Trump's company approved $420,000 in payments to Cohen, relying on 'sham' invoices, prosecutors say

[IncaRoads]

Source: MSN

President Trump’s real estate company authorized paying $420,000 to lawyer Michael Cohen in his effort to silence women during the presidential campaign and then relied on “sham” invoices from Cohen that concealed the nature of the payments, according to legal filings released Tuesday.

The payments began flowing in February 2017, soon after Trump took office, when Cohen approached Trump Organization executives seeking to be reimbursed for “election-related” expenses, prosecutors said.

That included a $130,000 payment Cohen had made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels so she would remain silent about an alleged affair with Trump, according to the court documents.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-company-approved-420-000-in-payments-to-cohen-relying-on-sham-invoices-prosecutors-say/ar-BBMgHFY?ocid=ob-tw-enus-1531946787702

[RockRaven]

1. ***SAAAAAAAAAD TROMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE***

WOMP WOMP!!!!!!!

[spooky3]

2. Hmmm--if McDougal received $150K and Daniels received $130K, who received the balance? nt

[C Moon]

12. Putin (but that was a rhetorical question, I'm sure).

[edbermac]

17. Shera Bechard?

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/more-evidence-that-broidy-was-covering-for-trump-in-affair.html

[C_U_L8R]

3. Some staffers have some explaining to do

Better they call Mueller before he calls them

[Honeycombe8]

4. As Scooby Doo would say: Ruh-roh. nt

[Grassy Knoll]

5. And All Trump Can Say " This Has Nothing To Do With Russia "....

..

[Freethinker65]

6. Paper trail of crimes not just as a candidate, but as President. Spin that!

[exboyfil]

7. I wonder what they filed on their taxes

That could be interesting. In fact isn't a company structure different than personal assets for financing a campaign. He has the right to pull money out of till so long as he declares it as income, but if he wrote it off as an expense - then it would clearly be illegal in so many different ways (taxes, campaign finance violation).

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. An equally important question is...

where did all that money come from? That's a tad more than petty cash or "incidentals" or "casual labor".

...... ......

[Stuart G]

8. Good By Mr. Trump...When? Soon...I don't know..let's have a party when it happens...

[NewEnglandAutumn]

9. They are not only criminals

they suck at it. It is like a group of middle schoolers playing at being mobsters. Someone should have read The Beginners Guide to Money Laundering before they jumped into the deep end.

[Stuart G]

10. Correct some had to read it to them,,because they cannot read..no text..

[murielm99]

15. Or,

Money Laundering for Dummies.

[demsocialist]

11. Love for him to fire Mueller tomorrow.

The shitstorm would be horrific.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. NO!

I thought only tRump supporters would wish for that.

Welcome to DU?

[edbermac]

16. I think he's referring to a Saturday Night Massacre scenario.

Firing Mueller would guarantee Donald’s impeachment.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. We do NOT need that shitstorm. It took TEN MONTHS after Sat Night Mass before Nixon resigned.

Mueller might work his way up the food chain enough to get tRump to resign sooner with less fuss and crisis.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

23. Agree. We want failure by a thousand cuts....

a slow drip of indictments and trials until all is said and done, with absolute maximum embarrassment to the Repug party and all of tRump's family either indicted or hauled in to testify.

Americans need to see the dirty underbelly of the plutocratic Republican party, every single tentacle of their corruption, and every link to corporations (including media) and foreign interests. That's a huge order for Mr. Mueller and the state AGs.

I'm convinced that's the only way to prevent this from happening again (of course, that's what we said about the Nixon affair).

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Question the judgement of a man who pays $420,000 for sex cheating on a "trophy wife". . . . nt

[Julian Englis]

19. Trump failed to disclose this debt, falsely attesting under penalty of law. Oopsie.

Walter Schaub's Tweets point this out.

The criminal information in the Cohen case shows that Trump paid Cohen $35k per month for 12 months in January 2017. This means that TRUMP KNEW HE HAD A DEBT TO COHEN WHEN HE OMITTED IT from the liabilities section of the financial disclosure report he filed in June 2017. /1

Link to tweet

He certified that his financial disclosure report was "complete" and that certification was subject to criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 208 and 5 U.S.C. app. § 104. Some of you will remember @bykowicz reported that his attorney asked that he not have to certify the report. /2

Link to tweet

[JohnnyRingo]

20. Avenatti has been quiet lately

Perhaps just sitting back, watching with a bag of popcorn.

[DeminPennswoods]

21. He was on, via phone, on MSNBC yesterday

licking his chops at the real possibility now to depose Trump under oath. He believes the Clifford/Daniels lawsuit that's been stayed by the CA court will, now that Cohen has pled guilty in NY, proceed and he will be able to depose Trump.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. He was making the rounds yesterday

[PoliticAverse]

25. "Follow the money". n/t

[Achilleaze]

26. republican crime machine never sleeps

always looking for ways to cheat, steal and lie

[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. Welcome to DU. Great post for one of your first. Adding a link:

David Fahrenthold Retweeted:

Trump's personal financial disclosure documents this year reported Trump "fully reimbursed" Cohen maximum of $250,000 in 2017 — but plea filings show Cohen received a total of $420,000.

Link to tweet

[IncaRoads]

29. Thanks!

Happy to be here!

[SWBTATTReg]

30. Just $420k? Look harder...I guarantee you that rump has more hidden in all of this mess ...

in order to cheat on his taxes (biggest thing), cheat on his wife by paying off his tricks (so so amounts), pay off the mob (certain %) pay off the Russians (president of the US, does favors for the Russians to pay them back), and the list goes on and on.

Worst thing about this whole mess...I am really disgusted at Congress and what role they have been playing here. Basically ZERO!

Remember this fellow DUers! (and I know you all will remember this...just my soap boxing...

We need to capture Congress back, impeach the whole republican cabal and remove them from office, and install the rightful president. Either that, hold a whole new election in 30 days after removal of rump and pence (pence is just as guilty as the rest of rump's cronies...if he didn't know about all of this, then he deserves to be removed, he's too stupid for an office of this scope).

[Princess Turandot]

28. Didn't Trump's chief accountant just meet with Mueller et al?

Or is expected to do so shortly? Did he approve the disbursement? No matter how fast and loose Trump is willing to play with other people's money, I bet he's quite exacting in his own bookkeeping. I kind of doubt that his chief accountant would be left completely in the dark about this transaction.

Hmm.