Dems returning to D.C. to make Trump’s hush-money payments a focus of Congressional hearings: report

Congressional Democrats will return from their August recess with a plan to investigate President Donald Trump's alleged role in illegal hush-money payments to two women with whom he allegedly had extra-marital affairs.

"House Democrats plan to make President Trump’s alleged involvement in a 2016 scheme to silence two women who claimed they had affairs with him a major investigative focus this fall, picking up where federal prosecutors left off in a case legal experts say could have led to additional indictments," The Washington Postreported Monday.

"The House Judiciary Committee is preparing to hold hearings and call witnesses involved in hush-money payments to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film star Stormy Daniels as soon as October, according to people familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions," the newspaper noted.

Trump was referred to as "Individual One" in Michael Cohen's prosecution for campaign finance violations.

Cohen, who is serving time in federal prison, testified under oath that Trump directed the hush-money payments.

"The hush-money inquiry will open a new chapter in the House’s months-long consideration of whether to draft articles of impeachment against the president," The Post noted. "The new congressional inquiry will reopen questions about the extent of Trump’s involvement in the episode — and whether he would have been charged if not for Justice Department opinions that a sitting president cannot be indicted."

Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-MD), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said any other person in America would have been charged.

“The fingerprints are all over this one — it’s not like a big mystery,” Raskin said. “As with the evidence of presidential obstruction of justice, the conclusion seems inescapable: that [Trump] would have been tried had he been anybody else. And now it’s left to Congress again to figure out what to do with the lawbreaking and apparent impunity of the president.”