If Cohen mischaracterized a reimbursement as income on state or city tax forms, that would be a peculiar sort of fraud, since the effect would be to increase his tax liability. This theory of "another crime" requires jurors to accept the proposition that tax fraud can entail paying the government more than was actually owed.
Not if it was the lesser of two evils. Consider this hypothesis:
Did Trump's retainer payment to Cohen go into an IOLTA that most lawyers are required to maintain? An IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts) is essentially an escrow account where lawyers park client retainers until they bill the client for actual legal services rendered. They must itemize a bill that details every transfer of client money from the IOLTA to their personal accounts as earned income.
If Cohen paid Stephanie Clifford from his personal bank account and then illegally transferred money out of the IOLTA in cover the money, that is essentially embezzlement of client funds. If Cohen then billed the Trump organization for legal services to cover the withdrawal of the payment from his IOLTA, is that why Weisselberg doubled the payment to Cohen? Was Weisselberg aware of what Cohen did and basically give Cohen a documented income for his tax returns to cover his withdrawal from the IOLTA and also replenish the retainer?
Did Cohen agree to do this because the alternative was admitting to embezzlement of client funds, similar to what Michael Avenatti was convicted of?
-PJ
It would be nice if Cohen could do a little time with Avenatti. Maybe he could run as Avenatti's VP.