Costello said that the prosecution wanted to ask him limited questions about six emails but that he managed to force the fact that Cohen said he hadn’t told Trump he made the payments to Stormy Daniels into an answer, presumably because the prosecution didn’t want the grand jury to hear it. But it sounds like he did get it in there.
The fact that Cohen made the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels without Trump knowing about it is what was said way back on the eve of the 2016 election. Cohen responded to the New York Times on February 13 that he paid Daniels the $130,000 from his own pocket, not as a campaign contribution, and that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign reimbursed him for making it. The reason that the campaign hadn't reimbursed Cohen was that Trump was unaware that it happened. If Trump was unaware that it happened, he is not liable for making the payment.
Cohen will now claim that Trump was aware of the $130,000 payoff. It will be a case of Trump's word against Cohen's. Cohen's track record of making false statements to a federally insured bank and lying to Congress under the federal false-statements statute should disqualify his testimony as a trustworthy witness.
Cohen will now claim that Trump was aware of the $130,000 payoff. It will be a case of Trump’s word against Cohen’s.
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Suppose Trump was aware of the payoff. How can he Constitutionally be denied the right to benefit from a payment that would protect him from a baseless charge just because he is running for office? Suppose I paid off Stormy just because I admired Trump. Would my helping Trump in any way when he was running for office be illegal?
And that’s funny because this isn’t eve about the Stormy daniels thing.
It’s about trump exxagerating his assets. Or his people doing that.... The problem they are having is proving that he even knew about it. At least that’s my understanding.