Each story Trump tried to have buried amounts to unlawful campaign contribution, prosecutor argues
Hugo Lowell
Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Josh Steinglass argues each of the three stories that Donald Trump tried to have buried were actually unlawful contributions to the Trump campaign.
“It was an illegal corporate campaign contribution,” Steinglass says of the first story proffered by the doorman Gino Sajudin about Trump having an illegitimate child. “And it was done in collusion with the campaign.”
“Election day was still 10 months away, but Sajudin had been neutralized for the remainder of the campaign,” Steinglass argued.
Key events
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is emphasizing the campaign-contribution element of the underlying crime in the falsification charge.
He talks about American Media Inc’s (AMI) $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal, who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump.
David Pecker testified that AMI, the National Enquirer’s parent company, paid her – knowing full well it would never be published.
“Pecker was willing to sacrifice AMI’s bottom line in service to Trump’s campaign,” Steinglass said.
This deal was the very antithesis of the normal, legitimate press function.
Steinglass said:
AMI purchased the life rights for, and at the request of, the defendant.
It’s very hard to read jurors but from my limited vantage point, the descriptor that comes to mind is “low energy”.
They seem to be paying attention, but I don’t know whether anything titillating – this is a case about an adult film actor at the heart of an election interference scandal, after all – has that same effect after five weeks of lawyers droning on.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass turns to the defense’s contention that Karen McDougal wanted to keep quiet.
McDougal’s intentions are totally irrelevant, Steinglass says. The question is, what is the defendant’s motivation? Steinglass said:
Their motivation was to serve the campaign, which makes this a catch-and-kill.
Each story Trump tried to have buried amounts to unlawful campaign contribution, prosecutor argues
Hugo Lowell
Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Josh Steinglass argues each of the three stories that Donald Trump tried to have buried were actually unlawful contributions to the Trump campaign.
“It was an illegal corporate campaign contribution,” Steinglass says of the first story proffered by the doorman Gino Sajudin about Trump having an illegitimate child. “And it was done in collusion with the campaign.”
“Election day was still 10 months away, but Sajudin had been neutralized for the remainder of the campaign,” Steinglass argued.
Hugo Lowell
The Manhattan district attorney has to prove that Donald Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit a second crime.
Prosecutor Josh Steinglass suggests to the jury that the unlawful means Trump allegedly used to influence the 2016 election was when money started to change hands for the benefit of the campaign.
“Contracts are not illegal,” Steinglass conceded, but they can be if there’s a contract to say, kill your wife.
Likewise, Steinglass says, non-disclosure agreements can be illegal – “including when they constitute unlawful campaign contributions”.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass tried to address the question “Who cares if Mr Trump slept with a porn star 10 years before the presidential election?”
He said that the plot to cover up bad stories by Michael Cohen, David Pecker and Donald Trump wasn’t about the porn star, but about taking away Americans’ rights to have that information and, thus, choose whether they cared.
The value of this corrupt bargain … it turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions to the Trump campaign.
He added:
This scheme cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got Donald Trump elected.
‘This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump,’ says prosecutor
“It’s obvious they want to make this case about Michael Cohen – it isn’t. That’s a deflection,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.
The defense had Michael Cohen on the stand for three days and asked maybe an hour … This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump and whether he should be held accountable for making false entries in his own business records. Michael Cohen’s significance in this case is that he provides color and context to documents. He’s like a tour guide.
Of the summer 2015 meeting with Donald Trump, David Pecker and Cohen, Steinglass said:
Three rich and powerful men, high up in Trump Tower, tried to become even more powerful by controlling the information that reached voters.
Hugo Lowell
Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Josh Steinglass suggests the jury doesn’t have to credit the defense accusation that Cohen lied about his 20 October 2016 call to Keith Schiller, Trump’s bodyguard.
Trump’s lawyers claimed Cohen must have only spoken about being prank-called by a 14-year-old.
Cohen could have spoken to Schiller both about the prank calls and also to apprise Trump about the hush money, the prosecutor says.
Steinglass simulated how the call might have gone, putting his hand to his ear as if it was a phone, and showed he could talk about both in under 49 seconds – roughly the length of call, according to phone records.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says Michael Cohen “was really more of the defendant’s fixer than his lawyer”.
He didn’t answer to the general counsel – he answered to the defendant directly … the guy with the boots on the ground who could bully people, threaten them with lawsuits, all at the defendant’s direction.
Cohen was in place for Trump to provide “plausible deniability”, though, Steinglass said, in the prosecutors’ case Cohen provides “implausible deniability”.
Steinglass notes that the prosecution didn’t go out of its way to get Cohen on the stand. “We didn’t pick him up at the witness store.”
“It’s difficult to find a case with more corroboration than this one,” Steinglass said. “You don’t need to waste any time thinking about this one.”
Hugo Lowell
Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Josh Steinglass is trying to show the jury that some of the defense’s attempts to undercut Cohen are inconsistent.
The defense claimed that Cohen lied to Congress – but that’s kind of rich, Steinglass says, since Cohen lied to Congress at Trump’s behest, and Cohen got no benefit apart from staying in Trump’s good graces.
The defense also claimed that Cohen stole $60,000 from the Trump Organization, when he billed Trump for $50,000 in order to reimburse a $20,000 cost to an IT company because the $30,000 delta was doubled up in the repayment scheme.
Steinglass says Trump’s lawyers can’t have it both ways – either Cohen is a thief, or he was reimbursed. But they can’t have it both ways.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is also taking issue with the defense’s emphasis on Michael Cohen’s dishonesty with Congress.
Steinglass noted that Cohen lied in relation to the Mueller probe, about the number of times Trump had interacted with Russia.
They’re complaining, Steinglass said, about Cohen lying to protect their client – Trump. Steinglass said:
That’s what some people might call chutzpah.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass continues to try addressing Michael Cohen’s credibility issues.
He effectively argues that Cohen has lost everything – he was behind bars, he can’t have his taxi medallions, he can’t get loans for real estate. Of course he’d be bitter about what happened.
“I’m not asking you to feel bad for Michael Cohen – he made his bed,” Steinglass said, but “you can hardly blame him for making money off the one thing he has left, which is his knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump phenomenon”.
Prosecutor says Michael Cohen ‘understandably angry’ after Trump ‘cut him loose like a hot potato’
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is trying hard to address the defense’s continuous attacks on Michael Cohen’s credibility.
He admits that Cohen is an interested witness – and says that jurors are free to take that into account but, he effectively argued, it makes sense that Cohen is.
“Michael Cohen is understandably angry …… to date, he’s the only one who’s paid the price. [Former American Media Inc publisher David] Pecker got a non-prosecution agreement. [Former National Enquirer editor Dylan] Howard is in Australia,” Steinglass said.
Cohen did the defendant’s bidding for years – his right-hand man, his consigliere … and when it went bad, the defendant cut him loose, like a hot potato, and tweeted out to the world that Cohen was a scumbag, a sleazebag, and all the while the election law violations to which Cohen pleaded guilty were done at the direction of the defendant!
‘Stormy Daniels is the motive’: prosecutor says Trump would not pay $130,000 because of ‘a photo on a golf course’
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says former American Media Inc CEO David Pecker’s testimony was “damning”.
Steinglass noted how Pecker had no incentive to lie and in fact considered Donald Trump a friend.
There were others, too, like Hope Hicks and ex-Trump Organization executive Jeffrey McConney, who liked Trump and didn’t have any reason to harm him.
They offer testimony that is damning that they have no motive to fabricate … These people like the defendant; if anything, they have an incentive to skew their testimony in a way that may help the defendant.
Turning to Stormy Daniels, Steinglass says:
That’s the display the defendant didn’t want the American voter to see. In simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the motive and you can bet Mr Trump would not pay $130,000 – twice that grossed up with taxes – just because he took a photo with someone on a golf course.
During the lunch break, Donald Trump’s children held a news conference outside the courthouse where they echoed comments by their father’s defense lawyers.
Donald Trump Jr described Michael Cohen as “the Goat [greatest of all time] of liars”, adding that his father’s former fixer has “quite literally lied to every single person and body he’s ever been in front of in his life before”.
He said the Biden campaign holding a news conference earlier this morning showed it was a “political persecution” , adding:
This is a sham. This is insane. It needs to stop.
Eric Trump, who has regularly attended his father’s trial, said the former president is the “toughest man I’ve ever seen” and “he endures this nonsense every single day.”
He added:
I want to say sorry to the jury that’s in there. This has been the greatest colossal waste of time.
Lara Trump, his wife and the Republican National Committee co-chair, said this was a case “about politics, pure and simple”.
