Don't get bogged down in why there were pay outs

[edhopper]

it's about where the money came from and how the expenses were reported. This is the crime. It is similar to what Weisselberg was convicted of.
It is also how James id going to shut down the Trump Org.

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Sir

If Cohen had made a donation to Red Cross disaster relief, and been reimbursed in the same manner, each instrument and record would still be a fraud, and if the fraud were incorporated in a state tax filing, still an evasion of taxes.

[edhopper]

2. Yes

Reporting a personal pay out as a business expense is a crime, it is that simple. Should be easy for a jury to understand.

[The Magistrate]

3. So Is The Enhancement

Creating a false business record inflating your expenses reflects intention to cheat on taxes, for this must result from entering the fraudulent record.

[edhopper]

4. The Trump Org

is rife with false business accounting. Hope James closes them down.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It is important that the payout was a benefit to his campaign

The first line of the Statement of Facts, a document that accompanied the indictment, spells out the prosecution case: The defendant DONALD J. TRUMP repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.
...
Mr Bragg alleges that Mr Trump falsified the true nature of the payments because those payments were made in support of a crime. While hush-money payments are not by themselves illegal, spending money to help a presidential campaign but not disclosing it violates federal campaign finance law.

Cohen was convicted of just such a violation for not disclosing his payment to Ms Daniels. By reimbursing Cohen for that payment, Mr Bragg asserts, Mr Trump is tied to that criminal act - and it makes his falsification of business record a more serious offence.
...
"The defendant orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant's electoral prospects," the indictment's Statement of Facts asserts. "In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65181178

[W_HAMILTON]

6. Yeah. Who is even stupid enough to be doing that?

They were personal expenses -- period. And personal expenses for the purposes of benefiting his campaign. They most certainly were NOT business expenses. There are specific expenses that can and cannot be deducted as business expenses. Paying off someone you had a personal relationship with to buy their silence most certainly is not a business expense. Companies have NDAs with employees and settlements with outside parties etc., but that is due to the business being involved or responsible.

Trump having sex with someone and then paying to keep them quiet so they don't go public and hurt his political campaign is not a fucking business expense under any stretch of the imagination.

[Model35mech]

7. where DID the money come from???

This is a question on my partners mind.

I know my question may seem ambiguous... So let's make it 2 questions.

Where did Cohen's money come from that was used to pay "stormy"

Where did the money Trump used for Cohen's reimbursement come from?



Thanks for your help.