At Donald Trump's felony trial last week, we heard about Hulk Hogan's sex tape and watched Hope Hicks cry.
So far this week we've talked about ledgers, invoices, and accounts payable stamps. We watched as a Trump-loyal accountant authenticated Allen Weisselberg's handwriting. The same document with different dates appeared not once or twice, but many times.
It's boring to death. But if jurors can stay awake, it will be critical to Trump's defense.
With one or two sleepy exceptions, they are. They found that Trump was indicted on 34 counts (one for each falsification of business records) and that Trump paid Michael Cohen to get to the heart of the prosecutor's case. They seem to understand that they need to carefully study their $35,000 a month check.
The document was reviewed today by former Trump Organization executive vice president Jeffrey McConney and accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff, whose legal fees are being paid by the company. Stormy Daniels' sexy testimony, expected as early as Tuesday, is less important than the cardinal sins of these mediocre white-haired bean counters.
Of all the mysterious numbers we heard in court today, one that stands out is that Mr. Weisselberg, the company's former chief financial officer, said the bank's That's $130,000 scrawled on a document. . That was to hide the fact that the $130,000 was the exact amount Cohen wired to Daniels' attorney, Keith Davidson, to keep his client quiet. As with Watergate, most crimes are covered up.
We await Mr. Cohen's testimony that President Trump violated the law by knowingly repaying Mr. Cohen $35,000 a month in hush money, not for obscure legal services. There is. But the circumstantial and documentary evidence corroborating Mr. Cohen in advance and mitigating the impact of his multiple lies is now stacked as high as Trump Tower.
At the end of the day, the judge asked Josh Steinglass of the prosecution team how long he expected the prosecution's case to take. As Steinglass said “very roughly” two weeks — until May 21 — President Trump raised and lowered his arms like a 6-year-old who was asked to put away his Legos. I could see it. He then went out into the hallway and whined to reporters, “I thought I was done for today.”
Trump thought nothing of the sort. He is a caged animal (to use the term for immigrants) and he wants to get out as soon as possible. I wish you the best.
