An attorney has outlined “the simplest argument” prosecutors could use in Donald Trump’s hush-money case.
Speaking on the Legal AF podcast, Ben Meiselas, MeidasTouch founder and lawyer said that Trump would not have paid his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen if he was acting against the former president’s wishes.
Trump’s high-profile trial will determine whether he falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret before the 2016 election, as claimed in a criminal indictment.
Prosecutors led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege the payments were part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about the Republican from becoming public. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for the 2024 election, has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges against him in the case.
Photo by Jeenah Moon-Pool/Getty Images
The trial’s third week has concluded, and while Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty in 2018 to charges related to hush-money payments made to Daniels before the 2016 election, has not yet testified, the Trump critic is expected to take the stand before the trial ends.
Meiselas said: “And I think this is the simplest argument to make to the jury too, if Michael Cohen went rogue and did things that he wasn’t supposed to do at all, that weren’t in a retainer, that Cohen went rogue, assume that’s the argument, then why did Donald Trump pay him? And then why would Donald Trump pay him extra?”
“‘You are so rogue, you are acting so out of authority that I’m giving you a bonus, I am going to give you triple the money because you are a rogue awful person.’ That’s the most obvious explanation.”
Meiselas: If Michael Cohen went rogue and did things that he wasn’t supposed to do at all, then why did Donald Trump pay him?
And then why would Donald Trump pay him extra? pic.twitter.com/mfiLjJe8iP
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 5, 2024
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.
On Friday, Hope Hicks, who served as a senior White House adviser during the Trump administration, testified about her recollections over accusations that Trump attempted to cover up alleged affairs with Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal prior to the 2016 election.
She described how Trump’s team was “concerned” about how the infamous Access Hollywood tape would damage his 2016 election chances.
Trump was recorded boasting that he can grab women “by the p****” while being interviewed for Access Hollywood in 2005. Trump later dismissed the comments at the time as “locker room talk.”
“I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by what’s happening on the campaign,” Hicks testified. “He wanted them to be proud of him.” She also said that the allegations from McDougal and Daniels were “absolutely” very personal to Trump.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for nine violations of a gag order that he imposed on the former president to stop him talking about witnesses and jurors in the trial.
The trial is expected to last for six weeks.
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