Monday, May 20, 2024 - Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen has admitted to stealing $30,000 from the Trump Organization after overstating how much he needed to be repaid for paying funds to a poll-rigging tech company called Red Finch.
Cohen was once a Trump loyalist who has become one of his
biggest foes. Trump's defence team says he turned on the former US president
after he was denied a White House job.
On Monday, May 20, Cohen testified that he handed the CEO of
the company $20,000 in cash in a brown paper bag in exchange for services that
included rigging 2016 election polls in Donald Trump's favour
But when Trump's chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg
asked him during a mid-2017 meeting whether he needed to be reimbursed $50,000
for this, Cohen agreed and pocketed the difference, he said.
"You did steal from the
Trump Organization based on the expected reimbursement from Red Finch,
correct?" Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, his voice rising to a high pitch,
asked Cohen.
"Yes, sir," Cohen
calmly replied.
Trump broke away from his eyes-closed position during this
exchange and popped a mint before appearing to pay close attention to Cohen's
testimony.
"Have you paid back the
Trump Organization for the money you stole from them?" Blanche asked
later.
"No, sir," Cohen
responded.
In one of the final questions he was asked during
cross-examination, Michael Cohen answered "no" when asked whether a
conviction would benefit him financially.
The opposite is actually true, Cohen claimed, saying that an
acquittal would give him more material to discuss on his podcast and other
media appearances.
"It’s better if he’s not
[convicted] because it gives me more to talk about in the future,” he
testified.
Former President Donald Trump is sitting through the fifth
week of a trial where he is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying
business records in the first degree.
To secure a conviction, prosecutors will need to show
that Trump not only falsified business records related to payments made to
adult film star Stormy Daniels, but that he did so to illegally conceal
information from voters that could have hurt his 2016 presidential chances — a
crime that escalates these charges from a misdemeanour to a felony.
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