#Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection w/a #HushMoney payment made to a porn star to influence the 2016 election. The case could be in the jury’s hands as early as Wed.
#Blanche says that #Trump wasn’t known for overpaying, & testimony suggested #MichaelCohen didn’t deserve to be paid much for his campaign work, particularly #HopeHicks's testimony that Cohen occasionally went “rogue”.
Blanche: “That’s not exactly a glowing performance evaluation that justifies a larger bonus.”
At the same time, Blanche argues the $420k Trump did pay Cohen was for unspecified #legal work.
While other witnesses testified about #Trump’s knowledge of the payment — notably #HopeHicks — #MichaelCohen connected Trump to the case like no other witness, including when he testified about the Jan 2017 conversation at Trump Tower, when Trump okayed the arrangements to hide the reimbursements.
“There is no way that you can find that President Trump knew about this payment at the time it was made w/o believing the words of Michael Cohen — period,” Blanche says.
Steinglass describes the #Trump campaign’s reaction to the #AccessHollywood tape, & notes that the Trump campaign responded publicly that his words on the tape were “locker-room talk,” while they were quietly scrubbing the internet for anything that might be damaging to him. He shows that #HopeHicks relied on #MichaelCohen to use his media contacts to fight back against the negative press.
#Steinglass shows the jurors video clips of #Trump himself acknowledging that the “#AccessHollywood” tape & its aftermath could swing a very tight election. “If 5% of the people think it’s true, & maybe 10%,” Trump says in one clip, “we don’t win.”
Steinglass takes jurors through testimony from #HopeHicks describing what a disaster Trump understood the “Access Hollywood” tape to be, because she was “in the room where it happened.”
Steinglass reminds jurors that #HopeHicks sent over a statement for the story on behalf of Trump, & that Trump lied in the statement, saying he didn’t know anything about the Karen McDougal deal. Steinglass says Trump did know about it because he was on tape 2 months earlier talking about it.
“No detail is too small to consider” &, after talking about his preference for personally signing checks “When you sign a check yourself, you’re seeing what’s really going on inside your business.”
Steinglass points jurors to testimony from #HopeHicks, in which Hicks said that Trump had expressed it “would have been bad” to have the #StormyDaniels story come out before the election.
#Steinglass highlights other key testimony, including #HopeHicks's remarks that it would have been “out of character” for #MichaelCohen to have made that payment out of the kindness of his heart — meaning, without approval from #Trump.
Steinglass is linking Trump to each & every action that prosecutors say led to the #crime, the falsification of 34 business records related to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels.
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1/… First, via Lawrence O'Donnell:
J.D. Vance was on the phone the entire time. He wasn’t taking in a word of testimony. Tuberville, to his credit, looking straight ahead, taking it all in as best he can, whatever sense he can make of it
#MichaelCohen is now describing talking to #Trump every single day, multiple times a day, before the #2016election. It was either in person or by cell phone, Cohen testifies.
He says that if he needed to reach Trump, depending on who Trump was with, he could have reached out to #RhonaGraff, his exec asst; #KeithSchiller, Trump’s #bodyguard; #HopeHicks, his press sec, or the Trump kids.
#MichaelCohen testifies about being in London when the #AccessHollywood tape came out shortly before the #election. He says he got an email from #SteveBannon, who was the CEO of the #Trump campaign at the time.
Prosecution displays an email exchange about the tape that was forwarded to him by Bannon. Top campaign ofcls including the press sec #HopeHicks, the campaign manager #KellyanneConway & the deputy campaign manager #DavidBossie were also on the email.
#MichaelCohen recalls that he & #AllenWeisselberg, spoke about possibly generating the $130k through a membership request or an event being held at a club.
Cohen is directly tying #Trump to the #HushMoney payment, corroborating the testimony of others, including #KeithDavidson & #HopeHicks, who said Cohen would never had made the payment w/o Trump's authorization. Cohen talks about Weisselberg helping him to think through how to make the payment.
This testimony echoes #HopeHicks's remarks that she didn't think #MichaelCohen would have done this on his own.
The testimony is critical because it links #Trump not only to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels, but also to the scheme to reimburse Cohen for fronting the money — & that is what forms the basis of the falsification of business records charges.
#Trump shakes his head & smirks when #MichaelCohen says he didn't mention Trump when setting up the bank account because he wanted to "protect him" from the transaction.
(#HopeHicks testified Trump told her essentially the same thing)
Prosecutors show an email Cohen sent #StormyDaniels’s lawyer, #KeithDavidson, showing that he had acquired the necessary funds.
Cohen says that he laid out the Daniels deal for Trump because "everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off."
The WSJ article about #KarenMcDougal from right before the election is shown on the screens in the courtroom.
#MichaelCohen says he contacted #HopeHicks & they spoke about how the campaign planned to respond. He says she shared a draft of the statement she planned to send, which is also shown onscreen.
#MichaelCohen reads draft statement from #HopeHicks, which included a line about how this was simply an effort to stop the historic Trump movement. That statement is quite similar to what the #Trump campaign has said in response to most stories since.
Cohen sent Hicks back a draft, & said she should simply describe the allegations as untrue & depict them as an effort to distract from the FBI investigation into #HillaryClinton's email server.
Prosecution shows voluminous records of phone calls between #MichaelCohen & #HopeHicks after the article about #KarenMcDougal came out. If anything, these records make Hicks look as if she underplayed the amount that she was speaking to Cohen & his involvement in the campaign.
Next is one of Cohen's calls to #KeithDavidson in documentary evidence, (the lawyer for McDougal & #StormyDaniels) after the story about McDougal being paid off was published.
When Hicks testified, she acknowledged that it was ironic to be testifying about this exchange she had w/ Cohen, which focused on whether or not the McDougal story was being picked up by other news outlets, at a literal criminal trial that stemmed from the publication of this story & the one about #StormyDaniels.
The prosecution asks that the defense be precluded from asking #StormyDaniels whether she was arrested. Justice #Merchan agrees w/the prosecutors, saying that “anybody can be arrested” & that it “doesn’t prove anything.”
The people call Stormy Daniels back to the stand
#Trump atty #Necheles begins questioning by saying that in 2011, Daniels denied having had sex w/Trump.
#Westerhout is testifying about how important #Trump's wife, #Melania, is to him, echoing #HopeHicks as she says they had a relationship of "mutual respect" & Trump cared a lot about his wife's opinion. "There was really no one else who could put him in his place," she laughs, addressing the jury directly. "He was my boss but she was definitely the one in charge."
Then Westerhout starts to cry as she recounts her experience of being forced out of the WH for being indiscreet.
#Westerhout is the 2nd fmr Trump aide to cry during this trial. 🥱 The first was #HopeHicks, whose desk was right near Westerhout's outside the Oval Office.
The DA is using people who were very close to Trump in order to build their case that he committed #crimes. Both Westerhout & Hicks were witnesses sympathetic to Trump but still delivered damaging testimony against him.
Westerhout has made it very clear how much she cares about & respects Trump. 🙄
We are still underestimating the historical gravity--the dark awesomeness--of the last answer #HopeHicks gave under direct examination.
She revealed, in essence, that #Trump admitted to her that he would have lost in 2016 had he not committed 34 felonies.
Sit a moment with that."
A court drawing of the judge, a blond woman, an #TFG w/ notes saying, "I'm automatically attracted...