On Thursday, the prosecution’s third witness, financial executive Gary Fallo, testified again. new york Criminal case Filed against Donald Trump.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an alleged cover-up. Payment of so-called “hush money” Porn actress Stormy Daniels has been ordered to keep quiet about allegations of extramarital affairs.
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, claimed he paid Daniels $130,000 at Trump’s request. Mr. Faro, Mr. Cohen’s former banker, returned to the stand for a second day of testimony Tuesday and detailed how Mr. Cohen formed a new LLC to complete the deal.
Faro explained last week that in 2016, Cohen urgently asked First Republic Bank to form a new LLC, Resolution Consultants, for “capital real estate.” Faro said Cohen never made any deposits after opening the account. Instead, two weeks later, Mr. Cohen withdrew the plan and said he no longer wanted to open the account, Mr. Faro said. Faro testified that Mr. Cohen requested the formation of another LLC, Essential Consultants, for the same purpose.
Faro told the court that Cohen obtained a home equity line of credit the same day he opened the account. On October 27, Mr. Cohen completed a wire transfer of $130,000 from Essential Consultants to the trust account of attorney Keith Davidson, Faro continued. At the time, Daniels was one of Davidson’s clients.
“This is an account held by a lawyer on behalf of one of his clients,” Faro explained. He claimed that Mr. Cohen told him that the payment was a “retainage” on the real estate transaction.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, clarified to Mr. Faro that the account documents do not indicate that Mr. Cohen is “acting on behalf of” anyone else.
“We need to know who he was acting on behalf of,” Faro said. “We’ll need to make sure he’s not collaborating with any persons of interest.”
“if [the] The client told me that it would never open because it was a shell company. Frankly, that would give me pause,” Faro added.
Prosecutors called attorney Keith Davidson to the stand. Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougall were previously clients of Davidson.
Davidson claimed that he negotiated with the National Enquirer and ABC News on McDougall’s behalf to sell her stories for top dollar.
“At the time, as is often the case in negotiations, I was trying to pit two organizations against each other,” he testified.
Ms Davidson claimed Ms McDougall “didn’t want to tell her story”. Rather, she testified, she wanted to “rejuvenate her career, make money, and by telling this story she wanted to avoid being called a scarlet letter.”
Former National Enquirer Editor-in-Chief Dylan Howard asked Davidson on July 23, 2016, “Please tell me the price of McDougall.”chic). Full participation. “He probably participated in consulting work as a fitness expert,” according to evidence filed in court.
Mr. Davidson testified that Mr. Trump’s name was not on the contract with the National Enquirer, but argued that Mr. Trump would benefit from purchasing Mr. McDougall’s articles. Mr. Davidson received 45% of the $150,000 deal.
He told the court there were two possible reasons why the tabloid bought the story without any plans to publish it.
“I think one of the explanations given was that they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn’t want to diminish her reputation. And the second one was that they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn’t want to diminish her reputation. There was a tacit understanding that there was a close relationship between Karen and Donald Trump.’ Mr. Davidson testified.
He noted that before the “Access Hollywood” tape was made, there was little interest in Daniels’ story.
“As far as I can tell, it had a lot of influence,” Davidson told jurors. He further claimed that “no one wanted to talk to Cohen” to reach a deal on the matter. Davidson called Cohen “not fun and not constructive.”
Cohen said he took AMI’s position because the tabloid’s parent company, American Media, decided it did not want to buy Daniels’ articles.
Mr. Davidson testified that the transaction was created using a false name to conceal the identity of the parties involved. He claimed that “Peggy Peterson” was used for Daniels and “David Dennison” was used for Trump.
According to the agreement, Mr. Cohen was supposed to transfer $130,000 to Mr. Davidson by October 14, 2016, but Mr. Davidson did not receive the funds by the deadline, he said. Cohen is said to have cited a number of reasons for the delay.
“Damn, what do you expect from me? My boyfriend is in five different states today,” Cohen reportedly wrote to Davidson.
Mr. Davidson testified that Mr. Cohen ultimately decided to send the funds himself. He said he did not know, although there was some speculation about how the acquisition would be financed.
gag order judgment
DA Bragg filed a contempt motion protested against the former president, claiming his comments about individuals involved in a New York criminal case violated Marchand’s gag order.
Trump is accused of violating the judge’s order about a dozen times, including in 10 social media posts published on Truth Social. President Trump referred to “two scumbags” in one of his posts, which prosecutors say refers to Cohen and Daniels, who are expected to testify against Trump. He claimed that
Bragg urged Marchand to remind Trump that repeated violations of the order could result in prison time.
Before witnesses continued their testimony Tuesday morning. Mr Machan handed down judgment on the alleged offence., found Trump flouting his orders. Marchan said Trump violated the gag order nine times. As part of the judge’s ruling, Trump must pay $1,000 for each violation. He was also ordered to remove “offensive posts” from social media and two “offensive posts” from his campaign website. The post will be removed and the fine must be paid by close of business on Friday.
The judge’s order states: “The defendant is therefore hereby cautioned that the court will not tolerate continued willful violation of a legal order and will impose a term of imprisonment if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances.” ” was written.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the former president’s comments about Cohen and Daniels were in response to repeated public attacks by the two witnesses. His team noted that neither Mr. Cohen nor Mr. Daniels are restricted from making disparaging comments about Mr. Trump, the case against him, or his political activities.
Trump’s lawyers told a judge last week that “President Trump is entitled to respond to political attacks.”
“Allowing such an attack on a protected witness with the blanket claim that it is all in response to a ‘political attack’ would be an exception that swallows the rule. The expanded order does not include such an exception. “It does not include,” Marchand responded.
As of Tuesday afternoon, President Trump had already deleted the social media posts.
According to prosecutors, four additional statements made by President Trump since last week’s hearing are also suspected of violating the gag order. Marchan will hold another hearing later this week to consider those comments.
The trial will resume Thursday with a gag order hearing, where Davidson is expected to continue testifying.
anything else?
On Tuesday, Trump was also joined in court by his son Eric Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I will join President Trump in New York to watch this sham trial. This trial is a travesty of justice. I support Trump,” Paxton wrote. X.
Prosecutors said that if Trump were to testify, they would like to use his violation of the gag order during cross-examination to reveal “the defendant’s attempts to dissuade witnesses, including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.” Stated.
President Trump reacts to gag order violation ruling society of truth“This judge has stripped me of my constitutional right to free speech. I am the only presidential candidate in history to have been gagged. This entire ‘trial’ has been rigged and my By taking away freedom of speech, this highly contradictory judge is fraudulently interfering with the 2024 presidential election!!!”
In addition to sentencing for violating the gag order, Marchan also granted Trump permission to attend his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation.
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