The case isn’t about the hush money payments themselves. It’s strictly about how they were categorized in records - business vs. personal expenses. Mischaracterization of them is a misdemeanor, mischaracterization with the intent to commit another crime (unstated last I knew - campaign finance violation?) is a felony.
So they’d have to prove (I assume) mischaracterization, that Trump did it, that there was another crime, the mischaracterization was in an effort to commit this other crime, and that the state has the power to use a federal crime as the basis for this state statute.
So, if Trump gave Cohen a retainer for legal services and booked it as a business expense, and the Cohen later uses that retainer money to get Clifford to sign an NDA without Trump knowing about it, then who's accountable for what?
Did Trump properly account for the retainer expense and Cohen misused the money? Is Trump still liable for Cohen's embezzlement of Trump's retainer?
-PJ