Testimony started w/a bang last week as David #Pecker, the fmr publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, said that he had entered into a secret plot w/ #Trump & #MichaelCohen to #CatchAndKill negative stories about Trump as he ran for president in 2016. #GaryFarro, the 3rd to testify, started off w/dry details about banking transactions. But #Farro is leading us to the #HushMoney payment
The prosecution brings up an email in which Keith Davidson told #MichaelCohen that unless he paid the $130k by the end of the day — he was already past deadline -— #StormyDaniels would consider the #HushMoney deal canceled. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, makes a point of getting Davidson to confirm that he sent the email to Michael Cohen’s #TrumpOrganization email address — another way of reinforcing for the jury that Cohen was acting as #Trump’s agent.
#RhonaGraff says she worked at the #TrumpOrganization for 34yrs. Her understanding was that #Trump owned the company & she worked directly for him.
#Graff says her lawyers are being paid by the #TrumpOrg. This is a running theme w/many witnesses close to Trump - he or his PAC have continued to pay their #legal fees.(#WitnessTampering, #MobTactics)
#MichaelCohen flipped on Trump, partly because the Trump Org stopped paying his legal fees.
Susan #Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is asking #RhonaGraff to verify that she compiled records of various items like emails & contact lists & calendar entries.
Prosecution presents a redacted entry from the #TrumpOrganization's computer system that contains contact information for #KarenMcDougal & “Stormy”
Asked whether she understood #StormyDaniels was an adult film actress, Graff replies: "Yes, I did."
#Necheles asks #RhonaGraff if she wants to be here or not. Graff says she does not, & indicates that the only reason she's testifying is because she was subpoenaed & the #TrumpOrganization is paying her legal fees.
Graff is done testifying. #Trump stands as Graff is leaving, approaches & touches her hand. Justice #Merchan, stands too, waiting for the lawyers to come to the bench. Given all the focus on witnesses & Trump interacting w/them, that was weird. The court takes a recess.
Acc/to NBC, the email, from Oct 26, 2016, had the subj line, “First Republic Bank Transfer” & confirmed that “the funds have been deposited into your checking account.”
#Steinglass has seemed at ease during this direct examination of #Pecker. He is the most recent addition to this prosecution team but he is a veteran prosecutor at the Manhattan DA's office. He previously led the effort to convict the #TrumpOrganization in 2022 & also secured a conviction against 2 #ProudBoys#extremists for a violent brawl in 2019.
Alright, who’s ready to see #Trump get his just deserts? He fucked up the whole damn world & that’s not an overstatement.
PS #BabySquirrel & I had a lovely weekend. It’s as boy! (He’s developed discernible - stuff)
He is doing quite well! Name: “Ramone” because he’s a sweet little punk rocker.
#Blanche said #Trump put up "a wall" between himself & his company when he became president. We know from the civil #fraud ruling that isn’t true.
Trump always seems to get his lawyers to basically testify about how successful the #TrumpOrganization, has been. - Blanche went off on this success narrative for a while.
In 2006, …Donald #Trump met the adult-film star #StormyDaniels. According to Daniels, things got intimate. (“The sex was nothing crazy,” she would go on to say.) A decade later, Trump was running for President, as a kind of #Republican uber-family man, drawing crucial support from #conservative, #evangelical voters. Daniels decided to go public: her encounter w/ Trump had taken place while he was already married to his third wife, Melania.
In the midst of this frenzy, the #NationalEnquirer’s editor got in touch w/ #Trump’s lawyer #MichaelCohen, who negotiated a $130k fee to buy Daniels’s silence, avoiding further scandal. Cohen paid the fee himself, & was reimbursed by the #TrumpOrganization in installments identified on company records as “retainer” payments for “services rendered.”
Would Trump have lost the 2016 Presidential election if #StormyDaniels had gone public w/ her story? Prosecutors in Manhattan think maybe so.
Fmr #Trump exec #Weisselberg sentenced to 5 months in #jail after pleading guilty to lying under oath in the NYAG’s #civil#fraud investigation into business practices at the #TrumpOrganization. #AllenWeisselberg, who worked for the Trump family for a half-century before retiring recently, was taken into custody after a brief proceeding in NY Sup Court & is expected to serve his sentence at #RikersIsland.
#Trump & #TrumpOrganization must post a bond for the full amt by next wk in order to stop #NYAG#LetitiaJames from being able to collect while he appeals. They asked an appeals court to step in & said Mon they haven’t been able to get a #bond.
"Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is 'a practical impossibility. These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers” the filing said.
Weisselberg, 76, surrendered to the Manhattan prosecutor’s office earlier Mon & entered state court in #handcuffs, wearing a mask, before pleading #guilty to 5 counts of #perjury.
#Trump's lawyers told a #NY appellate court Wed that he's prepared to post (only) a $100M #bond to halt #collection of his #civil#fraud penalty, arguing that provisions of the verdict make it impossible to secure a bond for the full amount.
TFG's attys made the offer in court papers asking the state's mid-level appeals court for an order preventing #NYAG#LetitiaJames' office from enforcing the $454M judgment while his #appeal plays out.
In an informational statement filed w/the Appellate Division, the defense attys asked the court to determine whether the #judge in the case "committed errors of #law &/or fact, abused its discretion, &/or acted in excess of its jurisdiction."
"We trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious fine & take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in NY's #legal system," Habba said.
For >100 yrs, since Donald Trump’s grandfather started buying land in NYC, the #Trump family has run a real estate business in NY.
Barring a successful #legal appeal of Fri’s decision by a NY Supreme Court judge, that could change.
In his ruling on a months-long #civil trial brought against #Trump & his business by #NYAG#LetitiaJames (D), Justice Arthur F. #Engoron prohibited Trump from serving as an officer or director of any NY firm for 3 yrs. He barred Trump’s elder sons, Donald Trump Jr. & Eric Trump, from doing so for 2 yrs.
Trump’s eponymous company, #TrumpOrganization, is already operating w/o a CFO or a controller….
Whoever takes over the company will face a host of challenges in the short term.
After finding that #TrumpOrganization executives had engaged in years of #fraud by inflating their #property values to get better #insurance & #tax rates, #Engoron ordered that the company operate under the close eye of 2 overseers, a monitor & an independent director of compliance, to ensure #compliance w/ #financial reporting obligations.
In other words, #Trump can remain the owner, but he has lost control.
"Their complete lack of contrition & remorse borders on the pathological. …Trump is not Bernie Madoff. Yet, [these] defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways."
[Analysis] AOC's questions years ago helped spark the investigation into Trump's business. Now, he's been ordered to pay $355 million. (www.businessinsider.com)
In 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Michael Cohen about Donald Trump. Cohen's answers eventually led to Letitia James's fraud lawsuit.