Search
Items tagged with: StormyDaniels
Joshua Steinglass asks #KeithDavidson if he knows 2 key witnesses: #DavidPecker, who the jurors already have heard from, & #MichaelCohen, who they’ve heard a lot about. Steinglass is tying Davidson into the case, helping the courtroom understand where he’s situated. Davidson just said that he represented #StormyDaniels as her lawyer — Daniels, whose name has been dangled in front of jurors several times, is of course another key player & potential witness.
#Trump #TrumpTrial #law #criminal
Prosecutors call #KeithDavidson, who negotiated 2 deals before the 2016 election that paid women from Trump’s past in exchange for their silence about sexual or romantic relationships w/him. He was a lawyer to #StormyDaniels during the #HushMoney transaction. He also represented #KarenMcDougal, a former Playboy model who was paid $150k by The #NationalEnquirer’s parent company for the rights to her story about a 10-month affair w/ #Trump starting in 2006.
#Gary Farro is reportedly a bit irritated w/ #Blanche, #Trump's lawyer. Blanche suggests that Farro opened up a shell corporation, & Farro bites back: “I don’t open up shell corporations. I open up LLC accounts.” Blanche is directing jurors' focus to what #MichaelCohen did -- that is, effectively start a shell corporation that was used to pay #StormyDaniels. It’s a way to attack Cohen through Farro, making the former fixer sound deceptive & potentially criminal.
Mangold, one of the prosecutors, walked the banker Gary Farro through a wire transfer that occurred immediately after Essential Consultants LLC was created. The documents displayed show that on Oct. 27, 2016, #MichaelCohen & the LLC wired $130k to Keith Davidson, #StormyDaniels’ lawyer at the time. Cohen wrote that the purpose of the wire transfer was for a “retainer.”
#Trump #TrumpTrial #law
#GaryFarro is testifying about LLCs & know-your-client forms. The prosecutor questioning him has asked him to spell out what LLCs are. Know-your-client forms are used by banks to verify who a client is.
“Everything was urgent w/ #MichaelCohen,” Gary Farro testifies about Cohen’s interest in opening his acct quickly. Cohen used the account to make the hush-money payment to #StormyDaniels.
He says Cohen did not make it clear that it would be used to pay a porn star.
#Trump #TrumpTrial #law
Justice #Merchan explicitly called #Trump’s claim that reposts don’t count as violations of the #GagOrder “counterintuitive and absurd.”
Justice Merchan rejected the defense’s claims that Trump had merely reposted the messages from others and that he had largely been acting in response to political attacks from two potential witnesses in the case: #MichaelCohen & #StormyDaniels.
#Colangelo depicted #MichaelCohen as a flawed man who has lied before, saying he lied about the payment to #StormyDaniels initially "to protect his boss."
"This case is about a #criminal #conspiracy & a #coverup," Colangelo says, st the start of his conclusion of his opening statement, adding that at the end of the case, jurors will have no #ReasonableDoubt about #Trump's #guilt.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
Finished w/describing the series of payoffs, #Colangelo details the part the #criminal charges stem from. He is describing the paperwork arrangement to reimburse #MichaelCohen for the #HushMoney payment he made to #StormyDaniels, & how #Trump & #AllenWeisselberg, sought to “disguise” the repayment.
There were chuckles in the courtroom as Colangelo says Trump was a "very frugal businessman" who watched all the spending at his empire.
"Another story about sexual infidelity, especially w/ a porn star, on the heels of the '#AccessHollywood' tape, could have been devastating to his campaign," #Colangelo says of the #StormyDaniels story. He says that "w/pressure mounting & Election Day fast approaching, Donald #Trump agreed to the #payoff & directed #Cohen to proceed."
Colangelo says Trump told Cohen to drag out paying Daniels, in the hopes of getting past the #election & then not paying her at all.
#Colangelo says that jurors will hear #Trump, in his own voice, urging the money be repaid in cash. This doesn't connect Trump to the actual #crime, which only relates to a payment to #StormyDaniels. But it suggests a pattern of behavior.
Colangelo is now describing the emergence of the "#AccessHollywood" tape on Oct 7, 2016, beginning w/ email outreach to Trump spox #HopeHicks. Colangelo reads aloud the worst of Trump’s language, bragging about grabbing women's genitals.
#TrumpTrial has begun
#Trump’s #criminal trial for falsifying business records during the 2016 presidential campaign to hide an extramarital affair that occurred while his 4th(?) wife was pregnant from his majority #evangelical #Christian #electorate; to that end he arranged an illegal & financially fraudulent #HushMoney pay-off to the adult-film actress #StormyDaniels.
Once the prosecutor & Trump’s #legal team have outlined their cases to the jury, the 1st witnesses will be called.
#law