Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson explained the most likely scenario following a bombshell New York Times expose on the different checks President Donald Trump used to reimburse Michael Cohen for hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Robinson joined Lawrence O'Donnell for MSNBC's "The Last Word."
"Gene, The New York Times is out tonight with more on these checks that were written by Donald Trump to pay -- reimburse Michael Cohen, according to Michael Cohen, and it's a fascinating collection now of these checks because they change accounts," O'Donnell noted.
"And Gene, for some reason, they changed accounts where that money was coming from -- switched it out of a Trump business account and moved it into what appears to be a Donald Trump personal account and that may be because Allen Weisselberg started to get very nervous about what this was," the host explained.
"It could be," Robinson answered. "Maybe that's the reason, because just stepping back from it, you would -- it looks as if they just abandoned the cover story, right?"
"If it was coming out of the trust account, that was consistent at least with the false cover story that this was some sort of retainer agreement," he explained.
"If it's going to be just Donald Trump writing a personal check to Michael Cohen, it can't be business, attorney relationship retainer," he continued. "It is just Trump reimbursing him for the money that he shelled out for Stormy Daniels."
"So the only thing that makes sense, since it's unlikely I think that Donald Trump, Jr. would get nervous and would say wait a minute -- perhaps it is that Weisselberg said hold on a minute, this isn't right," he deduced. "We'll just have to see."
"I suspect the Southern District of New York has an opinion on this," Robinson added.
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