Two attorneys quickly rebutted on Monday CNN host Jake Tapper’s theory about evidence implicating former President Donald Trump’s involvement in an alleged scheme to subvert the 2016 election.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified that he and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg met with the former president in January 2017, where Trump approved payments to him amounting to $420,000 over 12 months.
The cost of the reimbursement being higher than that of the payment at the heart of trial suggests the former president had awareness of the circumstances, Tapper alleged, but former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig shot down the theory by saying there is no evidence to support it.
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“If Donald Trump had just written him a check for $150,000, right? $130,000 for Stormy Daniels, $20,000 for RedFinch. So let’s just say even like $50,000 because he doesn’t know Michael Cohen’s fleecing from him. So writes a check for $180,000 as a repayment. Michael Cohen wouldn’t have had to pay taxes on it. It would have been less money, right? Doesn’t that make the argument that Donald Trump knew, because why on earth would he spend so much more money?” Tapper asked.
“Doesn’t that make it more credible? Because forget Donald Trump being thrifty, nobody wants to spend $420,000 if you only need to spend $180,000, right?” Tapper continued. “So doesn’t that buttress the argument that Donald Trump was in on the scheme because otherwise, why would he spend so much more? Oh, it’s to hide it … I’m just making an argument. I‘m not saying I believe it, but as an argument.”
Cohen admitted during Monday testimony that he stole from the Trump Organization when under cross examination by defense attorney Todd Blanche.
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“I would say I would look at it the other way where Michael Cohen is the one who’s advising him as his attorney and saying, ‘hey, sir, you don’t have a law license. I do. This is how we have to do it,’ and he could very simply just put it in as expense reimbursement. Donald Trump would’ve paid $150,000. He could have saved $270,000,” Parltore responded. “The fact that he paid that much more based on this ruse of the increased invoice, based on the ruse that he was going to report on his taxes. That actually shows to me that Michael Cohen is misleading Trump as to what’s really going on here.”
Tapper then brought up how Cohen made the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels using Essential Consultants LLC and asked whether there is evidence Trump is aware of this.
“I don’t think he informed Donald Trump he had to open this Essential Consultants LLC in order to make the original payment by Stormy,” Honig said. “I don’t think that there’s any evidence Trump knew that.”
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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