Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)
On Tuesday morning in New York City, jurors in Donald Trump’s ongoing hush-money trial heard the clearest explanation yet of the 34 criminal charges in the first case against a former U.S. president.
Michael Cohen, 57, returned to the stand for a second day.
Leading the questioning again was Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger, who quickly dived into a series of documents that form the heart of the paper trail in the case: several allegedly fraudulent invoices, ledger entries, and checks with their concomitant stubs.
Methodically walking the witness through several months’ worth of such documents, the prosecution received a series of admissions that clearly outlined the alleged fraud while attempting to tie the defendant and/or his namesake family business to each one.
Cohen’s testimony at 100 Centre Street resumed by recounting an Oval Office meeting with then-president Trump in early 2017, a meeting that was corroborated by a photograph shown to jurors, according to a report by Just Security fellow Adam Klasfeld.
“I was sitting with President Trump,” the witness testified. “He asked me if I was okay. He asked me if I needed money.”
Cohen said he replied in the affirmative. But, the witness said, Trump understood the two were discussing the alleged reimbursements when he replied: “Just make sure you deal with Allen,” a reference to Allen Weisselberg, 76, a former trusted Trump accountant who would later be convicted of various and wholly unrelated financial crimes.
The witness went on to say he was promised a check would be forthcoming — to account for January and February payments. As the year went on, Cohen would largely submit his invoices to Weisselberg — while occasionally submitting them to Jeffrey McConney, the company’s since-retired controller, who testified earlier this month.
Earlier on in the trial, jurors had been shown a fairly straightforward series of invoices from Cohen that resulted in payments from the Trump Organization totaling $420,000 through most of 2017.
The state’s theory of the case is that Cohen was repaid by the 45th president in installments — using forged paperwork with company letterhead — for a $130,000 home equity loan the erstwhile fixer took out under false pretenses, and using a falsely-established shell corporation, in order to keep adult content creator Stormy Daniels, 45, from going to the press with her story about sex with Trump. Those forged documents, typically misdemeanors, were elevated to felony offenses in the indictment handed up by a grand jury after District Attorney Alvin Bragg tied each to an election influencing conspiracy.
Getting from the $130,000 loan to the $420,000 Cohen was paid after he paid Daniels requires complex arithmetic and explanations — which jurors were previously made privy to during McConney’s testimony. All of that, of course, depends on credibility and narrative.
The number of documents themselves also do not exactly align with the number of charges in the case. Over the course of 2017, there were 11 invoices sent, 11 checks paid, and 12 ledger entries in the corporate account — two of Cohen’s payments were accounted for in one invoice and concomitant check, jurors have been told.
To hear Trump’s legal team tell it, Cohen was paid for his legal services, just like the documents say. He was, in fact, at the time a lawyer. And, on their face, the documents would seemingly make sense. This is exactly what the defense said during open statements and more or less what they will need to maintain throughout the trial.
On Tuesday, Cohen rubbished that accounting of his remuneration.
As the state continued direct examination, the witness said he did not actually have a retainer as each check stub said on the information lines, according to a report by MSNBC personality Katie Phang.
Cohen went on to admit he submitted 11 false monthly invoices, according to a report by Law&Crime Network host Terri Austin.
Hoffinger displayed the invoices for jurors to peruse, month by month, as Cohen was guided through each allegedly false document.
The prosecutor asked if any of those invoices were for any genuine legal services rendered to the Trump Organization, according to a report by New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane-Newman.
“No, ma’am,” the witness replied. “They were for reimbursement.”
Asked whether he did any legal work for Trumpworld in 2017, however, the witness likely gave the defense an opening by answering in the affirmative — while diminishing his billable hours exponentially.
Cohen said he did, in fact, provide some legal work related to former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos — who once claimed Trump sexually assaulted her and later unsuccessfully sued him for defamation. Cohen also said he reviewed a document related to a depiction of Melania Trump at Madame Tussauds wax museum.
Additionally, the witness confirmed he was given some work to do by the Trump Organization’s then-chief legal officer Alan Garten — but, Cohen said, he did not consider those assignments to be legal work.
In sum, Cohen testified, he performed “less than 10” hours’ worth of legal work for Trump that year, which he described as “minimal.” And, for that work, he said, he did not expect to be paid, framing the work as so de minimis that it was not even worth sending an invoice.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
