Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen dropped a bombshell while being cross-examined in court.
The “fixer” lawyer admitted on Monday that he stole thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization. Cohen testified that he overstated how much he paid a tech company, Red Finch, which provided services for the Trump Organization.
During the testimony, Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, asked Cohen, “You stole from the Trump Org, right?” Cohen responded, “Yes, sir.”
Cohen explained that the repayment was “grossed up” to prevent him from taking a tax hit and included reimbursement for paying Red Finch an alleged $50,000. He testified that he withdrew cash from TD Bank over a couple of days to pay Red Finch. The total amount he withdrew was about $20,000, which he gave to Red Finch’s CEO. However, he told the Trump Organization he had paid $50,000, pocketing the $30,000 difference.
Blanche asked Cohen if he had lied to Weisselberg about the amount needed for Red Finch. Cohen confirmed that he had. He admitted that the Trump Organization believed he had paid the full amount and reimbursed him accordingly, even though he had not paid it in full.
When asked if he had repaid the Trump Organization for the stolen money, Cohen replied, “No, sir.” Later, Cohen described taking the $30,000 as “almost like self-help,” claiming he did it because he was angry about his bonus being cut. “To have my bonus cut by two-thirds was very upsetting to say the least,” he said.
CNN pointed out that what Cohen admitted too is “a higher degree of crime than what Trump is charged with.”
CNN analyst notes that Michael Cohen’s admission of stealing $60,000 from his employer is ‘a higher degree of crime than what Trump is charged with.’
— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 20, 2024
CNN legal expert Elie Honig on Michael Cohen’s admission that he stole $60,000 from the Trump Organization:
“They gave him a free pass. He committed larceny, it’s a higher degree of a felony than what Donald Trump is charged with. Yet they gave Michael Cohen a free pass even… pic.twitter.com/BhzKcr1VAx
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 20, 2024
Which goes to show how crazy this trial is to begin with.
You can almost hear the sorrow from the CNN panel.
CNN on Cohen Admitting to stealing from Trump while working for him: “This is significant… they appear to have caught Cohen in another lie”
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 20, 2024
One last thing, some have suggested that Cohen created these types of deals to take money.
Based on what has been revealed in court, it looks like Cohen is the one who initiated the payments scheme himself while Trump was busy in the middle of the campaign and used it to pocket money on the side as the middleman between the Trump Org and Stormy Daniels
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 20, 2024
