As the jury considers its verdict, it is worth looking back at the basics of the prosecution’s case against Trump.
Trump is accused of signing off on a scheme to illegally falsify records aimed at covering up a $130,000 “hush money” payment Cohen made to Daniels in 2016. The scheme was designed to subvert election laws and keep payments secret, prosecutors said. say.
They allege that Trump falsely portrayed the $130,000 in reimbursements as monthly checks for ongoing legal services paid during his first year in office. Each of the 34 items corresponds to a voucher, invoice or check resulting from a payment to Cohen.
As the number of witnesses grew, prosecutors began building their case with a broader “catch and kill” plan to suppress negative stories about Trump during the 2016 election cycle.
David Pecker was CEO of American Media Inc., the parent company of tabloid newspaper National Enquirer, in 2016. Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s, testified about how he, Trump and Cohen devised a plan to keep damaging stories about Trump from surfacing. In the months leading up to the election. The Inquirer also published negative articles about Trump’s opponents and positive articles about him. Pecker said the tabloid would run Cohen’s article before it was published.
Pecker told jurors he agreed to be the campaign’s “eyes and ears” at a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015. The “catch and kill” effort led to the suppression of three stories: Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, and Dino Sajudin. AMI purchased the rights to McDougal and Sajudin’s story, and Cohen paid Daniels.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in closing arguments that AMI’s cooperation with the campaign to purchase articles on behalf of then-candidate Trump constituted an illegal campaign contribution. Steinglass said it “turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions anyone has ever made to a campaign. It may be why Trump got elected.”
At its core, this is a case about documents, and through witnesses such as Jeff McConney, a former Trump Organization manager, and Deborah Tarasoff, who handles the company’s payroll, prosecutors presented jurors with allegedly falsified business records and numerous documents they claimed to support. Guided. This debate.
Prosecutors showed bank records, emails, text messages and phone records during the trial. They also showed two documents containing the handwriting of Allen Weisselberg and McConney, which laid out a repayment calculation to repay Cohen, whom they called a “smoking gun.”
They have pieced together a series of events that they say can only lead to one conclusion. The business records were falsified with Trump’s knowledge and were part of a larger effort to aid Trump’s candidacy and prevent voters from being informed of potentially damaging information. 2016 election.
