Trump Attorney Rudy Giuliani may claim that “truth isn’t truth” and try to present everything as if it’s Donald Trump’s word against those who had the bad taste to disagree with Trump’s version of reality. But when it comes to Michael Cohen’s claims concerning Trump and violations of campaign finance laws, Cohen’s word is way down the list of evidence.
As pointed out by NBC reporter Tom Winter, there was much, much more to the federal case than a statement by Cohen. Federal prosecutor Andrea Griswold provided an extensive list of materials specifically for counts seven and eight—the counts involving payments to convince Stormy Daniels to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and to trick Karen McDougal into silence by signing her to an exclusive agreement with the National Enquirer.
With respect to counts seven and eight, as the defendant allocuted, and as detailed in the information filed today, the government would prove that the defendant caused an illegal corporate contribution of $150,000 to be made in coordination with a candidate or campaign for federal office, and also that Mr. Cohen made an excessive contribution of $130,000 in coordination with the campaign or candidate for purposes of influencing the election.
The proof on these counts at trial would establish that these payments were made in order to ensure that each recipient of the payments did not publicize their stories of alleged affairs with the candidate. This evidence would include:
Records obtained from an April 9, 2018 series of search warrants on Mr. Cohen’s premises including hard copy documents, seized electronic devices, and audio recordings made by Mr. Cohen.
We would also offer text messages, messages sent over encrypted applications, phone records, and email.
We would also submit various records produced to us via subpoena, including records from the corporation referenced in the information as Corporation One and records from the media company also referenced in the information.
Which makes the upcoming interview that Fox is running to help Trump out of this jam, even more ridiculous.
Reporter: Did you know about the payment?
Trump: Later on I knew. Later on. But you have to understand, Ainsley, what he did … And they weren’t taken out of campaign finance. That’s a big thing. That’s a much bigger thing. Did they come out of the campaign? They didn’t come out of the campaign. They came from me. And I tweeted about it. I put … I don’t know if you know, but I tweeted, uh, about the payments. But they didn’t come out of campaign. In fact my first question was did they come out of the campaign, because that could be … a little dicey. And they didn’t come out of the campaign, and that’s big. But they weren’t … and that … and that’s not … It’s not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama he had a massive campaign violation. But he had a different attorney general, and they viewed it a lot differently.
Those future historians looking for a section of text that approaches a black hole level of lie-density should take a close look at this 45 second reply.
Trump continues to claim that he didn’t know about the payments from the outset, even though he was recorded discussing them with Cohen before they were made. He claims that his first concern was that they not come from campaign contributions, when his actual first concern was that the payments be made by cash. He states that he tweeted about the payments. Which is true—but only after making several public denials of knowing about the payments. Trump made a tweet on May 3, a day after Rudy Giuliani blabbed on national TV.
And what Trump tweeted was that his payment was for an NDA that “is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels).” That’s not exactly what has happened in the three months since that tweet.
Finally, Trump repeats the current go-to claim from the right: Obama did it too. Which isn’t apples and oranges. It’s more like a determined conspiracy which Trump personally initiated, guided, and covered up vs. an accounting error which Obama knew nothing about and which his campaign reported on their own.
And yes, what Cohen did was a campaign violation. And yes, it’s a crime. And boy, Trump’s lame excuse is embarrassing for other lame excuses.