Thread by @stewartbishop

Back at Trump trial HQ in Lower Manhattan on a somewhat misty morning with 100 + other reporters for another day of testimony over the Manhattan DA’s claims that Trump tried to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election by falsifying business records to cover up an affair.

Another day, another likely ruling on whether or not Trump again violated the gag order in this case via his remarks about ex-AMI CEO and witness David Pecker, the onetime publisher of the National Enquirer, as well as comments about the jury being full of Democrats.

With me as always is @frankrunyeon and we're joined today by @rscharf_, both of whom you should be following.

@frankrunyeon @rscharf_ Trump and his entourage have entered the courtroom. Trump counsel Todd Blanche is whispering intensely into the former president's ear with his hand covering his mouth.

@frankrunyeon @rscharf_ The press photographers are taking shots of Trump. They get like less than a minute each day to take photos inside the courtroom.

And it appears Justice Juan Merchan has again found Trump in contempt of court, he hands down written copies of his ruling and gives Trump one hell of a warning that going forward he's going to seriously consider locking Trump up if he keeps violating the gag order.

The judge makes clear that he has no desire to jail Trump, but he can't let Trump's repeated violations of the gag order go unaddressed.

"At the end of the day I have a job to do and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the judicial system,” Justice Merchan tells Trump. “Your [remarks] constitute a direct attack on the rule of law, I cannot allow that to continue.”

Damn.

Moving on, first on the witness stand today is Jeffrey McConney, the former Trump Org. controller, who was also one of Trump's co-defendants in the NY AG's civil fraud case accusing Trump et al of vastly overstating his wealth to get better terms on loans and insurance.

Trump is currently appealing the $465 million judgment against him in that case.

McConney is talking Trump Org. structure. There are around 500 separate entities under that company's umbrella. ADA Matthew Colangelo is asking him about how money was handled at the Trump Org.

One of the allegations in this case is that Trump atty Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about her affair with the former president, and that Trump paid Cohen back in installments, which he falsely classified as payment for legal services.

That's where we're going here with McConney's testimony. The checks that were paid to Cohen.

McConney is asked about Michael Cohen.

“What was Michael Cohen’s position at the Trump Organization?” Colangelo says.

“He said he was a lawyer,” McConney says.

McConney is asked about early 2017, when he and Weisselberg discussed money that needed to be paid to Michael Cohen.

The jury is shown an account statement from October 2016 from Essential Consultants LLC c/o Michael Cohen. In one section, it shows a write transfer of $130,000 that was paid to the law firm of Keith Davidson, who represented Stormy Daniels.

McConney says that handwritten notes on the document are from Allen Weisselberg, who makes some calculations about funds that needed to be paid to Cohen.

He starts with a $180,000 figure, a mix of the the Keith Davidson wire transfer $130,000, and $50,000 that was paid to a tech service. That number was grossed up to $360,000 for tax purposes, McConney says, and a $60,000 bonus for Cohen was tacked on, for a total of $420,000.

“Were you aware of another expense reimbursement where it was doubled to account for taxes?” Colangelo asks.

“No,” McConney says

The jury is shown an email exchange from February 2017, in which McConney asks Cohen to send him invoices “that you spoke to Allen about,” so that McConney can send out checks to Cohen.

Cohen eventually responds:

“Pursuant to our retainer agreement, kindly remit payment for services rendered for the months January and February 2017,” the email says. It lists $35,000 payments for each month.

This is the alleged crime, right here. Classifying the payments as being for legal expenses, as opposed to reimbursement for the hush money he paid to Daniels. Falsifying business records.

From April to December 2017:

“[Trump] signed each of the checks personally and had them sent back to the Trump Organization in New York County,” prosecutors said in a statement of facts that accompanied the indictment.

Eric Trump is on hand again today. As is Trump counsel Alina Habba, who represented the former president at the NY AG's trial.

It's a little unclear why, but the first payments to Cohen in 2017 came from the Donald Trump Revocable Trust, which was where Trump parked his assets after being elected president. Starting in April of that year, the payments came from Trump's personal account.

That's it for Colangelo. Trump counsel Emil Bove is up for cross.

Bove is asking about when Cohen left the Trump Org. in early 2017 and went to work as Trump's personal attorney.

“You don't know one way or the other from your vantage point whether Mr. Cohen did legal work for President Trump in 2017?” Bove asks.

“No,” McConney says.

Bove asks McConney about his conversations with Weisselberg in early 2017 in connection with the payments to Michael Cohen.

“Weisselberg did not say anything to you about what Mr. Cohen was seeking reimbursement for, correct?” Bove asks.

“Correct,” McConney says.

That's it for McConney. We're breaking for lunch.

Back from the break and the next witness is Deborah Tarasoff, McConney’s deputy in the finance department.

Tarasoff says she's worked at the Trump Org. for 24 years and is still employed by the company.

Tarasoff, the Trump Org accounts payable supervisor, is being questioned by ADA Chris Conroy about various people at the Trump Org., Weisselberg, Cohen, McConney etc.

“What was Weisselberg’s management style?” Conroy asks.

“He had his hands in everything,” Tarasoff replies.

"I cut the checks," Tarasoff says.

She says invoices below $10,000 could be approved by Weisselberg. Anything higher than that had to be ok'd by someone with the surname Trump. (Not you Tiffany)

So that means Trump, Don Jr. or Eric would have had to approve the payments to Michael Cohen.

Ivanka had left the Trump Org. for the White House around this time.

Only Trump had the authority to sign checks from his personal account, even after he was elected president. So that means from April to Dec. 2017, Trump signed every monthly $35,000 check to Michael Cohen.

“We would send them to the White House for him to sign,” Tarasoff says.

The jury is shown copies of two checks from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust for a total of $105,000, which covers the first three months of payments to Cohen. Tarasoff says one was signed by Weisselberg and Eric Trump, and the other was inked by Don Jr. and Weisselberg.

Conroy methodically takes the Tarasoff though each time Cohen got paid. The jury is shown the checks signed by Trump, the Trump Org. ledger entries and Cohen's invoices that the DA says falsely label the payments as for legal expenses.

It's kind of mind-numbing, but this is the case right here. Each of the 34 falsifying business records charges are related to one of these checks, invoices or ledger entries.

The legal standard is that the government has to show that the documents were falsified with an intent to defraud, and with the intent to commit another crime and cover it up. The DA is thus far relying on the other crime(s) being violations of election laws.

That's it for Conroy's direct. Trump counsel Todd Blanche gets up for cross, but it's brief. Tarasoff steps down. Justice Merchan dismisses the jury a bit early for the day.

ADA Josh Steinglass is up asking Justice Merchan to recall a witness to introduce some additional tweets and Truth Social posts from Trump. Trump counsel Todd Blanche objects.

Looks like it's happening anyway.

Before the court breaks for the day, Steinglass tells Justice Merchan that the government will probably wrap up its case in about two weeks.