#Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection w/a #HushMoney payment made to a porn star to influence the 2016 election. The case could be in the jury’s hands as early as Wed.
#Blanche manipulates the phrase “retainer agreement.” He has insisted loudly that #MichaelCohen testified there was no retainer, multiple times. Then he gestures toward an email from #AllenWeisselberg, #TrumpOrganization’s CFO, referencing an “agreement.” But that email says nothing about a “retainer agreement” specifically, & in fact, per Cohen’s testimony, refers back to his agreement w/ Weisselberg & #Trump to disguise reimbursements for the #HushMoney payment.
#Steinglass highlights #MichaelCohen’s testimony implicating #Trump in the charged #crimes. He shows jurors, using highlighted transcript pages, Cohen’s testimony that Trump not only approved the arrangement but was aware that the reimbursements would be classified as payments for #legal services.
#Steinglass discusses Jan 2017, the month #Trump was inaugurated. He describes a meeting between #MichaelCohen & #AllenWeisselberg who Cohen testified had made the arrangements to reimburse Cohen for the #HushMoney. “Right on the bank statement, Weisselberg & Cohen calculated all the money that was owed to Cohen,” Steinglass says.
Steinglass refers to these exhibits as “the smoking guns” of the prosecution’s argument, saying they “completely blow out of the water the claim the money paid to Cohen” was for legal services.
Also there’s #Exhibit36, in which #JeffMcConney describes in McConney’s own handwritten notes based on a conversation he had w/ #AllenWeisselberg. He testified #Exhibit35 contains on the left-hand side, Allen Weisselberg’s handwriting. McConney said, I know it’s his handwriting because I’ve worked w/him for 35 yrs.
Michael Cohen testifies that he - & everybody - at the #TrumpOrganization spoke to #AllenWeisselberg about financial transactions. Weisselberg, currently in #jail, was involved in coordinating the repayments to Cohen after Cohen paid #HushMoney to #StormyDaniels.
Cohen is emphatic that Weisselberg was involved in every deal no matter the size.
#MichaelCohen's testimony about #AllenWeisselberg's financial advice on the #KarenMcDougal deal explains why Cohen would go on to pay #StormyDaniels, borrowing against his home. He says Weisselberg told him not to go through the #TrumpOrganization -linking the payment to #Trump's company would defeat the purpose- but to come up w/other more creative ways to pay.
This will help prosecutors explain why Cohen made the #HushMoney payment in such a roundabout way.
#MichaelCohen recalls that he & #AllenWeisselberg, spoke about possibly generating the $130k through a membership request or an event being held at a club.
Cohen is directly tying #Trump to the #HushMoney payment, corroborating the testimony of others, including #KeithDavidson & #HopeHicks, who said Cohen would never had made the payment w/o Trump's authorization. Cohen talks about Weisselberg helping him to think through how to make the payment.
#Trump, who was sleeping, wakes up, leans over, taps his lawyer Todd #Blanche & whispers something in his ear.
#MichaelCohen says he then decided that he would pay the money, & that #AllenWeisselberg said, "I'll make sure you get paid back." Cohen says he alerted Trump to that decision & that Trump was appreciative, saying "good, good." And he says that Trump, too, told him he'd be repaid.
#MichaelCohen, describing his anger at seeing his bonus cut by two-thirds, almost sounds angry all over again. "I didn't expect more," he says of his bonus that year, 2016.
"But I certainly didn't expect less."
Cohen says he took his fury out on #AllenWeisselberg, #TrumpOrganization CFO, & that Weisselberg told him that he'd be taken care of after the holidays.
Trump briefly smiled, expressing pleasure, as Cohen described #Trump stiffing him on his bonus.
We are finished for the day. #MichaelCohen has testified that #Trump directed him to make the #HushMoney payment & signed off on #AllenWeisselberg's plan to repay Cohen. Cohen will return to the stand on Tues, so prosecutors can conclude direct examination.
After that, it will be the defense's turn to cross-examine him.
#MichaelCohen testifies about the point of this whole trial: the false business records.
Cohen describes his notes w/ #TrumpOrganization CFO #AllenWeisselberg, the notes are working out how to make it so that it appears he was being paid for another matter, & on how he would be reimbursed.
Prosecution again shows to the court Weisselberg's handwritten notes on the reimbursement to Cohen.
We saw #AllenWeisselberg’s notes during Jeffrey McConney’s testimony, he worked under Weisselberg. But now, #MichaelCohen is testifying that he was in the room as Weisselberg made these notations on how to repay him for the #HushMoney, + his shrunken bonus. This document goes straight to the repayments to Cohen, & the false documents.
#Trump is charged w/ 34 #felony counts of falsifying business records: 11 checks, 11 invoices & 12 ledger entries.
#AllenWeisselberg then doubled the $180k to $360k. Weisselberg, #MichaelCohen says, expected that he would lose half because it would be taxed as income, & was making him whole.
This goes to #motive, toward how badly #Trump wanted this hidden, it actually cost Trump 2X what it would have otherwise.
Add to this sum, Cohen was also given a $60k bonus, bringing the total he was to be paid to $420k. That amount was split — as shown in #AllenWeisselberg’s notes — into 12 months' of payments.
This #MichaelCohen testimony is crucial to the case. They allege that the repayments to Cohen were not, in fact, #legal expenses as indicated on the records & instead they were the #HushMoney payment "grossed up"
#MichaelCohen says that #AllenWeisselberg said in front of #Trump that Cohen would be reimbursed completely. Cohen testifies that Trump approved the repayments & then said, “This is going to be one heck of a ride in DC.”
Cohen testifies that Trump, as president-elect, was busy w/meetings around this time. Yet he & Allen Weisselberg went into Trump's 26th floor office to discuss the reimbursement plan, he says.
#Trump has his posse again. Today it’s more #Republican elected officials. Today, Trump will be joined by the #House speaker, #MikeJohnson, as well as #NorthDakota’s governor, #DougBurgum, a contender to be Trump's running mate. Also present will be Representatives #ByronDonalds & #CoryMills of Florida, & #VivekRamaswamy, who was one of Trump's primary rivals this year. Both Donalds & Ramaswamy are longshot hopefuls to be Trump's running mate.
Back in the courtroom, jurors are seeing the documents that prosecutors say are false. Yesterday #MichaelCohen described the Jan meeting w/ #AllenWeisselberg, when #Trump heard Weisselberg say that the monthly payments would be a retainer for legal services It is that single line from a witness— the word “yes” —that most directly attaches Trump to the alleged #crimes. And the signatures on the checks from his personal bank account.
#MichaelCohen is going through check stubs for the first 2 checks & saying the descriptions of them were “false.” Cohen says both #EricTrump, who is sitting in the courtroom, & #AllenWeisselberg signed the first 2, from Trump’s revocable trust account. At some point, it switched to #Trump’s personal account.
Cohen is now testifying about checks Trump started signing himself, from his personal account.
#MichaelCohen describes meeting w/ #Trump in the #OvalOffice in Feb 2017. He says that Trump asked him if he needed money, & that he said no, he didn’t need any extra. He said Trump asked him to “deal w/ Allen,” meaning #AllenWeisselberg, who arranged the repayment plan for the #HushMoney. Trump also said, Cohen testified, that he’d receive a check for both Jan & Feb.
Prosecutors display a picture of Cohen visiting the #WhiteHouse at the time.
In closing arguments Tues, Trump’s lawyers are expected to cast #AllenWeisselberg as the prosecution’s missing piece, an elusive central player…. They will likely try to argue to the #jury that the case depends on #MichaelCohen, whose testimony provided the only evidence that #Trump had direct knowledge of the plot to disguise the #HushMoney reimbursement as #legal fees
A NYT examination, based on court records & interviews w/a dozen people close to the case, explains #AllenWeisselberg’s absence & reveals a portrait of him as a company man who had a hand in some of #Trump’s shadiest dealings. He could have traded his knowledge for his freedom, but kept his mouth shut, choosing loyalty & lucre — he signed a multimillion-dollar severance deal — over liberty.
#Trump has a huge posse today, including #KashPatel; #GerryKassar, a #conservative party leader in NY; #BernieKerik, fmr NYPD commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud & false statements; #AlanDershowitz, lawyer who defended Trump during his first impeachment, & #BorisEpshteyn, legal adviser who was #indicted in AZ for attempts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.
#Blanche moves on to the documents that prosecutors say were falsified. He suggests that everyone BUT #Trump — #AllenWeisselberg, #EricTrump, #DonaldTrumpJr & #MichaelCohen himself — may have falsified the docs, disguising them as repayments for #legal services. But not Trump himself, Blanche signals to the jury, w/o saying it outright.