Posted on 06/28/2024 9:11:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[W]ith intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise [emphasis added]….
Clearly receiving invoices and writing checks are not falsifying business records, but the major problem with this case is that the prosecution, the judge, and the jury have conflated the personal accounts of Donald J. Trump with the enterprise business accounts of the Trump Organization. The checks that were written to Michael Cohen did not come from the Trump Organization , and the only connection is that President Trump was using the accounting division of the company he founded and owned to manage his personal accounts.
Look at New York State Penal Law § 175.10:
A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when he commits the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree, and when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.
As you see, additional conditions need to be met for a first degree charge, and an official New York Courts website offers those alternatives:
You will notice that Alvin Bragg accused Trump of the first alternative, stating that Trump “made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise….” (Refer back to indictment language.)makes or causes a false entry in the business records of an enterprise; or
alters, erases, obliterates, deletes, removes or destroys a true entry in the business records of an enterprise; or
omits to make a true entry in the business records of an enterprise in violation of a duty to do so which he or she knows to be imposed upon him or her by law or by the nature of his or her position; or
prevents the making of a true entry or causes the omission thereof in the business records of an enterprise.
The law then defines enterprise to mean:
‘Enterprise’ means any entity of one or more persons, corporate or otherwise, public or private, engaged in business, commercial, professional, industrial, eleemosynary, social, political or governmental activity.
Now certainly the Trump Organization would qualify as an enterprise, but the private checking account and the trust fund account of Donald J. Trump, the private citizen, are not accounts of an enterprise. The definition is stated clearly in the law. Neither of the Trump private accounts are used to conduct business, but instead they are used to pay the bills and financial obligations of the private citizen, Donald J. Trump.
Bookmark.
Seems like a brilliant and clear analysis to me, thanks for the post.
This whole deal has looked to be phoney for some time. Now when will Mr. Trump be getting the apologies (and possibly more) that is apparently due him?
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