Former President Trump greeted the media Tuesday morning holding a sheet of paper detailing news reports that there’s “no smoking gun” in the unprecedented Manhattan trial.
“NBC ‘Today’ show: ‘The challenge is that there is no smoking gun, no email or tape to prove the president’s intent. They don’t have a way to prove that.’ That’s NBC ‘Today’ show,” Trump said Tuesday morning.
Trump rattled off a series of media reports and expert commentary, including from “fake news CNN,” “Good Morning America” and Fox News, arguing the prosecution team is failing to prove Trump is guilty of falsifying business records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime.
“On ‘Good Morning America,’ they said, ‘We heard that expense payments to lawyers are legal expenses.’ You pay a lawyer expenses payments. We didn’t put it down as construction costs, the purchase of sheet rock, the electrical cost. The legal expense that we paid was put down as legal expense. There’s nothing else you could say. You don’t have to put down anything, I guess. But we put down legal expense.”
Former President Trump speaks to the media, as his criminal trial continues, in New York City, May 7, 2024. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado/Pool)
The case focuses on Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony.
TRUMP SAYS JAIL TIME TO DEFEND FREE SPEECH IS ‘SACRIFICE’ HE’S WILLING TO MAKE
The court heard from its 10th witness Monday, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, who testified that Trump did not direct him to set up repayments to Cohen.
“Michael Cohen was a lawyer?” defense attorney Emil Bove asked former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney on Monday at the start of the fourth week of the trial.
“Sure, yes,” McConney responded.
“And payments to lawyers by the Trump Organization are legal expenses, right?” asked Bove.
“Yes,” said McConney.
“President Trump did not ask you to do any…
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