Manhattan's woke DA is said to have 'jumpstarted' a legal probe into Donald Trump over hush-money payments made to a porn star who claims she had a one-night stand with the ex-president.

Alvin Bragg is said to be probing whether the illegal $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, made shortly before the 2016 presidential election, could be tied to Trump.

The renewed push comes after Donald Trump's company was fined $1.6 million last week for scheming to defraud tax authorities for 15 years by giving executives perks such as cars, rent-free apartments and private school tuition fees. 

A New York state judge handed down the maximum financial penalty on Friday after jurors in Manhattan found two Trump Organization affiliates guilty of 17 criminal charges including fraud last month.

Trump was not on trial and denied any knowledge of his executives evading taxes illegally.

In the Stormy Daniels' case, the DA's Office had earlier been investigating the claims but attention drifted towards the former president's companies. 

Now that a successful judgement has been delivered, the Office is now refocusing once again on Daniels.

She claims to have had a one night stand with Trump at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2016, shortly after Trump's third wife Melania gave birth to the couple's son Barron. Trump denies he had sex with the actress.  

Since the trial into the Trump Organization, subpoenas have once again started to be sent out, reports the New York Times.

Although the information being sought is unknown, it is a suggestion that the inquiry into Trump is once again gaining momentum. 

Bragg has said he will follow the facts no matter the outcome although it is not certain at this stage if the investigation will lead to an indictment. 

The district attorney say the recent conviction represented just 'one chapter' and 'cautioned against reading ahead in the book.'

'I have every faith that other members of the team who are working on other parts of this endeavor using the same approach will lead to a result that is just,' he said.

The illegal $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels was made by the president's former fixer Michael Cohen to try and silence Daniels' claims of a one night stand in 2006, when Trump's third wife Melania was pregnant with their son Barron, now 16.

Trump denies he had sex with Daniels, but Cohen was later convicted of making an illegal campaign contribution. 

Cohen served three years in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations related to the payments as part of a federal probe.

He has always alleged how he was following Trump's orders. 

Cohen was later reimbursed for the cash by Trump, with Bragg likely to try and say that it proves there was a conspiracy between the two men. 

His office, under predecessor Cyrus Vance previously investigated Trump - but that probe appeared to come to a halt early last year.

In November, The Times suggested Bragg might be turning the screws on former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to help him build the case.  

Weisselberg has already struck a plea deal over tax charges related to freebies and donations he received while working for Trump, but has refused to turn informant against the former president. 

Bragg is said to hope threatening him with fresh insurance fraud charges could change that. He has been accused of giving insurers a figure for Trump organization assets without having them properly valued.

Weisselberg started his five month sentence at Rikers Island last week after he testified as the prosecution's star witness. He is alleged to have had knowledge of the Daniels' hush-money payment. 

Weisselberg, who began directly working for Donald Trump in 1986 and with the Organization as far back as 1973 has already admitted to accepting $1.7 million in perks 'off the books'.

They include items such as free rent on an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, luxury cars together with private school tuition payments for his grandchildren.

The payments were made from the Trump Organization all as part of a scheme to get around income taxes.

The case has long been a thorn in the side of the Republican former president, who called it part of a 'witch hunt' by Democrats who dislike him and his politics. 

Trump also faces legal trouble over the FBI's raid on his Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida in August. He is accused of illegally holding classified documents there.

Trump has consistently denied having an affair with Daniels and explained the payment as being a personal matter rather than a campaign expense. 

In that particular federal case, former District Attorney Cyrus Vance, looked into whether Trump had broken any state laws by making the payment and whether any records held by The Trump Organization were falsified in the process.

Falsifying business records can be charged as a misdemeanor in New York. In order to make it a felony, prosecutors would need to show that Trump falsified the hush-money records to help commit or conceal a second crime. 

The Trump Organization was subpoenaed by the District Attorney's Office in late 2019 for the specific records that tied the payments to Cohen that showed how he helped the funds for Daniels. 

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and said he never had an affair with Daniels.

They met at a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe a year after he married third wife Melania, and were photographed together there.

Daniels claims her alleged sex with Trump was 'textbook generic.'   

When Bragg took over as Manhattan District Attorney in early 2022, he appeared to balk at looking to indict Trump over his business practices seemingly uncomfortable at the DA's office's ability to show that Trump had intended to break the law which would be needed for the case to succeed. 

The office stated how the investigation into the The Trump Organization was still proceeding, despite the departure of two prosecutors who were leading the probe. 

Bragg's office has not commented publicly on this rejuvenated probe into Daniels.