#trumptrial — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #trumptrial, aggregated by home.social.
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My favorite bit → At the presentence interview, a #psychologist or #SocialWorker working for the #probation dept may also talk to #Trump, during which time the defendant can “try to make a good impression & explain why he or she deserves a lighter punishment,” acc/to the New York State Unified Court System.
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Prosecutors believe the readback should include the part of Pecker’s #testimony about directing #DylanHoward to notify other employees of The #NationalEnquirer they should bring any stories about #Trump to him. #Pecker also testified that he told Howard that the Enquirer employees would have to speak to #MichaelCohen about the arrangement.
Justice Merchan notes that in the same section Pecker testified he told Howard to keep it secret — goes to #intent to #defraud.
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First request from #jurors:
Judge #Merchan says jury has a note w/ 4 requests. They just rang the courtroom.
3 of the requests relate to testimony from David #Pecker, the former publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, who prosecutors say was part of the #conspiracy to suppress negative news on #Trump’s behalf during the 2016 election. The other request relates to #MichaelCohen’s testimony.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #CathAndKill
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#Steinglass now goes into 4 Nov 2016, four days before the election, the day that The WSJ broke a story about The #NationalEnquirer’s deal w/ #KarenMcDougal on #Trump’s behalf.
Steinglass reminds jurors that #HopeHicks sent over a statement for the story on behalf of Trump, & that Trump lied in the statement, saying he didn’t know anything about the Karen McDougal deal. Steinglass says Trump did know about it because he was on tape 2 months earlier talking about it.
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#Steinglass notes that after closing the #HushMoney deal w/ #KarenMcDougal, the editor of The #NationalEnquirer did not immediately call his boss. Instead he placed a call to #Trump atty #MichaelCohen, underscoring, again, that The Enquirer was working on Trump's behalf.
We’re over hour 2, & Steinglass has a way to go, this won’t be done today.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
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#Steinglass now talks# about the 2nd of 3 hush-money deals, which involved #KarenMcDougal & was arranged by The #NationalEnquirer. He says that #Pecker & #DylanHoward of The Enquirer & #KeithDavidson, McDougal's lawyer, spoke in code. But you don’t have to be a codebreaker, he says, to understand what they were talking about
Steinglass also notes that the trio was communicating w/ #MichaelCohen, who testified that he had been charged w/keeping #Trump apprised of their progress
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#Steinglass goes back over The #NationalEnquirer’s Pecker’s testimony.
#Pecker came off as a genteel & soft-spoken person who still loves #Trump. And he offered some of the most damaging testimony of the trial.
FYI: criminalizing what Pecker & parent co AMI were doing is not part of the charges.
Steinglass shows how their actions & practices went far beyond what reporters actually do. The details of Pecker’s testimony demonstrate that the aim was to help Trump’s candidacy.
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#Steinglass addresses #Blanche’s interest in the term #CatchAndKill, drawing a distinction between the phrase & the practice.
Steinglass says while the phrase may not have been used much during the trial, the practice was exactly what had been agreed to, & argues that suppressing those stories amounted to committing a #fraud on American voters, pulling the wool over their eyes “in a coordinated fashion.”
He calls The #NationalEnquirer “a covert arm” of #Trump's campaign.
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#Steinglass outlines their theory of the Aug 2015 meeting between #Trump, #MichaelCohen, & David #Pecker, of #NationalEnquirer, in which they agreed to a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump & promote negative stories about his opponents.
Steinglass punctures one of #Blanche’s go-to arguments —that The Enquirer is like all publications & Pecker's arrangement w/Trump wasn’t unusual. There is nothing normal or standard about what the tabloid was doing w/Trump.
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#Steinglass quickly disposes w/some of #Blanche’s arguments, including the idea that there was an alternative #conspiracy involving #StormyDaniels, her manager & a #NationalEnquirer editor. He says that the defense is trying to distract from a key issue in the case, adding, “In the end, all of this doesn’t really matter.”
[thank you! This is about falsifying business records]
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics -
Blanche alternate theory re #StormyDaniels's motive is that Dylan Howard, editor of The #NationalEnquirer, & Gina Rodriguez, Daniels’s manager, seized an opportunity in Oct 2016 to make $ from Daniels’s story.
Problematically, his alt version doesn’t address the falsified documents on which there were weeks of testimony from Pecker, #MichaelCohen & others.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
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#Blanche, draws on a 2018 recording in which #StormyDaniels's lawyer at the time said that his client had “settler’s remorse” for having agreed not to tell her story. Blanche claims that Daniels changed not because she decided to tell the #truth, but because she wanted to make #money.
Blanche introduces what he calls a “separate conspiracy” between Daniels, #GinaRodriguez, her manager at the time, & #DylanHoward, who was the editor of The #NationalEnquirer.
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#Blanche argues that if #StormyDaniels's allegations were so scary to the #Trump campaign, why didn’t it swing into action in April 2016, when a woman working w/ Daniels got in touch w/The #NationalEnquirer's parent company?
Obvious answer: the #AccessHollywood tape
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
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Beyond the "pale of democracy." Clarity from #RobertHubbell
#TrumpTrial #Democracy #GagOrder #BidenHarris2024
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/surrogates-speaking-very-beautifully -
I mean… FFS, if you, or I….↑
But, back to today’s #TrumpTrial & #EricTrump’s testimony.
NYAG: “Did you ever tell Mr. #McConney about the Cushman valuation?"
Eric: "I would have never have thought to.”
(Hold the phone, I thought Eric claimed he didn’t even know the Cushman appraiser)
NYAG then showed a notation on a spreadsheet of data supporting a #SFC:
"11/17/2015- Per telephone conversation w/Eric Trump - leave value as is"
Eric says he has no reason to doubt the conversation occurred.
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#NYAG next played the section from the #EricTrump video deposition when the interviewer asked, “Do you have any reason to believe Mr. #McConney would reference a conversation w/you if it didn't happen?”
To which Eric (in the video) replied: "I know nothing about the statement of financial of condition. I don't know anything about the backup (of the SFC). It's just not what I did.… I was responsible for building properties & pouring concrete.”
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#EricTrump replied to #McConney:
"All of Doral will be about 200 million - do you want the blue monster specifically?" (Eric is referring to the Blue Monster golf course at the #Trump National #Doral resort in Miami, FL)Eric says that he would have been providing info on different Trump properties - he clarified “descriptions” implying he was just describing various projects.
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#TrumpTrial Nov 2, 2023, PM
#NYAG cont’d direct of #EricTrump re #SFC, #appraisals, his claimed ignorance of #financial stmnts, & his involvement w/inflating #Trump’s #NetWorth.
NYAG started w/an email exchange between Eric & #TrumpOrganization’s #JeffMcConney:
Email from #McConney to Eric, Aug 23, 2013 ends:
"With all of the renovations that were done since the last statement in June 2015 I wanted to ask you if there is anything you wanted to add to or expand in the footnotes?"
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It’s #Day9 of the #TrumpTrial parties went immediately to sidebar at the start.
#TrumpOrganization Asst VP #PatrickBirney returned to the stand. #Birney testified yesterday that he largely relied on #Weisselberg & controller Jeff #McConney to assemble #Trump's annual #financial stmnts.
#NYAG #Wallace highlighted Birney's statements during his opening as evidence of an alleged #conspiracy w/in the #TrumpOrg to #inflate Trump's #NetWorth.
"He likes to see it go up," Birney said.
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#McConney testified that he continued to engage in illegal conduct because #Weisselberg was his boss & if he refused, he would probably get fired.
(Just following orders excuse has never gone over well.)
Court adjourned; the trial resumes Tuesday.
Defense does not want to cross-examine McConney (can’t imagine why), therefore expect Weisselberg on the stand Tues.
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Valuations of the #MarALago property as a private residence were for $426.5M in 2011 & $531.9M in 2012.
“You knew about this appraisal & had a copy of it in 2011?” #Amer asked. #McConney responded affirmatively.
The value included in the 2007 appraisal was not shown in court, but the AG alleged the #TrumpOrganization inflated its value by as much as $714M dollars between 2011 & 2021.
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#McConney #TrumpTrial #testimony cont.
The statements of #financial conditions included, at a min thru 2016 & 2017, the “goodwill attached to the #Trump name has significant value.”
McConney, however, conceded that the golf course valuations routinely included a “brand premium” of 30% & later 50%, beginning in 2013.
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NYAG's introduced an #appraisal done by Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 that assessed #Trump’s #BriarcliffManor property value of an "easement donation" related to the 71 units on the property at $43.3M
Despite the appraisal, #McConney valued the property the same ($101M) in 2015 - 2018 after a Nov 17, 2015 phone call w/ #EricTrump.
"Leave value as is," Eric Trump told him in the call, McConney said.
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Now #JeffMcConney is testifying about the #valuation of #Trump’s #BriarcliffManor golf course.
McConney's valuation of the property changed from $25.1M in 2012 to >$100M in 2013.
#McConney said the jump was due to a Sept 25, 2013 phone call had w/ #EricTrump.
Eric told him the sale of 71 "midrise units" were approved on the property but put on hold.
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🚨🚨 Instead, #McConney treated the profit of $23M per home as if it were immediately realizable in 2012.
In 2013 & 2014, the #valuation for the 7 homes was done exactly the same way. He also wrote in his spreadsheets that the valuations were based on telephone calls in each of 2013 & 2014 w/ #EricTrump, who confirmed he should continue to #value the planned homes at #SevenSprings in the same way.
(Yikes)
The homes were NEVER BUILT.
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🚨🚨#McConney testifies that he understood the concept of #TimeValue (the value of a dollar today is worth more than the value of a dollar in the future) & that discounts should be applied to arrive at a present #value if money is going to be paid in the future.
The $161M for the 7 planned homes, which was baked into the #SevenSprings #valuation, was never discounted for the yrs it would take to build them, the cost of marketing/building/etc.
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Back to #McConney #witness / #defendant #testimony:
#NYAG #Amer delves into a flagrant instance of #fraudulent #valuations.
#Trump’s #SevenSprings estate planned to build 7 mansions on the property valued at $23M each.
McConney confirmed that in 2012, #EricTrump was involved w/the development of the #Westchester, NY, property & that he (McConney) assumed all necessary approvals were obtained prior to build.
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#Trump lawyer #AlinaHabba objects to the questioning, which she says is leading.
#AndrewAmer, lawyer for the NYAG, calls #McConney a hostile witness. #Habba says he is not a hostile witness & #Engoron wryly says, "he is the defendant." The objection is overruled.
FYI McConney was deemed a #HostileWitness in the #criminal #TaxFraud case last November as well.
#TrumpTrial #law
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-14/trump-controller-mcconney-is-declared-a-hostile-witness-by-judge -
#McConney is first on the stand today; followed by #AllenWeisselberg on Tues; after that, #NickHaigh, a risk manager w/ #DeutscheBank; then #PatrickBirney of #TrumpOrganization, & depending on time, #MichaelCohen by the end of next week.
Justice #Engoron called the trial to order, & McConney is on the stand. McConney is also a #defendant in the case. Today he’s to be questioned about the Trump Org’s relationship w/another #RealEstate company, #Vornado.
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#McConney said he never used Cushman & Wakefield’s #appraisal of 40 Wall St but also never asked #DougLarsen if the cap rates he (McConney) was using for valuation were appropriate or what cap rates Larsen used.
But in his worksheets, he wrote the cap rate he used was “per a telephone conversation w/ Doug Larsen.”
#NewYorkvTrump ended for the day.
McConney's testimony resumes Fri (likely to go thru all day)
#AllenWeisselberg will be the next witness on Tues.
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#NYAG #Amer asked #McConney about his use of capitalization or #CapRates, which he used to #value #Trump #commercial assets. (The lower the cap rate, the higher the property value.)
Amer grilled McConney about his communications w/ #DougLarsen, an #appraiser retained by #CapitolOneBank & #LadderCapital, in their capacity as #lenders concerning 40 Wall Street.
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#NYAG #Amer displayed the emails in question throughout as well as the Trump financial statements.
#Amer asked to have the attached 2018 NYT article entered into evidence, defense objected (hearsay), Amer moved on.
Amer asked if #McConney believes StreetEasy (apt listing site) is reliable. He said yes.