UPDATE: Tuesday, Apr 4, 2023 · 10:07:05 PM +00:00
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snow1985man
Update. There’s a lot more detail in the Statement of Facts, including this section, which dooms Trump because it closes the final loop, tying Trump, that Gotti-wannabe, directly to the scheme in the most mobster way possible:
14. In a conversation captured in an audio recording in approximately September 2016 concerning Woman 1’s account, the Defendant and Lawyer A discussed how to obtain therights to Woman 1’s account from AMI and how to reimburse AMI for its payment. Lawyer A told the Defendant he would open up a company for the transfer of Woman 1’s account and other information, and stated that he had spoken to the Chief Financial Officer for the Trump Organization (the “TO CFO”) about “how to set the whole thing up.” The Defendant asked, “So what do we got to pay for this? One fifty?” and suggested paying by cash. When Lawyer A disagreed, the Defendant then mentioned payment by check. After the conversation, Lawyer A created a shell company called Resolution Consultants, LLC on or about September 30, 2016.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, a felony.
How it breaks down: He wrote 11 checks to Michael Cohen to reimburse him for the payments he made to Stormy Daniels. For each check he's charged with a count for the voucher, the record in the business ledger, and for the check itself (one voucher resulted in two ledger entries).
In other words, Trump was using company money to pay a personal expense, then sought a tax benefit.
Or more bluntly, he wanted America tax payers to essentially pay a share of his hush money by his being able to write off an expense.
Also the indictment has all the ledger and check numbers, a beautifully articulated paper trail that will no doubt match Michel Cohen's own paper trail, which got him sent to prison.
The chorus throughout for each charge is: "with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof." Pretty much could be put on his tombstone.