disciple Clint
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I think you misunderstand what the charges are. The issue is that Cohen made the original payments, using a mortgage on his home to get the money to pay off Ms. Daniels. When Donald Trump paid him back, the payments were entered in the business ledgers as "legal services" -- meaning income payments to Mr. Cohen for working as a lawyer. It also meant the business paid more than what Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels, as Mr. Cohen -- since it was payment for services -- had to report and pay taxes on the amount as "income" rather than repayment of a debt.
Now, normally this type of false entry would be a misdemeanor. The issue was that the payment was made to prevent Ms. Daniels from telling her story to the media (or selling the story to the media, if you prefer), so that the voters would not hear about Candidate Trump (at the time) having sex with a inappropriate content star while his wife was at home tending to their newborn son. There is allegedly an audio recording where Trump instructs Mr. Cohen to try to delay making the payment for as long as possible, that if Mr. Cohen can delay the payment until after the election that they won't need to pay her -- clearly implying the payment was solely to aid his campaign, to prevent the American people from learning about it before the election, and not to hide the alleged affair from his wife. It is possible the secondary crime, raising the crime to a felony, is that Mr. Cohen illegally made a "campaign contribution" by paying off Stormy Daniels; even though he was paid back, it still amounted to an unreported loan to the Trump campaign by an individual over the legal limit.
By Trump falsifying the business records to "hide" a second crime elevates the charges to felony counts. We'll hear more about the case, and DA Bragg's complete legal theory as to the crimes, as this case unfolds.
This is key to establishing this as a criminal act. Can you produce this recording, how did you learn of it?There is allegedly an audio recording where Trump instructs Mr. Cohen to try to delay making the payment for as long as possible, that if Mr. Cohen can delay the payment until after the election that they won't need to pay her -- clearly implying the payment was solely to aid his campaign, to prevent the American people from learning about it before the election, and not to hide the alleged affair from his wife.
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