An extremely damning piece of evidence was submitted to the jury in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial last week, but it was missed by the media amid a swell of dramatic courtroom moments, Michael Cohen's former attorney Lanny Davis argued Monday.
Davis, in an editorial for RealClear Politics, argued reporters covering the Manhattan criminal court trial missed a crucial moment Thursday as Trump's attorney Todd Blanche shouted "You lied!" at the former fixer.
"It was a moment that received breathless attention from the media," wrote Davis — referring to the moment when Cohen misremembered the exact substance of a call he made to Trump's bodyguard eight years ago.
"Missed in the hype by talking heads on cables of this dramatic 'Perry Mason moment' was the fact that the Trump lawyer’s melodramatic shout was not evidence to be considered by the jury. Just a lawyer shouting. Also missed was reporting on the most crucial document in the entire trial – the Weisselberg Document, which has been introduced into evidence and will be studied by the jury."
That document, argued Davis, provides clear evidence of Trump's guilt that doesn't require voters to believe Cohen is trustworthy.
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"In Allen Weisselberg’s own handwriting, a memo shows that a total of $210,000 was to be reimbursed to Michael Cohen for money owed to him by Donald Trump, including the $130,000 in hush money Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf because he was worried her revelations would harm his campaign," wrote Davis. "That total $210,000 was then doubled by Weisselberg on the document, equaling $420,000 ... then Weisselberg, a former executive in the Trump Organization, does the elementary school math to arrive at Trump’s monthly installment payments over a year to repay Cohen – $420,000/12 equals $35,000 per month, the amount of the checks almost all of which Trump wrote to Cohen each month in 2017 while a sitting president from his personal checking account."
Given the simple math of these payments, argued Davis, "There is no other reasonable conclusion, I respectfully suggest, the jury can draw other than that these were reimbursement payments by Trump, not legal fees; and therefore, he lied when he repeatedly publicly stated, as recently as last week, that they were legal fees, not reimbursements."
Ironically, the phone call that Trump supporters were treating as a large moment discrediting Cohen now appears instead to bolster him, as the prosecution — over the attempts of the defense to stop it — produced photographic evidence partially backing up Cohen's account that Trump was present around when the call happened.
