The dominoes are starting to fall faster and harder, and Donald Trump's family business certainly isn't immune to the fallout. In fact, the Manhattan district attorney's office is reportedly looking into the Trump Organization's involvement in the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels to keep her alleged affair with Trump under wraps.
The charging documents for longtime Trump fixer Michael Cohen's guilty plea included explicit details about how Cohen was reimbursed by the business in 2017 for a $130,000 payment he made to Daniels, among other reimbursements totaling $420,000. Trump Organization officials tried to mask that payment as a legal expense, clearly knowing it wasn't.
“On its face, it certainly would be problematic,” said one of the officials familiar with the district attorney’s office review, noting that listing the reimbursement as a legal expense could be a felony under state law.
The state investigation is reportedly in the nascent stages at this point. "This is not something that's going to happen tomorrow," NBC reporter Tom Winter said Friday on MSNBC, citing sources he had spoken with in New York.
But a state inquiry could prove particularly important because Trump couldn't negate a state conviction through executive pardon power.