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.
