On Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team entered a years-old tweet from former President Donald Trump into evidence, which appears to both confirm the facts of the indictment and undermine the core of defense lawyers' main argument.
MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld tweeted Friday that one of Bragg's paralegals read the tweet into the official record despite Trump's team unsuccessfully fighting to exclude it. The tweet itself, which was sent on May 3, 2018, while Trump was in the White House, reads: "Mr. [Michael] Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA."
Klasfeld explained that the reason the tweet was seen as particularly damning evidence "because the indictment alleges that Cohen's monthly invoices and checks were falsely marked as 'retainer' payments — and the ledger entries falsely given a code of legal expenses." Bragg's 34-count indictment accuses Trump of falsifying business records, alleging that he covered up hush money payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with him by disguising reimbursements to Cohen — his longtime personal attorney and fixer — as legal retainers. Cohen has said there was no such retainer and that he was explicitly being reimbursed for payoffs he made to the women on Trump's behalf.
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"These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth," Trump continued in a follow-up tweet. "In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. [Stephanie] Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair."
"[D]espite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement," he added. "Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll[sic] in this transaction."
New Republic writer Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling described the tweet as "further evidence that Trump was aware of multiple $35,000 checks to Cohen inked by his two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, made via a revocable trust." Cohen served a three-year federal prison sentence in 2018 for his role in the hush money scheme Trump is accused of orchestrating, and for other crimes including tax evasion.
"In one instance, COHEN caused American Media, Inc. (“AMI”)... to make a $150,000 payment to one woman; in the other, COHEN made a $130,000 payment to another woman through an LLC he incorporated for the purpose of making the payment," a DOJ press release read. "COHEN was reimbursed for the latter payment in monthly installments disguised as payments for legal services performed pursuant to a retainer, when in fact no such retainer existed."
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Trump himself appeared at one point to corroborate prosecutors' arguments against him during one off-the-cuff gaggle with reporters following a day of trial proceedings. During his remarks, Trump argued he was being unfairly prosecuted for "paying a lawyer and mark[ing] it down as a legal expense."
"Some accountant, I didn’t know, marked it down as a legal expense. That’s exactly what it was, and you get indicted over that?" Trump said. "So check it out. Legal expense. It’s called legal expense," he added.
Michael Cohen is expected to take the witness stand next week in the ongoing criminal trial. Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg may also take the stand as well, given that he helped facilitate the reimbursements to Cohen.
Click here to read Quinlan Houghtaling's article in the New Republic.
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