Prosecutors have shown there's no good explanation for Trump's payments: Cohen's ex-lawyer
May 15, 2024
Lanny Davis, the erstwhile lawyer for former President Donald Trump's one-time attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday that the prosecution has already laid out a clear map of Trump's illegal financial schemes in the Manhattan criminal hush money trial — and the defense has not presented any convincing argument for what those payments were if not what the prosecution said.
"The document we're showing here, this is [Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg," said Tapper, putting up a document. "And it's a document that basically comes up with the amount that they are going to pay Michael Cohen, which is reimbursement for the payment to Stormy Daniels, according to the prosecutors and Michael Cohen, plus $50,000 more for this other thing having to do with, like, some bogus polling or whatever. That's $180,000 times two, so that there's no tax penalty plus $150,000 because Michael Cohen was upset he didn't get a good Christmas bonus. That's — in total that's $420,000. And then it says $35,000 every month from Donald Trump. So that is the scheme and we haven't heard an alternate suggestion as to what this is."
"It's taking a number, adding all those things up, including the illegal hush money, which federal prosecutors said was politically motivated based on the evidence," said Davis.
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"Wait, is hush money in itself illegal?" Tapper asked him.
"If it's politically motivated, then it's illegal, and it deprives the American people of information before a presidential election," said Davis. "But the second issue is the tougher issue. And the Weisselberg document proves that by taking those numbers and dividing by 12, you don't come up with a legal retainer. You're taking numbers, dividing by 12, and repaying Michael Cohen in part for the criminal money that he went to prison for. If they decide that that document shows that Weisselberg knew there were no legal fees ... Rudy Giuliani said they were reimbursements. And there's more than enough evidence that they were reimbursements."
The upshot, Davis said, is that "Now it's up to the jury to decide. Do we need Donald Trump to personally look at the bookkeeper writing down legal expenses, which is fraudulent, or can we conclude? And that's why I use my snow-on-the-ground circumstantial evidence proof. A jury uses its common sense. Is there any other explanation than reimbursing Michael Cohen for those $35,000 checks?"
Watch the video below or at the link.
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