re: Cohen: The payment was delayed in election interference trial, it only matter if Trump won

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Hopefully Trump's lawyers pick up on the fact this blows the whole case. If Trump said to delay the payment until after the election then it's not election interference.

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I don't think many people understand the case, including a lot of the talking heads. The campaign finance violation part is NOT on trial. That is only a procedural mechanism that allows Bragg to pursue the crime that Trump is on trial for--falsification of business records.

The prosecution has to prove that Trump falsified business records. Assume it is all true. Cohen paid Stormy. Cohen submitted invoices to Trump. Trump paid the invoices. And, the Trump Organization booked those payments as "legal expenses."

What is false about that? And, so far, I haven't seen any evidence that really hurts Trump on that supposed crime. The only evidence I've seen on that point that seems important is the following:

Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove got former Trump Organization Controller, McConney, to concede he had never spoken with Trump about repayments to Cohen, and had never been directed to register the payments in a certain way, or improperly.

Bove suggested there was no falsification, in part because of the narrow way Trump Organization payments had to be recorded using the drop-down menu of an “antiquated” software recording system.

Additionally, McConney conceded, Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer, and that he always recorded payments to lawyers as “legal expenses” in the ledger during his 36-plus years with the company.

quote:

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Hopefully Trump's lawyers pick up on the fact this blows the whole case. If Trump said to delay the payment until after the election then it's not election interference

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Unfortunately, Trumps defense has been none of this happened, it's all a lie, never slept with Stormy, never paid any money to her. Cohen is a liar, none of this happened, he committed perjury you can't trust anything he says.


With that defense, I think they boxed themsleves with how effectively they can refute the charges. "Everybody is lying about me" is a tough sell. I think it would have been a little bit more of a straightforward route of defense to sell the jury on the payment was a personal matter not meant to influence the campaign, Cohen handles it on his own as a legal matter and was reimbursed.

But they're sticking with no payment ever happened. So they can't use Cohen and say see it was put off to after the election.