On Monday, Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of President Trump, testified that he used his personal finances to settle with adult film actress Stormy Daniels, paying her $130,000 to silence her allegations of an affair with the former president.
During the NY v. Trump proceedings, Cohen detailed how, as the 2016 election approached, he took out a line of credit on his home to secure funds and settle with Daniels, obtaining rights to her purported affair with Trump during a 2006 golf event in Lake Tahoe, and placing her under a nondisclosure agreement. Trump has denied Daniels’ allegations.
Cohen testified that in October 2016, he informed Trump that Daniels needed to be paid before election day. He also spoke to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg regarding financing. Weisselberg allegedly told him that he would not be able to cover the payments.
“I ultimately said, ‘OK, I’ll pay it,’” Cohen testified, stressing the urgency of his actions due to the impending election. Cohen stated that Daniels’ claims would have been “catastrophic to Mr. Trump and the campaign” if Daniels’ claims had surfaced without resolution.
Cohen then testified that Weisselberg told him, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get paid back.”
Cohen opted to take out a home equity line of credit, keeping his wife unaware to avoid questions about the significant withdrawal from their joint account.
“My wife was CEO of the household, [she] would not understand $130,000 missing from our joint account,” he said.
When he informed Trump of his intention to use his personal funds, Trump allegedly said “good, good.”
He testified that he was “doing everything that I could and more in order to protect my boss, which is something I had done for a long time. But I would not hand out a 130k NDA for somebody else.”
He also claimed that “everything required Mr. Trump’s signoff… on top of that, I wanted the money back.”
Cohen also testified that he misled First Republic Bank when establishing an account to transfer the funds to Daniels’ attorney, labeling it as a “management consulting” account, stating that he didn’t believe that the bank would allow it to be opened if they knew its true purpose.
The payment, categorized as a “retainer,” was entirely meant “to execute the NDA” and to obtain the rights to Daniels’ claims. The funds were wired on Oct. 27, 2016.
NY v. Trump centers on allegations of falsified business records. Prosecutors have attempted to prove that Cohen’s payment to Daniels was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization and falsely recorded as legal expenses, implicating Trump in potential record falsification to conceal a separate offense.
Fox News reported that Cohen is set to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they continue to work to definitively prove that Trump was guilty of the alleged crime.
Notably, however, Cohen has a history of dishonesty under oath. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion, and Cohen later “admitted to lying to Congress” during his testimony in Letitia James’ case against Trump, per Fox News.
Trump, for his part, has maintained his innocence, calling the case a politically motivated “scam” orchestrated by the Biden administration ahead of the 2024 election. He asserted his electoral lead in key battleground states during media interactions on Monday.
“The New York Times just came out with a poll that shows us leading everywhere by a lot. This is the cover story. And I think you’ll find it very interesting, but I’m sure you’ve all read it. Leading in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Nevada, we are leading actually by 12 points, which is generally a Democrat state,” Trump said Monday morning, per Fox News.
The post Michael Cohen Testifies That He Used His Personal Finances To Cover $130,000 Hush Money Payment To Stormy Daniels appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: John Symank
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