- People's Exhibit 35 is a key piece of evidence in Donald Trump's hush money trial.
- The document records an alleged conspiracy to falsify hush money payments and reimbursements.
- But whether Exhibit 35 will make or break the DA's case is up to Michael Cohen.
Welcome to People's Exhibit 35, the single most important piece of evidence in Donald Trump's hush money trial.
The concise full text of this one-page document appears a few paragraphs later. Next, we will explain each section.
People's 35 is the fulcrum of this whole affair. In closing arguments next week, prosecutors are sure to say it proves Trump is guilty, while the defense will argue it proves Trump is innocent.
And who wins will largely depend on whether jurors believe key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, who testified last week that President Trump personally saw and approved the contents of the documents.
People's 35 looks a bit complicated, but I promise it's not a problem in the slightest. Scroll through to see how it looks. See you on the other side. So let's break it down.
As you can see, People's 35 is a one-page bank statement from October 2016 for an LLC controlled by Cohen called “Essential Consultants.”
The highlights are mine, but they are not handwritten.
It may not seem like a big deal, but when prosecutors found this hard copy paper among the hundreds of thousands of pages of Trump Organization subpoenas, someone said, “Oh my God, @# $%!!!!” she must have screamed.
“People's 35'' summarizes almost the entirety of the alleged hush money conspiracy.it has largely Everything on one page.
The block I colored turquoise shows that Cohen sent $130,000 of his own money to porn star Stormy Daniels' lawyer on October 27, 2016, just 11 days before the election. .
For those who are asleep during the trial, it's hush money.
green block? That's where Mr. Cohen scrawled that he owed Mr. Trump $180,000, which is the hush money plus $50,000 that Mr. Cohen previously spent. (That spending on “technical services” is an interesting story in itself, but more on that later.)
And the yellow block shows Trump's former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, wiping out Cohen's debt. Mr. Weisselberg then figured out how that sum could be doubled (allegedly) to account for his income taxes, and how that sum would be refunded (allegedly). .
No fingerprints, but
Yes, People's 35 has pretty much published everything – the actual chicken-scratch story behind the $130,000 hush money itself and what prosecutors are calling a conspiracy to falsify business records to redeem Mr. Cohen. It's a calculation.
What is not listed on People 35 is President Trump's fingerprints, and the defense is sure to pursue this point in next week's closing argument.
Jurors would need to believe Cohen to link Trump to the alleged conspiracy. Mr. Cohen said last week that once all the calculations and scribblings were done, he and Mr. Weisselberg pushed the very page into Mr. Trump's office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan.
It was mid-January 2017, just days before President Trump's inauguration.
Prosecutors said Trump's schedule at the time was packed with teleprompter training and meetings with his future chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
But Mr. Trump still made time to meet with his loyal chief financial officer, Mr. Weisselberg, and his lawyer, Mr. Cohen. Prosecutors said Mr. Cohen had just provided $130,000 of his own money to repay the porn actor and was eager to pay it back.
The defense countered that the meeting never happened and that Mr. Cohen and Mr. Weisselberg were solely responsible for the falsification of documents.
Both men will tell jurors next week that Trump was too busy running the country in 2017 to pay fake “maintainer” redemption checks (for one year), including nine checks he personally signed to Cohen. He plans to testify that he could not have been involved.
“He approved it.”
“Did he show this document to Mr. Trump?” Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen during Monday's in-person testimony, by “he” he meant Weisselberg.
“Yes,” Cohen said as Trump watched from the defense bench.
“So what did Mr. Trump say at the time?” the prosecutor asked.
“He approved it,” Cohen replied, referring to Trump. “And he also said, 'This is going to be a lot of fun in Washington, D.C.'”
Ready? Let's take a closer look at the section highlighted in purple at the top.
Prosecutors allege that Cohen used his home equity line of credit to buy Daniels' silence less than two weeks before the 2016 election.
But Cohen obscured his role as the man giving the hush money. Instead of sending the money directly, he first transferred $130,000 to the bank account of a newly formed shell company called Essential Consultants, LLC.
The sole purpose of the LLC was to process hush money payments, Cohen testified.
“Can I include People's Exhibit 35 as evidence?” Prosecutor Hoffinger asked just after lunch Monday.
Documents were displayed on each juror's personal screen and on four large overhead screens for the audience.
“Do you remember this document?” Mr. Hoffinger asked.
“Yes,” Cohen replied. “This is Essential Consultant's bank statement for the period October 26, 2016 to October 31, 2016,” Cohen explained.
Next, move on to the section highlighted in pink.
Here we see $130,000 in hush money going in and out of Essential Consultant's bank account.
Mr. Cohen testified last week that he took funds from a HELOC (home equity line of credit) to hide large expenses from his wife.
Although her name was on the HELOC, the bill was paperless, Cohen explained.
“You decided to do it this way because it's fast and you can move the money right away. You wanted to hide it from your wife, right?” defense attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen during cross-examination Thursday.
“That's right,” Cohen replied.
Let's move on to the turquoise section to highlight where the funds were spent.
Come on, hush money.
People's Exhibit 35 shows that on October 27, just 11 days before the election, Cohen wired $130,000 from Essential Consultants to Keith Davidson, Daniels' attorney at the time.
Davidson also represented Karen McDougal, the former Playboy bunny who was paid $150,000 just weeks ago to keep quiet about her nearly year-long affair with Trump.
Both the porn star and pinup model claim they slept with Trump at the same Lake Tahoe celebrity golf tournament in 2006. Trump and Melania Trump's son was 4 months old at the time.
President Trump has consistently denied having sex with the two women.
Davidson's testimony in early May was notable as defamatory. His lawyer told jurors that he sold sordid celebrity stories to the National Enquirer, including articles targeting Charlie Sheen, Hulk Hogan, Lindsay Lohan and Tila Tequila.
The defense used cross-examination of Davidson to imply that Trump was not the mastermind but the helpless victim of something akin to celebrity blackmail.
Next: Cohen's handwriting. It is highlighted in green starting from the bottom right corner.
This is where Cohen testified that in addition to the $130,000 and $35 in airtime fees, he noted other personal expenses that Trump owed him.
This was a $50,000 refund paid to RedFinch Solutions LLC, a high-tech company in Virginia.
Redfinch conducted polls for the Trump campaign and created the Twitter account @WomenForCohen, promoting Trump as a so-called “pit bull” and “sex symbol.”
“He told me to add 130 people and Redfinch's 50,000 people to get 180,000 people,” Cohen said Monday, before the two marched People 35 into Trump's Oval Office. In his testimony, he mentioned a meeting he had with Mr. Weisselberg.
Mr. Cohen testified that he never repaid Mr. Redfinch the full $50,000.
Finally, take a look at the bottom left section highlighted in yellow.
And whose handwriting is in the bottom left and in the middle? Prosecutor Hoffinger asked Cohen while Peoples 35 was shown.
“That's Allen Weisselberg's,” Cohen replied.
Mr. Weisselberg did not respond to testimony. He is currently serving a five-month prison sentence for perjury for lying on behalf of Trump in a civil fraud trial last year.
“So how could you recognize Allen Weisselberg's handwriting?” the prosecutor asked.
“Well, I recognize that handwriting, and I was in the room when he wrote it,” Cohen replied.
In a handwritten note, Mr. Weisselberg started with the $180,000 Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump owed him.
The CFO underlined the amount. Below that, it said, “Earnings up to $360,000.”
“He told me that what he was going to do was 'make a fuss,'” he explained to the jury.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Weisselberg's idea, approved by President Trump, included a $180,000 reimbursement to Mr. Cohen for legal fees that was paid in monthly installments throughout 2017, Trump's first year in office. It is said that it was processed improperly.
But because Mr. Cohen was subject to a 50% tax penalty on that income, Mr. Weisselberg doubled, or “increased,” that $180,000, Mr. Cohen testified.
“So, to get the $180 back, he wrote down $360,000,” Cohen testified. That way, even though Cohen takes a hit on his 50% in taxes, he still pays the IRS $180,000 and pockets the $180,000 that was supposed to be paid.
Weisselberg added $60,000 in year-end bonuses, bringing the total to $420,000, Cohen testified, continuing to translate the CFO's handwriting for the jury.
Cohen said he was told the $420,000 should be divided into monthly “retainer” checks of $35,000.
This was bad news for Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen went to the meeting with Mr. Weisselberg and Mr. Trump thinking he would be repaid in a lump sum.
But Cohen said he quickly realized that Trump and Weisselberg had everything figured out in advance.
“Did Mr. Weisselberg say to Mr. Trump that these monthly payments were like fees for legal services?” Mr. Hoffinger asked Mr. Cohen.
“Yes,” Cohen replied.
“Did you say something to the effect that you feel like they've talked about this before?” Hoffinger asked.
“Yes,” Cohen replied.
“Why do you say that?” the prosecutor asked.
“Because they were always playing games like that, 'flick-and-flak' type games,” Cohen said.
When Mr. Hoffinger asked Mr. Weisselberg what happened “when he showed Mr. Trump this document,” both the large and small screens in the courtroom were still showing People's Newspaper No. 35.
Did Trump try to renegotiate? Mr. Hoffinger asked.
“No,” Cohen replied.
“So he approved it at that point?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes,” Cohen replied.
Closing arguments could be heard as early as Tuesday, and jury deliberations could begin as early as Thursday. If President Trump is convicted of the felony charge of falsifying business records, he could face a sentence of up to four years in prison.
