A potential smoking gun shown to jurors at Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial on Monday appeared to harm his defense that he doled out money to Michael Cohen from the White House as payment for legitimate legal services — and not for paying off a porn star.
The document displayed was a bank statement provided to the Trump Organization’s accounting department in early 2017 from Cohen, showing he’d transferred $130,000 to Keith Davidson, the lawyer of Stormy Daniels, who claimed she’d had an extramarital liaison with Trump in 2006.
Prosecutors introduced it during testimony by former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, who identified rough notes at the bottom as the penmanship of his ex-boss, Trump’s twice-convicted longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
“I’ve read his handwriting for about 35 years,” McConney told the court when asked how he was sure.
The finance chief’s notes tallied up how much money Cohen was owed in expenses: $180,000, when accounting for the payoff to Davidson plus an additional $50,000 campaign purchase Trump’s fixer paid out of pocket. The CFO then doubled that number to account for taxes and tacked on a $60,000 bonus, bringing the total to $420,000, which Cohen received in monthly checks signed by Trump for $35,000, McConney said.
The prosecution introduced the First Republic Bank statement as proof that Trump knowingly reimbursed Cohen for hush money to Daniels. Last week, jurors heard of how Cohen set up the bank account in the waning days of the 2016 race to get money to Daniels in a hurry so voters wouldn’t learn her allegations of an extramarital tryst with Trump, wiring it via a shell company, Essential Consultants LLC.
Trump’s lawyers have claimed that his former fixer went rogue in paying off the adult film actor, unbeknownst to his boss. They claim Trump signed checks put in front of him, believing he was simply paying his lawyer for lawyering.
The jury saw the statement among a paper trail of evidence introduced Monday tied to each of the 34 counts of falsification of business records with which the former president is charged — 11 checks issued to Cohen, which all bore Trump’s familiar spiky signature in black Sharpie, 12 corresponding ledger entries and 11 invoices, in which the fixer billed for “a retainer agreement.”
“Did you ever see a retainer agreement?” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked McConney.
“I did not,” the ex-controller conceded, later acknowledging that Cohen’s invoices were never sent to the company’s legal department.
The former controller, testifying against his will for the third time in as many years in a Trump case, said three checks cut for Cohen came from Trump’s trust, and nine came from Trump’s personal bank account.
McConney said he first learned Cohen was owed money in January 2017 from Weisselberg, who’s currently serving time on Rikers Island for committing perjury at the attorney general’s tax fraud trial against Trump after working for the Trump family for nearly half a century. Weisselberg and McConney were also accused of financial fraud in that case and hit with heavy penalties. They and Trump are appealing.
“Allen said we had to get some money to Michael, reimburse Michael,” McConney recalled.
“Only Mr. Trump” could sign off on checks sent out of his account, jurors heard Monday from Deborah Tarasoff, a lower-level payroll staffer, and McConney, bolstering the prosecution’s argument that Trump was never left out of the loop.
“Somehow we would have to get a package down to the White House, get it to the president, get the president to sign the checks, get the checks returned to us and then have the checks mailed out,” McConney said.
On cross-examination with Emil Bove, Trump’s lawyer pressed the ex–controller on whether he’d ever discussed the filing system with Trump, whether he was privy to Weisselberg’s conversations with the boss, or whether he was ever explicitly directed by Trump to do what he described to the jury. He answered no to all questions.
But when the prosecution followed up, Colangelo asked if McConney had previously acknowledged that Weisselberg sometimes kept him in the dark, which he said was true.
“You were told to do something, and you did it?” Colangelo asked.
“Yes.”
Tarasoff, a 24-year vet at the Trump Org, walked jurors through various reporting procedures and how checks were cut. Her relatively dry testimony came alongside some of the most crucial evidence in the case — the checks, ledger entries, and Cohen’s invoices.
Tarasoff said Trump didn’t give the green light for every check, sometimes writing “VOID” in black Sharpie and sending them back.
Over the last two weeks, prosecutors laid out an alleged conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and, as of Monday, began linking it to the alleged reimbursement to Cohen, which they say capped the scheme.
They told state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on Monday that they expect to finish their case in around two weeks. Cohen, who was federally convicted for the hush money scheme in 2018, and Daniels are slated to soon take the stand.
Earlier Monday, Merchan found Trump had violated a gag order prohibiting comments about trial participants a tenth time.
In his sternest warning yet, the judge said it appeared the fines he previously issued for other violations were not working, forcing him to start considering more severe punishment.
“Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,” Merchan addressed Trump.
“You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well.”
In an accompanying written order, the judge laid out how Trump’s April 22 comments to conservative news channel Real America’s Voice — that the “jury was picked so fast – 95% democrats” — were a clear breach.
After proceedings wrapped for the day, Trump said he wasn’t fazed, telling reporters outside the courtroom, “Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll give that sacrifice any day.”
