International

Trump prioritized silence of Stormy Daniels “for the campaign, not for Melania,” according to his former lawyer

Donald Trump’s former lawyer and former right-hander, Michael Cohen, assured on Monday that the former American president, accused of falsifying accounting documents to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels, acted in this way to protect his 2016 electoral campaign, and not so much his marriage to Melania.

“I want it to be hidden until the elections are passed (2016). If I win, it will not be relevant because I will already be president; if I lose, I won’t even care,” Cohen paraphrased Trump, adding that “it was for the campaign, not for Melania” Trump.

Some statements that provoked the first ostensible gestures of denial with the head by the former president during this Monday’s session in the New York court, where he has even remained prolonged moments with his eyes closed.

“I didn’t even think about Melania. It was all for the campaign,” Cohen repeated.

Melania and Donald Trump met in 1998, when he was 52 years old and she was 28, and the couple arrived at the altar in 2005, just a year before the alleged slip with Daniels; an ‘affair’ that, if proven, took place when she was pregnant.

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In addition, Barron, the only son resulting from the marriage between Trump and Melania, was born on March 20, 2006 and grew up in the attic of the Trump Tower, where, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the agreements of the former head of the American Executive were forged to hide this mess of skirts and another with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model.

Cohen, in the same way, revealed on Monday in the criminal trial that the former president faces in New York how he insisted that “not come to light” alleged extramarital relationships that could have affected his 2016 campaign.

“The purpose was to prevent the story from being sold or marketed to an external source,” Cohen explained after explaining how his role in intermediation with the American tabloid The National Enquirer was.

According to his account, Cohen was in charge of executing Trump’s requests for the aforementioned media, led by media tycoon David Pecker, to exercise the tactic known in English as ‘catch and kill to acquire the publishing rights of these alleged ‘affaires’, but finally leave them stored in a drawer and never see the light.

Trump is accused of forging accounting documents to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels and thus safeguard her reputation in the face of the 2016 elections, in which she would eventually end up imposing.

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The scheme, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, consisted of Cohen advancing the payment of $130,000 to Daniels so that his alleged relationship was not revealed, which then had to be reimbursed to the former lawyer, as part of a plot that served to “corrupt” the aforementioned elections.

Another of the women’s names highlighted in the case is that of Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who also tried to filter an affair with Trump and for whose silence Cohen contacted Pecker.

First, I “asked” Trump “if he knew who he was,” Cohen recalled to questions from the Prosecutor’s Office, to which the former president allegedly replied: “She is very beautiful.”

“I told him ‘okay’, but right now he’s trying to sell a (love) story,” Cohen recalled.

“Make sure it doesn’t come to light,” Trump would answer, according to Cohen assuming that “history had to be acquired” by applying the ‘catch and kill’ technique.

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“What he told us (Pecker) was that he could be attentive to anything negative about Mr. Trump and that he could help us know in advance what was going to come out and try to prevent it from coming out,” Cohen said, who detailed that the media executive ended up being paid $150,000 to silence the story.

On the other hand, Cohen added that they were also aware of the publication of negative stories about Trump’s rivals in The National Enquirer and set the example with one about Hillary Clinton: “Hillary Clinton appeared with very thick glasses, among some accusations that she had a brain injury.”

In addition, Cohen said that Trump was “enchanted” with the role of this tabloid because his great competitive advantage was that it was present in most “cash registers of supermarkets and grocery stores,” suggesting that it reached a large part of society.

Cohen also narrated how he forged his relationship with Trump in the early 2000s to be part of his close circle by making important transactions or resorting to invoices that he considered “unfair.”

“I felt like I was at the top of the world when (Trump) said that I was fantastic or great,” Cohen said.

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Trump made all the requests, according to Cohen, in person because the former head of the US Executive “never” had a personal email address.

“Part” of the work that he entrusted to him was, according to his story, also to mediate and even “enable” those who signed articles with some kind of criticism of the former president.

“If there was an article that bothered him, I was also in charge of talking (with journalists),” he explained about his work, which he summed up in eminently “making happy” the presumptuous candidate of the Republican Party in the U.S. presidential elections in November.

Become one of Trump’s main enemies today, Cohen had already declared against his former chief during the civil trial for fraud that was held in New York where he blamed him for fictitiously inflating his assets to obtain better credit conditions. That process resulted in a fine of 364 million dollars that the tycoon is appealing.

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International

U.S. Senate Rejects Budget, Bringing Government Closer to Shutdown Amid DHS Dispute

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday against a budget proposal in a move aimed at pressuring changes at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), following the killing of two civilians during a deployment of immigration agents in Minneapolis.

All Senate Democrats and seven Republican lawmakers voted against the bill, which requires 60 votes to advance, pushing the country closer to a partial government shutdown that would cut funding for several agencies, including the Pentagon and the Department of Health.

The rejection came as Senate leaders and the White House continue negotiations on a separate funding package for DHS that would allow reforms to the agency. Proposed measures include banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing face coverings and requiring them to use body-worn cameras during operations.

The vote took place just hours after President Donald Trump said he was “close” to reaching an agreement with Democrats and did not believe the federal government would face another shutdown, following last year’s record stoppage.

“I don’t think the Democrats want a shutdown either, so we’ll work in a bipartisan way to avoid it. Hopefully, there will be no government shutdown. We’re working on that right now,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

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International

Trump Says Putin Agreed to One-Week Halt in Attacks on Ukraine Amid Extreme Cold

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he secured a commitment from Russian President Vladimir Putinto halt attacks against Ukraine for one week, citing extreme weather conditions affecting the region.

“Because of the extreme cold (…) I personally asked Putin not to attack Kyiv or other cities and towns for a week. And he agreed. He was very pleasant,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting broadcast by the White House.

Trump acknowledged that several advisers had questioned the decision to make the call.
“A lot of people told me not to waste the call because they wouldn’t agree. And he accepted. And we’re very happy they did, because they don’t need missiles hitting their towns and cities,” the president said.

According to Trump, Ukrainian authorities reacted with surprise to the announcement but welcomed the possibility of a temporary ceasefire.
“It’s extraordinarily cold, record cold (…) They say they’ve never experienced cold like this,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later commented on the announcement, expressing hope that the agreement would be honored.

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International

Storm Kristin Kills Five in Portugal, Leaves Nearly 500,000 Without Power

Storm Kristin, which battered Portugal with heavy rain and strong winds early Wednesday, has left at least five people dead, while nearly half a million residents remained without electricity as of Thursday, according to updated figures from authorities.

The revised death toll was confirmed to AFP by a spokesperson for the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANPEC). On Wednesday, the agency had reported four fatalities.

Meanwhile, E-Redes, the country’s electricity distribution network operator, said that around 450,000 customers were still without power, particularly in central Portugal.

Emergency services responded to approximately 1,500 incidents between midnight and 8:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, as the storm caused widespread disruptions.

The Portuguese government described Kristin as an “extreme weather event” that inflicted significant damage across several regions of the country. At the height of the storm, as many as 850,000 households and institutions lost electricity during the early hours of Wednesday.

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Several municipalities ordered the closure of schools, many of which remained shut on Thursday due to ongoing adverse conditions.

Ricardo Costa, regional deputy commander of the Leiria Fire Brigade, said residents continue to seek assistance as rainfall persists.
“Even though the rain is not extremely intense, it is causing extensive damage to homes,” he noted.

In Figueira da Foz, a coastal city in central Portugal, strong winds toppled a giant Ferris wheel, underscoring the severity of the storm.