Trump indictment and statement of facts revealed

The indictment consists of 34 counts of “falsifying business records in the first degree.”  They all read pretty much as the “First Count” pictured above, and the “Second Count” reproduced in full here:

“AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows: The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 842457, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.”

Trump had been President of the United States for exactly 25 days at the time he allegedly committed this and other felonies.

There are references to checks written to and invoices from Michael Cohen throughout the indictment.  Cohen previously pled guilty to similar federal charges and served more than a year in prison before being released as part of the COVID releases for prisoners who had committed non-violent crimes.

It's in the “Statement of Facts,” District Attorney Bragg makes use of a so-called “talking indictment,” frequently used to describe in detail the crimes involved in a conspiracy.  The second paragraph of the statement sums up Bragg’s “theory of the case:”

“From August 2015 to December 2017, 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. 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. The participants also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme.”

The “Statement of facts” goes on to lay out in detail the steps taken by Trump to suppress the publication of a story peddled by a Trump building doorman about an alleged child Trump had fathered out of wedlock, as well as stories being peddled by “Woman 1,” Karen McDougal, and “Woman 2,” Stormy Daniels.  The statement recounts various meetings and communications between Trump, “Lawyer A,” apparently Michael Cohen, and “AMI CEO,” apparently David Pecker.  For example, during the transition after Trump won the election of 2016, Trump’s meetings with Pecker are described as follows:

“The Defendant thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1, and invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration. In the summer of 2017, the Defendant invited the AMI CEO to the White House for a dinner to thank him for his help during the campaign.”

Pecker testified before D.A. Bragg’s grand jury, so apparently the prosecutors learned of these meetings from Pecker’s testimony.

The payments to Michael Cohen, and how they broke the law, are described in the “Statement of Facts” in this manner:

“The TO CFO [Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Alen Weisselberg] and Lawyer A [Michael Cohen] agreed to a total repayment amount of $420,000. They reached that figure by adding the $130,000 payment to a $50,000 payment for another expense for which Lawyer A also claimed reimbursement, for a total of $180,000. The TO CFO then doubled that amount to $360,000 so that Lawyer A could characterize the payment as income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement, and Lawyer A would be left with $180,000 after paying approximately 50% in income taxes. Finally, the TO CFO added an additional $60,000 as a supplemental year-end bonus. Together, these amounts totaled $420,000. The TO CFO memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the bank statement that Lawyer A had provided.”

D.A. Alvin Bragg, at his press conference after the indictment, said “Those payoffs and falsifications of financial records are a crime in New York State.  Someone lied, again and again, to protect their office and evade the law.”  The “someone” Bragg referred to was Donald Trump.

Trump’s lawyers, speaking to the press on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building after Trump was indicted, described the indictment as “mere boilerplate.”

We’ll see about that.