Trump trial: Michael Cohen takes stand, Rep. Malliotakis shows support

“New Yorkers want DA Bragg to focus on the career criminals, drug smugglers and illegal immigrant gang members wreaking havoc on our streets, NOT waste their tax dollars on a sham political trial.” - Rep. Nicole Malliotakis

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NEW YORK, N.Y. — Former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial saw a familiar Staten Island face and the prosecution’s star witness Monday.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island South Brooklyn) joined Trump’s legal team and broader entourage in the Manhattan courtroom audience for much of Monday’s proceedings. She and Trump have presented a united front ahead of the 2024 election.

On Monday, Malliotakis joined fellow Washington D.C. Republicans, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), in court to show their support for Trump in the first criminal trial against a former president in the nation’s history.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump last year with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in jail, according to the state court system. Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan is overseeing the trial. The former president has denied wrongdoing.

“This is a sham trial. The people of America know that it’s a a sham trial,” Malliotakis said outside court Monday. “The people of the state of New York would wish that Alvin Bragg, the district attorney who brought this case would focus on the actual crime that is taking place and plaguing our city.”

In addition to Malliotakis’ visit, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and self-described fixer, began his testimony Monday taking questions from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

He is considered the star witness in the falsified business records case connected to Cohen’s hush money payment to pornstar Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

Cohen and Daniels have testified that he made the $130,000 payment so Daniels would keep quiet about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Trump after a celebrity golf event in Lake Tahoe.

To get Cohen his money back, prosecutors allege Trump and former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg devised a scheme of fake financial records disguising the repayment as income for personal legal services.

Bragg’s felony charges against Trump for falsified business records require the records to have been falsified in connection to another crime, in this case prosecutors say the hush money payment amounted to a campaign finance violation.

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... To get Cohen his money back, prosecutors allege Trump and former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg devised a scheme of fake financial records disguising the repayment as income for personal legal services.

Bragg’s felony charges against Trump for falsified business records require the records to have been falsified in connection to another crime, in this case prosecutors say the hush money payment amounted to a campaign finance violation.

COHEN’S TESTIMONY

Most of Cohen’s testimony covered ground already presented in the trial, but prosecutors need jurors to believe Trump’s former attorney about his boss’ knowledge and direction related to the alleged incidents.

Bragg’s office has yet to show document evidence directly linking Trump to the hush money payments to Daniels for a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or the alleged repayment of Cohen.

Multiple witnesses, including Cohen and several other Trump Organization employees, have testified that it would have been well outside the norm for Trump not to have final say on a payment like that and for Cohen to take it upon himself to make the payment.

“I was doing everything I could and more to protect my boss, which is something I had done for a long time,” Cohen testified. “I would not lay out $130,000 for an NDA needed by somebody else.”

The hush money payment to Daniels was allegedly part of a broader strategy Trump organized with Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to suppress negative news about Trump and promote positive stories.

Both Cohen and Pecker testified that the payment to Daniels was third in a trio of catch-and-kill efforts before the 2016 election to pay people to keep quiet about negative stories about then-candidate Trump.

Cohen, who paid Daniels with his own money, said he became frustrated when Trump delayed his repayment and shortchanged him on a holiday bonus in December. The former Trump attorney said the 2016 sum was two-thirds less than his typical bonus.

"After all that I had gone through in terms of the campaign as well as laying out $130,000 on his behalf to protect him,” Cohen said. “It was insulting.”

Trump eventually ironed out the details with Cohen arranging the year-long repayment and appointing him as his personal lawyer ahead of the 2017 inauguration.

Former Trump Organization Controller Jeff McConney and Accounts Payable Supervisor Deborah Tarasoff testified last week about documents showing the 2017 payments to Cohen allegedly repaying the payments to Daniels.

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..."After all that I had gone through in terms of the campaign as well as laying out $130,000 on his behalf to protect him,” Cohen said. “It was insulting.”

Trump eventually ironed out the details with Cohen arranging the year-long repayment and appointing him as his personal lawyer ahead of the 2017 inauguration...

Former Trump Organization Controller Jeff McConney and Accounts Payable Supervisor Deborah Tarasoff testified last week about documents showing the 2017 payments to Cohen allegedly repaying the payments to Daniels.

Both witnesses illustrated how the Trump family, and the former president in particular, kept a tight grip on the financial dealings of the Trump Organization, which Tarasoff said is made up of about 100 different entities.

All Trump Organization checks processed through accounts payable needed to be signed by Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Allen Weisselberg, or Trump Sr. based on the value of the check, Tarasoff testified.

She said that before 2015, the year Trump announced his successful presidential campaign, that any check valued less than $2,500 could be signed by Weisselberg, but would need the signature of a Trump family member. After 2015, the Trump Organization upped the amount to $10,000.

Both Tarasoff and McConney testified that monthly payments to Cohen made over the 12 months of 2017 were valued at $35,000 for a total value of $420,000.

The initial three months of payments were made from the trust set up after Trump took office with the remaining nine payments made from the former president’s personal checking account after being sent to the White House.

Prosecutors say the Trump Organization arrived at that amount after it doubled the initial $130,000 payment to make Cohen whole after taxes, added $50,000 to the payment for technical services, and tacked on a $60,000 bonus. Trump’s defense attorneys say the payment was simply for Cohen’s legal services.

Cohen said that while he’d hoped for the repayment in a lump sum that he accepted the year-long payout knowing he would see a financial windfall as personal attorney to the U.S. president.

Cohen’s testimony is set to continue Tuesday.

https://www.silive.com/news/2024/05/at-the-trump-trial-day-16-michael-cohen-takes-stand-rep-malliotakis-shows-support.html