Washington _ Agencies
US Justice Department officials said that President Donald Trump had issued directives to pay money to buy the silence of two women who claimed to have had relations with him.
The Associated Press quoted documents presented by officials (not disclosed) to a court in Washington, on Friday, that former Trump´s lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged the secret payments at the height of the 2016 election campaign "under the direction of Trump."
This is the first time that Trump´s name is directly associated with a "federal crime," according to the same source.
U.S. federal law requires that any payments "intended to influence the conduct of the election campaign in any way" be reported.
According to the documents, Trump ordered those payments "for political benefit".
In August August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including committing financial irregularities during the election campaign and paying for the silence of the pornographic actress "Storme Daniels" and Playboy´s "Karen McDougall".
Daniels and Mcdugal, Trump, accuse them of having relations with them before his campaign, which the latter denies.
However, Trump admitted in May May that he had paid the 130,000 dollars paid by Cohen to the pornographic actress Stormi Daniels in 2016.
Trump said in a series of tweets at the time that lawyer Cohen "received a monthly amount that had nothing to do with the election campaign through a special contract between the two parties known as the non-disclosure agreement."
"He preferred not to disclose this to prevent the false accusations and extortion by Daniels," he said.
"This agreement was used to stop the false accusations and extortion made by the representative on this issue," he said.
Trump had earlier said that he knew nothing about the $130 thousand dollars that Cohen passed to pay for Daniels..
