It appears that Donald Trump’s past is coming back to haunt him as the Manhattan district attorney’s office is now looking to reboot a criminal investigation into the former president over the $130,000 of hush money allegedly paid to former porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reports.
As noted by The Times, “the renewed scrutiny of the hush money comes amid an intensifying swirl of legal and political drama around Mr. Trump,” pointing out that U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland last week appointed a special prosecutor who vowed to proceed quickly with two federal investigations into the former president.
Previous investigations under prior district attorneys didn’t advance, in part because investigators decided to instead focus on Trump’s wider business practices.
Now, to help build the hush-money case, prosecutors are revisiting another strategy that has yet to work: pressuring a top Trump lieutenant, Allen H. Weisselberg, to cooperate, the report states.
Weisselberg recently took a plea deal on unrelated tax fraud charges. On Friday, during cross-examination in a criminal trial against the Trump Organization on similar charges, Weisselberg implicated other executives along with Eric and Donald Jr., but has yet to turn on the former president.
