Right now:
in the courtroom:
Michael Cohen is explaining why he was owed $180,000, instead of simply $130,000 for the hush money. He says that he was owed $50,000 — an amount he admits was exaggerated — to pay a firm called RedFinch for “tech services.” He tells this story in his book “Disloyal.” At least in part, the services were Cohen getting a computer programmer to buy IP addresses in order to rig an online CNBC poll to make sure Trump ranked among the most influential business leaders alive.
Allen Weisselberg then doubled the $180,000 to $360,000. Weisselberg, Cohen says, expected that he would lose half of that money because it would be taxed as income, and was making him whole, even after taxes.
The irony of the “grossed up” description, which Cohen says was Weisselberg’s idea so Cohen could take the money as income instead of reimbursement, is it cost Trump double what it would have otherwise. Legitimate legal expenses aren't "grossed up."
This testimony right now is absolutely crucial to the prosecutors’ case. They allege that the repayments to Michael Cohen were not, in fact, legal expenses as indicated on the records and instead they were the hush money payment “grossed up” (plus that they include another payment that Cohen previously made). I imagine the jury will spend a fair amount of time examining this particular portion of Cohen’s testimony.
Finally, to add to this confusing sum, Cohen was offered a $60,000 bonus, bringing the total he was to be paid to $420,000. That amount was split — as shown in Weisselberg’s notes — into 12 months' worth of payments.
And to cap off this extremely important testimony, Cohen says that Weisselberg said in front of Trump that Cohen would be reimbursed completely. Cohen testifies that Trump approved the repayments and then said, “this is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.”