[GMThrust]

I haven’t been following the nitty gritty details, but how does lying about business records cover up a conspiracy in the election? Now I understand when they ask the question “what is the crime?”

[Political Junkie Too]

how does lying about business records cover up a conspiracy in the election?

There are several unresolved issues that prevent clearly answering that question:

1. It's just an assumption that "covering up a conspiracy in the election" is the underlying crime. Bragg has not stated the underlying crime in the charging document that allowed him to revive the expired records charges, and the judge has not cited any specific NY State code that President Trump is supposed to have been furthering by falsifying records. Without that, he can't put on a defense against the "furthered crime." Without a furthered crime, Trump's lawyers will ask the judge to dismiss the case because the remaining misdemeanor bookkeeping charges are past their statute of limitations.

2. Bragg is being purposefully vague about the crime in the hopes that people will make their own assumptions about what the crime is and find President Trump guilty of that. That's why he put on Stephanie Clifford, not to talk about any crime but to paint Trump as a "bad guy" who must be guilty of SOMETHING.

3. Booking the payments to Cohen as legal expenses is not a crime. Usually, lawyers are paid on retainer, that is, up-front money to "retain" the lawyer's services so that the lawyer is no longer available to take on any clients that might be a part of the case (i.e., conflict of interest). The lawyer then bills the client after services are rendered, and money from the retainer is then moved to personal or business accounts as earned income. If the retainer gets used up, the client can pay an additional retainer to keep the lawyer, or terminate the relationship.

   This means that at the time of paying the retainer, how that money is specifically used is unknown until the lawyer bills the client. Booking the retainer as "legal expense" is appropriate because it's an advance payment for future unspecified (but generally expected) services.

   Bragg wants people to believe that President Trump's payments were part of a plot to launder campaign funds as personal expenses to pay off Clifford (and Karen McDougal), but the Cohen tapes show that Cohen was the mastermind of the scheme and that Trump was unaware of the payments or the method of payment. What's suggested by the recording is that Trump paid retainers and was unaware of the specific billings by Cohen as he spent the retainers. Cohen made decisions on how he spent the retainer on his own initiative and there was no conspiracy by Trump and others to further any crimes.

-PJ