The landmark indictment against former President Donald Trump has been unsealed and is now public. Prosecutors alleged that Trump was part of an illegal scheme to cover up negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 to a former adult film star.

According to the indictment, according to CNN, the reason he committed the crime of falsifying business records was, among other things, to “advance his candidacy.”

This is the first time that Trump and his lawyers can fully examine the extent of the charges against him and what prosecutors have to prove in court.

The criminal charges stem from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into secret payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump, which he denies.

All of the charges against Trump relate to records maintained by the Trump Organization, the indictment said

According to the indictment, each criminal charge against Donald Trump relates to a specific entry in the Trump Organization’s business registration.

Manhattan prosecutors accuse Trump of repeatedly creating false business records.

The alleged false records relate to invoices from Michael Cohen, the “detailed general ledger of Donald J. Trump” and his trust or checks from the Donald J. Trump account. According to the indictment, all of these records are kept by the Trump Organization.

All of the recordings were identified as having been made in 2017, the indictment says.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have said they will fight to have the charges dismissed.

How was it?

According to the indictment, Trump tried to delay the payment of the money until after the 2016 election

According to the indictment, the editor-in-chief and managing director of the National Enquirer approached Michael Cohen shortly after the Access Hollywood tape became public in October 2016 and told Cohen that adult film star Stormy Daniels had claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump.

According to the indictment, Cohen negotiated a cash payment with Daniels to “ensure silence [lui Daniels] and prevent the release of damaging information in the final weeks before the presidential election.”

However, Trump reportedly instructed Cohen to delay paying Daniels as long as possible.

“He gave an instruction [Cohen] that if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying at all because at that point it would not matter if the story became public,” the indictment said.

Cohen pleaded guilty to nine federal felonies, including tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations, for helping pay money to two women who threatened to disclose alleged past relationships with Trump just before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the cases.

Prosecutors say some of the payments underlying Trump’s charges came directly from his bank account

Manhattan prosecutors say the monthly checks were written, including some directly from Donald Trump’s bank account, to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. They claim they were covered under attorneys’ fees, even though they weren’t.

“Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, and each check was disguised as payment for legal services rendered in a specific month of 2017 pursuant to the guaranty agreement,” prosecutors wrote in a statement of facts accompanying the indictment.

“The payment records maintained and maintained by the Trump Organization were forged New York business records. In fact, there was no agreement, and the lawyer was not paid for legal services rendered in 2017.”

Participants in the alleged scheme knew the payments were illegal

Participants in an alleged illegal money laundering scheme, including Michael Cohen, have admitted that payments to two women were illegal, according to a statement of facts released Tuesday.

In late 2018, American Media Inc (AMI), publisher of the National Enquirer, David Packer, entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the attorney general’s office for the Southern District of New York to pay Karen McDougal for her story on Trump, according to a news release.

According to the indictment, AMI told authorities it never intended to publish McDougal’s story and paid McDougal to “not publish damaging allegations” about Donald Trump “prior to the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.”

The document also cites Cohen’s federal guilty plea, which said he worked at Trump’s direction to arrange payments to two women, McDougal and Stormy Daniels, to stop the publication of stories potentially damaging to Trump.

Trump invited David Packer to his inauguration and to the White House

After winning the presidential election, Donald Trump privately thanked David Packer, then AMI’s CEO, for “dealing with” the salacious stories that surfaced in the weeks leading up to the vote, according to a fact-finding report.

“Between Election Day and Inauguration Day, during the defendant’s transition to the presidency, the defendant met privately with the CEO of AMI at Trump Tower in Manhattan,” the statement of facts said, citing Packer.

Trump also invited Packer to the White House for dinner in the summer of 2017, according to the statement of facts, to “thank him for his help during the campaign.”

Donald Trump is “disappointed” and “angry” after impeachment

Speaking outside court after the indictment, Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said his client was “disappointed” and “angry,” CNN reported.

Blanche accused the prosecutor in the case of turning a “purely political case” into “political persecution.”

“It’s a bad day… I don’t expect it to happen in this country. You don’t expect that to happen … to someone who was the president of the United States,” Blanche said.

He called the indictment “a document of complacency” and argued that it “does not allege any federal or state crimes that have been alleged.”

As for the allegations against Trump, Blanche said “we’re going to fight, we’re going to fight hard.”

The next face-to-face meeting in the case is scheduled for December 4

Ex-President Donald Trump’s next personal hearing date is currently set for December 4 in New York.

The indictment against Donald Trump alleges that the former president participated in a conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election.

Prosecutors alleged that Trump engaged in an illegal scheme to cover up negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 ordered by the defendant to cover up information that could harm his campaign.

The prosecution claims that his reason for committing the crime of falsifying business documents was, in particular, “advancement of his candidacy.”

• Trump left court without making a statement / He pleaded not guilty to 34 counts / The charge became public / Here’s what’s next