This is all quite expected at least from my vantage point.
Now the Trump legal team will discredit the witness. He probably tried to throw Trump under the bus to save his behind and he knew the political establishment would give anything to go after him.
Could this admission lead to charges for his former lawyer?
Former President Donald Trump's defense team has motioned for an order of dismissal after the prosecution rested its case on Monday. Trump's defense team has called its first witnesses, including Robert Costello, a former legal representative of Cohen. The trial is nearing its conclusion.
www.foxnews.com
Former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from the Trump organization during former President Trump's New York City trial on Monday.
Cohen made the admission while facing cross examination from Todd Blanche, one of Trump's attorneys.
“You did steal from the Trump Organization based upon the expected reimbursement from Red Finch," Trump attorney Todd Blanche said, referencing the repayment plan in which he was supposed to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000, and tech company Red Finch $50,000.
"Yes, sir," Cohen replied.
Cohen testified that he went to the bank and withdrew cash over a couple of days, totaling $20,000, and kept it in a small brown paper bag and then gave it to Red Finch, but that he never gave the full $50,000 when the company failed to press him for the rest.
He testified that the Trump Organization thought he paid the full amount, for which he was still reimbursed despite not having actually paid it.
Cohen is the star witness for prosecutors and was the final witness they called to the stand.
Trump faces 43 counts of falsifying business records in relation to alleged hush money payments he made to pornography actress Stormy Daniels. Daniels herself also testified earlier on in the trial.
Absolutely no one is surprised that Cohen stole from the Trump family, not even the jury.
Everyone involved is a complete sleaze, including Trump. The jury knew that going in.
Donald Trump has been a criminal sleaze all of his adult life and it seems that only his diehard voters don’t know or understand that.
The only people who want to work for or even associate with criminal sleazes are other criminals sleazes.
The defence attorney should be attacking the written evidence, or the other witnesses who have all been witness and testified to Donald Trump’s involvement in the payoffs, the reimbursement, and the cover-up. David Pecker, Hope Hicks, Trump Corporation accounts payable staff, and White House staffers who confirmed Cohen’s testimony, an testified to Trump’s attention to financial details.
Trump has attacked 2 of the witnesses, but he hasn’t attacked the physical evidence, or the testimony of Pecker and Hicks, both of whom confirmed Cohen’s story and buried Trump.
Cohen and Daniels are sleazy. But Donald Trump picked both of them, hired both of them, paid both of them, and only disavowed either of them, when the story came out in the press.
This case will be decided on the evidence, not the criminality, or the reliability of the two witnesses Trump try to discredit. It will also be decided on the testimony of the witnesses that Trump never even questioned, who confirmed everything Cohen said.
Last, but not least, Trump dragged out this case, and forced the prosecution to put Stormy Daniels on the witness stand by have his lawyer falsely claim he never had sex with Ms. Daniels.
Trump could’ve avoided days of testimony from staffers and from Daniels if he had stipulated to any facts in the case.
If Trump had filed documents which said he signed the checks, The court could’ve been spared two days of testimony from former staffers as to Trump’s attention to financial details and obsession over every dollar he paid out of his personal accounts.
And it also demonstrates to the jury that Trump lying to the American people when he said that he was not involved in any of the day today operations of the Trump Corporation.
Whether Cohen stole from the Trump organization or not, is completely irrelevant to the facts of this case, or to the evidence presented.
The defence keeps trying to distract the jury with shiny objects. It’s working on you, but it doesn’t seem to be working on the jury.
