office: Six bombshell claims from the Donald Trump indictment

Manhattan prosecutors laid out new details of an alleged scheme by the former president and his lieutenants to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election

Prosecutors in New York City have finally laid out the full list of charges against Donald Trump, making him the first former president in US history to be charged with a criminal offence.

The mercurial real estate tycoon stands accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to alleged hush money payments to porn actor and director Stormy Daniels plus two other people.

"From August 2015 to December 2017, the defendant orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects," said Manhattan prosecutors in a 13-page "statement of facts" that accompanied the indictment.

"In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants also took steps that mischaracterised, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme."

But beyond these historic claims, the prosecutors' statement also includes new details about the long-running saga of the president and the porn star. Mr Trump, for his part, pled not guilty to all charges.

Here are the six key revelations.

Trump wanted media mogul to be his 'eyes and ears'

According to the statement of fact, Mr Trump's scheme began with a private meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015, not long after announcing his presidential run.

At this meeting, which has been previously reported by US media, Mr Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen allegedly met with news mogul David Pecker, whose company American Media Inc (AMI) was then the owner of a salacious tabloid newspaper called the National Enquirer.

Prosecutors now allege that Mr Pecker agreed to be Mr Trump's "eyes and ears", looking out for negative stories about the candidate and alerting Mr Cohen (who is identified in this document only as "Lawyer A") so that he could squash them.

AMI, today known as A360 Media, has since admitted its role in attempting to influence the election as part of a non-prosecution agreement with federal officials.

It wasn't just Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

By now most Americans have heard of Stormy Daniels, to whom Mr Cohen has admitted paying $130,000 to squash information about her alleged relationship with Mr Trump back in the Noughties.

Some news junkies will be aware that Mr Cohen also admitted to paying $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal, who also allegedly had an affair with Mr Trump.

But prosecutors say there was also a third person: a former doorman at Trump Tower, who hoped to sell information to reporters about a child that Mr Trump had allegedly fathered out of wedlock. AMI allegedly paid this doorman $30,000 for exclusive rights to his story and then sat on it as part of the agreement with Mr Trump and Mr Cohen.

“When AMI later concluded that the story was not true, the AMI CEO wanted to release the doorman from the agreement,” says the statement. “However, Lawyer A instructed the AMI CEO not to release the Doorman until after the presidential election, and the AMI CEO complied with that instruction.”

Trump ‘wanted to renege on payments to Daniels’

Not content with killing Ms Daniels' story, prosecutors claim Mr Trump also plotted with Mr Cohen to renege on the agreement and withhold her money.

"The Defendant directed Lawyer A to delay making a payment to Woman 2 as long as possible," the statement says. "He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public."

However, pressure then mounted to the point where Trump's team allegedly felt they had no choice but to pay out after all.

Cohen and Trump ‘discussed their deal in the Oval Office’

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising of the prosecutors' claims is one with relatively little legal import.

According to the statement, in February 2017 – not long after his inauguration – Mr Trump met with Mr Cohen in the Oval Office to confirm their "arrangement".

In that most iconic and hallowed chamber of American government, prosecutors allege, amidst all the famous symbols of national prestige – the Resolute Desk, the plaster seal in the sealing, the paintings of past leaders – the 45th president of the United States agreed with his personal lawyer to pay $35,000 per month for squashing the truth about his sexual indiscretions.

Prosecutors also claim that Mr Trump invited Mr Pecker to dinner at the White House in 2017 “to thank him for his help”.

Some of the money ‘came from Trump's own bank account’

The monthly reimbursements were allegedly disguised as payments for a fictional retainer agreement, adding up to $420,000 over the course of 2017 – though much of that was intended to cover income taxes.

And from April through December 2017, it was Mr Trump who personally reimbursed Mr Cohen's agreements with Ms Daniels and the others, prosecutors claim.

The statement says Mr Trump cut nine checks for Mr Cohen from his personal bank account, personally signing each one and logging them as payments for a fictional retainer agreement rather than compensations for hush money.

‘You are making a very big mistake’

The statement contains new details about an alleged pressure campaign by Mr Trump and others designed to stop Mr Cohen from pleading guilty back in 2018.

In 2019, CNN reported on leaked emails obtained by federal prosecutors from a lawyer named Robert Costello that offered to open a "back channel" for Mr Cohen to Mr Trump, telling him he could “sleep well tonight” because he had “friends in high places”.

According to New York's investigation, Mr Costello – named only as "Lawyer A" – also urged Mr Cohen not to cooperate with law enforcement.

“The whole objective of this exercise by the [federal prosecutors] is to drain you, emotionally and financially, until you reach a point that you see them as your only means to salvation,” Mr Costello allegedly wrote.

“You are making a very big mistake if you believe the stories these ‘journalists’ are writing about you. They want you to cave. They want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed.”