Trump's False Statements Regarding His Trial

Former president Donald Trump is now on trial in a Manhattan courtroom, where facts are paramount, and a jury will assess the evidence and render a verdict. But as he enters and leaves that courtroom, Trump often stops before the cameras and blasts falsehoods to the court of public opinion, which can apply a different standard to Trump when it comes to facts. Here’s a quick assessment of several claims he made after the conclusion of the first day of testimony in his hush money trial, in the order in which he made them.

“This is a case where you pay a lawyer, he’s a lawyer, and they call it a legal expense. That’s the exact term they use, legal expenses, in the books. And another thing that wasn’t even said was, we never even deducted it as a tax deduction.”

Legal fees are often tax deductible. The fact that the Trump Organization did not take a tax deduction for the hush money payments is a possible red flag that these payments were handled improperly. Trump generally has taken as many tax deductions as possible. For instance, the Donald J. Trump Foundation — which Trump shut down after allegations he used it for his personal and political benefit — recorded a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts. That matched the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.

Michael “Cohen is a lawyer, represented a lot of people over the years. I’m not the only one, and he wasn’t very good in a lot of ways in terms of misrepresentation.”

Trump now knocks his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who is expected to testify that he arranged the hush money payments at Trump’s behest, as not “very good.” That raises the question of why Cohen ended up working for Trump for 12 years, including 10 as vice president of the Trump Organization and then as Trump’s personal attorney after Trump was elected president.

“He [Cohen] got in trouble for things that had nothing to do with me.”

This is false. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including two — “causing an unlawful corporate contribution” and “making an excessive campaign contribution” — that directly relate to the hush money case now being litigated in Manhattan criminal court. The charges laid out how “Individual-1” (Trump) began a presidential campaign in 2016 and how Cohen worked with the National Enquirer to squelch potentially damaging stories about alleged affairs with adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. His payoffs were reimbursed by the Trump Organization.

“Cohen caused and made the payments described herein in order to influence the 2016 presidential election,” the Justice Department said in a 2018 news release. “In so doing, he coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. As a result of the payments solicited and made by Cohen, neither Woman-1 nor Woman-2 spoke to the press prior to the election.”

Notably, this case was prosecuted when Trump was president. Geoffrey Berman, at the time the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, revealed in 2022 that senior DOJ officials tried to remove all references to Trump. In the end, a compromise was made to water down the language, specifically to remove references to the idea that Trump acted “in concert with” and “coordinated with” Cohen to make illegal campaign contributions.

“The other thing is: If this were such a great case, why didn’t the Southern District [of New York] bring it, who looked at it and turned it down?”

In his memoir, “Holding the Line,” Berman says the case ended under pressure from Attorney General William P. Barr. The office, with Cohen’s cooperation in hand, began to investigate whether others should be charged in the hush money case. After Barr became attorney general in 2019, he ordered a review of the Cohen case, suggesting that the campaign finance charges be reversed — even though Cohen had pleaded guilty six months before. Specifically, he asked the Office of Legal Counsel to review whether there was a legal basis for the campaign finance changes. That froze any further investigation: “Not a single investigative step could be taken, not a single document in our possession could be reviewed until the issue was resolved,” Berman wrote, saying Barr’s intervention so long after a guilty plea was “highly unusual, if not unprecedented.” Barr eventually was convinced not to seek dismissal of the Cohen charges. But no additional charges were brought.

“Very importantly, why didn’t the Federal Elections [Commission] do anything? Federal Elections took a total pass on it. They said essentially nothing was done wrong or they would have done something about it. They’re tough. … Actually, if you read their letter, they couldn’t even believe it. They were incredulous.”

This is false. The Federal Election Commission staff, in a December 2020 report by the general counsel, said it had found “reason to believe” violations of campaign finance law were made “knowingly and willfully” by the Trump campaign. The report said that Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels was far in excess of the legal limit for individual contributions of $2,700. “The available information indicates that Michael Cohen paid Stephanie Clifford [Daniels’s real name] $130,000 at the direction of 2016 presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, with Trump’s express promise of repayment, for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election,” the report said.

@phranny said
Former president Donald Trump is now on trial in a Manhattan courtroom, where facts are paramount, and a jury will assess the evidence and render a verdict. But as he enters and leaves that courtroom, Trump often stops before the cameras and blasts falsehoods to the court of public opinion, which can apply a different standard to Trump when it comes to facts. Here’s a quick a ...[text shortened]... ’s express promise of repayment, for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election,” the report said.

@suzianne said
Well done.

as a Trump supporter, if he has any downfall, it will be these Comments each day. I expect his lawyers are telling him to be very careful what he says. It is good that he gets out there so America will see this human being, being chased into hell like the pitiful character in the movie elephant man. He turned to the crowd and said I am a human being.
One of you actually made personal comments about how he tries to make the best appearance that he can, be at his hairdo or his fingernails. His life is on the line. He, like many of you with your hair bun, wake up every morning and make yourselves look as good as you can.
I have never known why y’all hate him so much. So much to the extent that you would have an imbecile senile 82-year-old man preside over this greatest country in the world. You always say the wall was a bad idea, it would have caused $20 billion. Peanuts. Do y’all have any idea how much we have spent on the immigrants and how much more, much much more, will be spent on the immigrants. They have taken lives of our citizens, and the list goes on.

@AverageJoe1
Er, the ROSENBERGS lives were on the line and they lost. Trump will only get an ankle bracelet max so he is not fighting for his life he is fighting for his EGO.
Anything Trump does is fine with you and you will jump up and cheer when he, well IF he gets reelected and does destroy our democracy, pronouncing himself king Emperor Maximus. When that happens what job will you seek in the former democracy of the US? Vie for 'cabinet', after you swear absolute loyalty to T?
Funny how you are fukking INCAPABLE of seeing what Biden has already done for the US, like the infrastructure bill which you poo poo, meaningless BS according to you or bringing down the cost of insulin to 35 bucks from former 450 bucks. Or the Chips bill where billions will be spent rebuilding our chip manufacturing here in the US, reversing the decades of shipping those jobs to China and Taiwan and Japan.
Of course since Biden got those bills passed, the HAVE to be bad BECAUSE Biden go those bills passed.
And OF COURSE you fully agree politicians are the proper people to pronounce what medical care women get, since they OBVIOUSLY know a thousand times better than ANY cursed doctor.
The Hobbs decision is only the start of US citizens losing more rights we used to have, the Christian nationalists are making sure of that but don't worry, the loss of former freedoms will mainly only effect brown and black and yellow skin folks here in the US, which will be FINE with you.

@Phranny

Trump is a pathological liar. It is hardly surprising that he lies about his trials, too. The prosecution will have a field day if he takes the stand.

@moonbus said
@Phranny

Trump is a pathological liar. It is hardly surprising that he lies about his trials, too. The prosecution will have a field day if he takes the stand.

@moonbus said
@Phranny

Trump is a pathological liar. It is hardly surprising that he lies about his trials, too. The prosecution will have a field day if he takes the stand.

@averagejoe1 said
I expect his lawyers are telling him to be very careful what he says.

@suzianne said
Well done.

@averagejoe1 said
as a Trump supporter, if he has any downfall, it will be these Comments each day. I expect his lawyers are telling him to be very careful what he says. It is good that he gets out there so America will see this human being, being chased into hell like the pitiful character in the movie elephant man. He turned to the crowd and said I am a human being.
One of you actu ...[text shortened]... more, will be spent on the immigrants. They have taken lives of our citizens, and the list goes on.

@wajoma said
What's well done? Copy/pasting someone else's work without attribution?

'Ctrl C', 'Ctrl V' and suziman and yeah boy are creaming their panties. Without attributing the copy/write source one is falsely passing off the work as their own.

The dishonesty of left whingers keeps piling up. Suziman the 'thing' (a safe gender neutral, race neutral descriptor) that has done 30 ...[text shortened]... does in fact intentionally mis-gender other posters. making suziman he/him/her/it -self a HYPOCRITE.

@yeah-boy said
How do you know that Phranny didn't write it? He does write quite eloquently. He usually give a bibliography.

@phranny said
Former president Donald Trump is now on trial in a Manhattan courtroom, where facts are paramount, and a jury will assess the evidence and render a verdict. But as he enters and leaves that courtroom, Trump often stops before the cameras and blasts falsehoods to the court of public opinion, which can apply a different standard to Trump when it comes to facts. Here’s a quick a ...[text shortened]... ’s express promise of repayment, for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election,” the report said.

@phranny said
Why we hate him? He has been taped proudly saying he loves grabbing women by the pussy. He has been convicted of rape. He once said, also taped, that if his daughter were not his daughter, he's like to have sex with her. And then there is the fake charity, the workers he refused to pay. He stole classified documents that belong to our government, not Trump. The list is so lo ...[text shortened]... ur allies respect him while they laughed at Trump, and he is trying to deal with a climate disaster.