The federal investigation into former President Donald Trump's hush-money payout involving adult-movie star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal is believed to be "dead", the Associated Press reported Saturday.
According to the report, prosecutors have reportedly returned certain evidence they obtained, which could be a possible sign that no more people will be charged.
It was reported earlier that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to not reveal her alleged 2006 affair with Trump. The ex-Trump lawyer claimed that hush money payments made to Daniels and McDougal, who also claims to have had an affair with the president, were coordinated by Trump to influence the election.
Cohen, who has cast himself as a possible witness against his former employer, reportedly said that since late 2018, when he was sentenced to three years in jail for organizing the payments, he has not heard from the US attorney's office in Manhattan at all.
Trump has denied that any affairs took place and said Daniels and McDougal's payments were a private matter, not amounting to breaches of campaign finance. His legal team also dismissed the allegations of misusing funds by indicating that Cohen's expenses for the NDA were later covered by Trump out of his own pocket.
In charging Cohen with skirting campaign contribution laws by arranging six-figure payments to Daniels and McDougal, federal prosecutors referred to Trump as "Individual-1", who was accused of telling Cohen to make the payments.
Concerns were reportedly posed by prosecutors about the credibility of Cohen as a witness, the former enforcement official said, adding that it was "not likely for new witnesses to emerge."
In July 2019, the investigation against the Trump Organization had reportedly been closed without any charges. Cohen was sentenced to three years in jail for multiple financial crimes, lying to Congress, and for campaign finance violations, but released early in May 2020.
After years of defending Trump, Cohen turned against him, publishing a tell-all book about his relations with the former president.
