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Items tagged with: hushmoney
#Court officers explain, yet again, the courtroom's no-cellphone policy to the people here with #Trump.
The lawyers and the judge are having one of the longest sidebars that have taken place during this trial, if not the longest. Their voices are louder than usual, though the words they're saying aren't clear.
#law #Trump #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #GagOrder #StochasticTerrorism #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal #NodFarter
The long sidebar may have been about scheduling issues. The judge just told the jurors that, if they are OK w/it, court may be in session next Wed, despite the fact that the trial is usually off on Wednesdays.
This suggests prosecutors & defense were quibbling over the calendar.
The defense sought to delay the trial many times before it started, & #Trump has complained that it was going too fast.
#law #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen has been called back to the stand. The jury to be brought in.
#Trump atty Todd #Blanche continues cross-examination.
Blanche asks about texts between Cohen & the DA’s office.
Cohen agrees that texts shown w/ DA investigator are from around same time that he told a grand jury he was going to hold Trump accountable.
We are now on our third sidebar today.
#law #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #GagOrder #StochasticTerrorism #NodFarter
There’s laughing when Justice #Merchan shoots down Todd #Blanche, #Trump's lawyer. Blanche asked for a sidebar & got a dismissive “no” from Merchan.
We’ve had 10 objections in <20 mins.
Defense plays a recording of #MichaelCohen celebrating Trump's indictment on his podcast. His voice is loud & enthusiastic to the point of seeming off-putting.
Some jurors seem uncomfortable.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen seems deflated after hearing that clip. Blanche asks if that was the first time that he had said he wanted #Trump to feel what Cohen himself had felt when he was prosecuted. Cohen says that he had expressed that sentiment before.
Reportedly Cohen’s voice sounded truly odd in the podcast clip. Giddy, high-pitched, & speaking so fast that it sounded as if the tape had been artificially sped up.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#Trump is paying close attention, as clips play of #MichaelCohen describing how much he hates Trump & wants him to rot in prison.
Prosecution used earlier witnesses to introduce Michael Cohen to the jury as an outsized personality. + Cohen has not been shy on the stand about his hatred of Trump. These clips, while entertaining, might not come as a huge shock to the jury.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche has yet to ask #MichaelCohen about anything in connection to the actual case that's on trial.
Trump's lawyers have focused on impeaching the credibility of the prosecution's 2 biggest witnesses, #StormyDaniels & Cohen. Though while Susan #Necheles’s cross-examination of Daniels was largely focused & had an arc, Blanche’s cross-examination of Cohen has been all over the place.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #Trump #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
All #criminal trials involve #testimony from other #criminals.
That’s the thing about criminals, they work with other criminals.
Duh.
#Blanche is now demonstrating for the jury that #MichaelCohen lied under oath for different reasons. By his own admission, it wasn’t only to demonstrate his #loyalty to #Trump. He lied also, Cohen admits, because the stakes affected him personally.
#law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche is showing #MichaelCohen’s lack of remorse. Cohen has talked publicly about wanting to right the wrongs he committed while working for #Trump. Blanche is getting him to say he doesn’t think he should have been charged.
Blanche asks Cohen about blaming a lot of people for the conduct for which he was convicted. Cohen freely acknowledges he has.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche is now going over the financial transactions that allowed #MichaelCohen to pay #HushMoney to #StormyDaniels, perhaps the closest he's gotten to the subject matter of the case.
He notes that Cohen hid those transactions from his wife, apparently seeking to call into question whether Cohen was really as concerned about his family - & his wife — as he suggested when explaining his federal guilty plea.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #Trump #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#MichaelCohen admits he asked his lawyers to explore the possibility, although he testified before a House panel that he would never have accepted one. Cohen points out — correctly, as NYT broke the story — that Trump was dangling pardons to people connected to the special counsel's investigation into the #Trump campaign's possible ties to #Russia.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
Jurors will have to determine when — if ever — #MichaelCohen began telling the truth. #Blanche is demonstrating that Cohen told lies, big & small, over a long period of time & for various reasons.
At the same time, prosecutors have & will demonstrate in re-direct & closing arguments that #Trump has told lies, big & small, about a number of people & issues in this & other cases.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#TrumpTrial 🧵 Thursday 16 May 2024
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
#law #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #StormyDaniels
#Republican #LizCheney, the fmr congresswoman, #Jan6 cmte co-chair & #Trump critic, assailed #House Speaker #MikeJohnson for his impending appearance outside the courthouse where Trump's #ElectionInterference / #HushMoney trial is taking place. “Have to admit I’m surprised that SpeakerJohnson wants to be in the ’I cheated on my wife with a porn star’club,” she wrote on X. “I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.”
#TrumpTrial #law #Republicans #GOP
#Hoffinger, the prosecutor asks #MichaelCohen specific questions about the recording.
Cohen says that when he insisted that David #Pecker be paid, he made reference to Pecker's dossier on #Trump. And he says that while he said "financing," he meant "funding," meaning he was asking how Pecker would be repaid for silencing #KarenMcDougal's story.
#criminal #law #DeadBeat #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #StormyDaniels
#MichaelCohen says that the recording he made of himself talking to #Trump cuts off because a bank employee called him & he
"must have believed" the call was important.
But Cohen says he continued to speak to Trump about the #HushMoney deal w/ #KarenMcDougal after the recording ended.
This is another piece of #evidence that Trump's lawyers have sought to delve into, questioning why the call ended abruptly suggesting that Cohen may have manipulated evidence.
Michael Cohen testifies that he - & everybody - at the #TrumpOrganization spoke to #AllenWeisselberg about financial transactions. Weisselberg, currently in #jail, was involved in coordinating the repayments to Cohen after Cohen paid #HushMoney to #StormyDaniels.
Cohen is emphatic that Weisselberg was involved in every deal no matter the size.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen's testimony about #AllenWeisselberg's financial advice on the #KarenMcDougal deal explains why Cohen would go on to pay #StormyDaniels, borrowing against his home. He says Weisselberg told him not to go through the #TrumpOrganization -linking the payment to #Trump's company would defeat the purpose- but to come up w/other more creative ways to pay.
This will help prosecutors explain why Cohen made the #HushMoney payment in such a roundabout way.
#Trump seems to have paid attention to very little of #MichaelCohen's testimony so far. He spent the first hour or so sitting still at the defense table with his eyes closed. After the morning break he's been awake but reading through printouts as he often does - likely news clippings printed by his staff.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
An incredible number of hours went into covering up #Trump's alleged affairs in 2016. #MicgaelCohen & the team at The #NationalEnquirer went to elaborate lengths & constantly communicated about how to keep #women quiet. Accounting departments were engaged. Front companies were created. Misleading invoices were produced.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
Before court adjourned on Friday, Justice #Merchan asked prosecutors to tell #MichaelCohen to stop talking shit about #Trump, after a defense lawyer alerted the court to a recent TikTok video in which Cohen wore a shirt w/ a picture of Trump behind bars. We don’t know what, if any, discussions this prompted between prosectors & Cohen, but he appeared to stay off social media this past weekend.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#Trump brought a posse today.
Senator #JDVance, Eric Trump, Boris Ephsteyn, his *legal* adviser; Alina Habba, one of the lawyers from his civil fraud trial; US House Rep #NicoleMalliotakis; Senator #TommyTuberville; & the #Iowa & #Alabama attorneys general.
This is the biggest entourage we’ve seen him with so far.
He must be scared.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
In case you need a refresher on #MichaelCohen
Cohen pleaded guilty in Aug 2018 to a variety of federal crimes, including #CampaignFinance #law violations for his role in 2 #HushMoney deals w/ women who said they had sex w/ #Trump. He also pleaded guilty to personal financial #crimes unrelated to Trump, including tax evasion.
#criminal #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
3 months later, MichaelCohen was back in federal court to plead guilty once again. That time, he accepted responsibility for lying to #Congress about plans to build a #TrumpTower in #Moscow, #Russia saying he did so out of loyalty to #Trump.
His loyalty faded in 2018 when authorities zeroed in on Cohen, & Trump threw him under the bus. Cohen is now the star witness in this #criminal trial, which centers on a #HushMoney deal.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference
Justice Merchan said before proceedings began that he would not allow in a piece of evidence related to #AllenWeisselberg, the fmr CFO of the #TrumpOrganization, who is currently in #jail.
Prosecutors had hoped to put in evidence his severance agreement that requires #Weisselberg still be loyal to #Trump, to help explain his absence at the trial. But the judge is saying he won’t allow it.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen is speaking easily now. He’s injecting some personality into his testimony. He describes negotiating w/ #Trump over his salary, he says they settled on a compromise of $375k a year. “Bonus of course was to be discussed,” Cohen adds.
“It was whatever he wanted,” Michael Cohen says when asked to describe his duties at the #TrumpOrganization. Cohen leans into the word “he.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#MichaelCohen begins to describe the projects he began to undertake for #Trump, saying that they were “exciting” to him. Cohen was something of a Trump fanboy, & it’s easy to imagine him taking great pleasure in doing these tasks for his new boss. He reported only to Trump, he has said several times. “Just to Mr. Trump.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen says #Trump’s praise made him feel like “I was on top of the world.”
Cohen testifies about threatening lawsuits against people while he worked for Trump. One was a #MissUSA contestant (I assume sexual assault but it isn’t said). In other cases, Cohen said, he would be antagonistic to reporters, warning them that Trump would sue them over specific stories.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen says #Trump had an open-door policy, & took visitors one at a time.
"Boss, do you have a second?" he'd ask, & then walk right in, he says. He says Trump typically directed employees to always keep him in the loop. So, Cohen said, when a mission was ongoing, he would inform Trump every step of the way.
All of this relates to the case, as Cohen will soon describe that this general practice was in effect when he paid #StormyDaniels $130k in #HushMoney.
#MichaelCohen says he lied to people on #Trump's behalf. #Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks him about being called Trump's "#fixer." "It's fair," Cohen replies.
Cohen describes a remarkably servile attitude towards Trump. "The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy," he says.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen explains that he wasn't going to be a part of the 2016 presidential campaign — he was "just going to be a surrogate," he says. This is the first in what is likely to be a series of humiliations by #Trump that Cohen is expected to testify to.
Cohen says he did some activities on behalf of the campaign, like putting together a "diversity" coalition. He was also given a campaign email address.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks #MichaelCohen if he ever talked to #Trump about whether he was concerned that negative personal stories would come forward. #Cohen describes a conversation before the presidential campaign kickoff, quoting Trump saying, "You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there's going to be a lot of women coming forward."
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen lays out the first #CatchAndKill story that he worked on w/ The #NationalEnquirer. It was about an allegation by a #doorman at a #Trump building that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cohen describes telling Trump about it.
This is the first of the 3 #HushMoney deals that jurors have heard about. The last of them is Cohen's own $130k payment to #StormyDaniels.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#MichaelCohen is asked how he monitored the progress of the deal w/ #KarenMcDougal, & says he did so by text, phone & the app Signal. The prosecutor doesn't dwell on it, but that is documented evidence, & jurors heard from other witnesses, especially David #Pecker, just how much Cohen contacted the parties during that period in 2016.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
Andrew Giuliani, another #Trump ally & the son of his fmr lawyer #RudyGiuliani, is also posting from the courtroom, calling #MichaelCohen a "serial liar" & smearing the Manhattan DA's office, which brought the case.
Cohen is asked how he communicated w/ #KeithDavidson, a lawyer for both #KarenMcDougal & #StormyDaniels, says "phone, email, text.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#MichaelCohen is now recalling David #Pecker applying pressure to get reimbursed for paying off #KarenMcDougal. "It was too much money for him to hide from the CEO of the parent company," he says. He adds that he had several conversations w/ #Trump about that fact. The jury is likely to again hear the recording that was played earlier.
#criminal #law #DeadBeat #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Pecker's mounting frustration about paying to kill stories on #Trump's behalf & not getting repaid is what leads to Pecker refusing to pay for #StormyDaniels story, & #MichaelCohen taking over as the funder of the #CatchAndKill operations.
Cohen testifies about recording #Trump directing him to pay David #Pecker back in cash — the jury has heard this recording.
#criminal #law #DeadBeat #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
It fits w/ #MichaelCohen's narrative that he was often updating #Trump on the progress of the #KarenMcDougal #HushMoney deal - on the recording, Cohen only has to mention Pecker's name & it seems as if Trump knows that he's referring to that deal.
Cohen claims that this was the only conversation w/ Trump that he ever taped, & that he did it so that Pecker could hear that Trump planned to pay him back, thus retaining Pecker's loyalty.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
Big picture:
#Trump currently has senior #elected officials, including a possible future VP nominee, sitting in the courtroom listening to a recording of him, as a candidate, talking w/his lawyer about paying for material from The #NationalEnquirer. Trump has completely got the party under his boot.
#Pathetic #Deplorables #criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
Apologies for my late start
#TrumpTrial 🧵
Monday May 13
#MichaelCohen is on the stand today
#criminal #law #Trump #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
