Bussiness
Live updates: Donald Trump’s hush money trial
After explaining the nuts and bolts of $420,000 in payments to Michael Cohen, former Trump Org. controller Jeffrey McConney testified further for the prosecution Monday and was questioned about his connection to Trump while under cross-examination.
The jury saw the vouchers detailing the 12 payments of $35,000 made to Cohen by the Trump Organization’s accounts payable department. The vouchers are tied to several of Trump’s 34 charges of falsifying business records.
Further, McConney testified that each of the payments to Cohen was listed as “legal expenses” and had a description that indicated they were related to a retainer agreement. However, previous testimony revealed there was no retainer for Cohen, and prosecutors say these payments were actually reimbursements for Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels. Each of the general ledger line items listed as a retainer payment are tied to counts of falsifying business records.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys questioned McConney about his knowledge of Trump’s role in these payments.
“President Trump did not ask you to do any of the things you described?” defense attorney Emil Bove asked.
“He did not,” McConney testified.
He said he was told to do this work by former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg. McConney also said he did not know if Cohen did legal work for Trump in 2017.
He testified for about three hours in all.