Trump’s former lawyer admits to embezzling $30,000 from Trump Organization in 2017.
Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s New York ‘hush money’ trial may have colluded with the Biden administration, but apparently none of the galaxy brains involved in the case thought far enough to consider that their star witness, Michael Cohen, might cause their ‘case’ to implode.
To wit: last week, Cohen was ‘dog walked‘ through several lies he’s told over the past few years.
Today: Cohen admitted he stole from the Trump Organization.
During cross-examination, Cohen admitted that he lied to former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in 2017 about how much he needed to be reimbursed for a payment to RedFinch, a tech company that provided services to the Trump Org.
While he asked for $50,000, Cohen only paid the company $20,000 – pocketing the difference.
“You stole from the Trump Organization, correct?” defense attorney Todd Blanche asked.
“Yes sir,” Cohen replied.
This just got interesting: Michael Cohen is now admitting to stealing money from our company.
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) May 20, 2024
When Blanche then asked if he ever repaid the Trump Organization, or “Did you ever have to plead guilty to larceny?” Cohen replied, “No sir.”
Nonetheless, Cohen asked for the 50K reimbursement from the Trump Organization.
So you stole? Yes, Cohen admits.
And you’ve never paid the Trump Organization back for the money you stole from it? No.
You lied to Weisselberg about the amount owed to you for Redfinch? Yes
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) May 20, 2024
Cohen had asked for the $50,000 reimbursement alongside the $130,000 he paid personally to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election for a nondisclosure agreement.
The former attorney then said he went to the bank and took out cash over several days, totaling about $20,000 before keeping it in a small brown paper bag. Then he gave it to the tech firm, he testified, adding he never gave the full $50,000 amount.
The Trump Organization ultimately repaid Mr. Cohen $50,000 and then doubled that payment in a practice known as “grossing up” to cover taxes he’d incur by declaring the money as income rather than a tax-free reimbursement.
Mr. Blanche noted that despite Mr. Cohen’s guilty pleas in 2018 to federal charges including a campaign finance violation for the hush money payment and unrelated tax evasion and bank fraud crimes, he’d never been charged with stealing from President Trump’s company. –Epoch Times
They really aren’t sending their best…
He’s not only a liar but a thief https://t.co/omudhKMfuY
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) May 20, 2024