Say You Are Janice
Donald Trump Jr. has admitted that he personally signed one of the hush money checks now at the center of his father’s arrest on criminal charges. The former president’s son told right-wing network Newsmax that part of Mr. Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records refers to his own actions.
“That son is me. Like I said, clearly also not a campaign finance violation if it’s from his own trust, not to a campaign, not from the campaign, not from the funds raised from it,” he said.
“So, none of it actually makes any sense.”
In the criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors allege that a check made out to Mr. Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen was falsely recorded as a “retainer” in the Trump Organization’s business records.
The check was signed by former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg – who is now in Riker’s Island on a fraud conviction – “and the Defendant’s son, as trustees”.
The son in question was not named in the charging documents but Don Jr. later confirmed it was him as he joins his father in railing against the charges. Don Jr. has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the criminal case and the payment itself is not illegal.
Instead, prosecutors allege that a crime was committed when this payment – and many others – to Cohen were falsely recorded in the Trump Organization’s business records. The crime then reaches the level of a felony when the falsified records were made while in commission of another crime.
According to Manhattan prosecutors, Mr. Trump and Cohen carried out a “catch and kill” scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Cohen allegedly made hush money payments on Mr. Trump’s behalf to suppress negative information about the presidential candidate. The payments were allegedly made to silence individuals over alleged affairs he had with women.
Mr. Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the charging documents read.
Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr. Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.
Mr. Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen but falsely recorded the payments as legal fees.
Back in 2019, Cohen testified before a House committee that Don Jr. signed some of the checks reimbursing him for the payment to Ms. Daniels. Cohen has already served jail time for his part in the hush money case and has now become prosecutor’s star witness in the case against Mr. Trump.
During Weisselberg’s trial last year, he testified that both of Mr. Trump’s adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, signed checks that he used to defraud authorities but insisted that no member of the Trump family played a part in his tax evasion scheme.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal illegal activity connected to his 2016 presidential campaign. Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records.
Mr. Trump surrendered to Manhattan authorities on Tuesday afternoon and was officially arrested on the charges. He then appeared in court for his arraignment before Judge Juan Merchan – the same judge who sentenced the Trump Organization and its CFO last year. Cutting a glum figure, he defiantly pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has continued to lash out at the judge and Manhattan DA in the aftermath.
Tom Banging Alice
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin in On the Town directed by Stanley Donen, 1949
For those watching the New York grand jury dealing with the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, the revelations that more hush money payments are being explored in the case isn't new information.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump allegedly got his close friend David Pecker at the National Enquirer to run a scheme to buy Playboy model Karen McDougal's story and hire her to write fitness articles. Neither that story nor any fitness articles were ever published, and the payment was supposedly a "catch and kill" agreement to bury the matter.
Former FBI general counsel and NYU law professor Andrew Weissmann claims Pecker was being brought in to the grand jury to reveal the second piece of the Daniels story.
NBC's Vaughn Hillyard explained that the Southern District of New York had already laid out the details in the Pecker case. In fact, they laid out the argument not only in the 2018 sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, but also in describing what Pecker and his company already admitted to.
"There is a litany of statements that are important," said Hillyard. "One of those here: 'In or about Aug. 2015, David Pecker, the chairman is CEO of AMI, met with Michael Cohen, an attorney for a presidential candidate and at least one other member of the campaign that is Donald Trump's campaign. At the meeting, Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.'"
The Manhattan DA has brought in two former Trump campaign staffers, Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks.
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