It proves Cohen lied. But, what is the significance of the lie as relates to the elements of the alleged crime. Even if it was true that Cohen told Trump he made the hush payment, that was the purpose of an NDA - to make a payment. It is not a crime. This is about how the payment was allegedly falsifying the books to cover up another alleged crime. Little has been introduced into evidence by the prosecution as to the bookkeeping or what specifically the other crime was that he covered up.
I don’t know all the evidence, but the book keeper for Trump said they entered things as “legal fees” because they had to choose a pre-populated field. Cohen filed his invoices as “legal services” with, from what I can tell, little detail about what the services were. So the bookkeeper enters them as “legal services”.
The problem for the prosecution is they are trying to prove Trump knew the exact details. But they can’t seem to get there. Cohen paid for it out of his own Home Equity loan. He is “the fixer”. He then billed it as legal expenses. He claims he called Trump to tell him, but the phone records don’t back up that claim. Lots of problems here.
What the jury and judge will do we shall see. I hear the defense will call a former Federal Elections Committee chair to say “ain’t no crime in paying hush money” which should kill the case IF Bragg is attempting to tie the payment to election interference. That’s the 2nd misdemeanor which he is trying to turn the bookkeping error into a felony. Without that second misdemeanor, the statutes of limitations is up on the bookkeeping crime and the case should be flushed by the judge... if not, the jury.
Little has been introduced into evidence by the prosecution as to the bookkeeping or what specifically the other crime was that he covered up.>>> I believe the bookkeeping entry was that the checks were scanned into the company’s system. which would be a normal process so that if there are legitimate business expensed by Trump personally they could be handled by the accountants. This would be just good practice and even scanning to collect digitized records is a good thing. I think that is the only connection to business records. not sure how the actual accounting was handled but to entries could very well have gone to a non business account. Big business scan everything that comes in.