Why and what was Donald J. Trump convicted of

Replying in another thread, I have the impression that many have not understood why and what Trump was convicted for. So I’ll take up one of my comments and try to explain it better than the newspapers have done, albeit with a few approximations and simplifications so as to make it understandable to everyone.

First of all, anyone who would like to read all the documents of the trial, including the depositions of the witnesses and the speeches of the parties, the documents are public and can be consulted here: People v Donald J. Trump (Criminal) | NYCOURTS.GOV

In summary this is the thesis that the prosecution intended to demonstrate and which, according to the jury, it demonstrated:

Background:

In 2015 DJT, Michael Cohen (MC) and David Pecker (DP), CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI) agreed that AMI, through its "journalists" and his contacts:

1. kept an ear out for stories about Trump in order to buy them and take them off the market (Catch & Kill)
2. published articles in favor of Trump and against his opponents

The first "catch & kill": Karen McDougal

Under the agreement, as soon as AMI learned of the story of an illegitimate child from a Trump Organization gatekeeper, AMI purchased the rights to the story (which later proved to be false) for $30,000.00. The relevant contract was then amended as per the instructions Cohen sent via email.

A few months later a lawyer (Keith Davidson) began searching the media market for a buyer for the story of Karen McDougal who claimed to have had a clandestine affair with DJT that lasted about a year. After playing the game, AMI eventually purchased perpetual rights to the story for $150,000.00, which the company’s CEO said under oath "Gold for the National Enquire".

However, the contract between AMI and McDougal did not only concern the transfer of the rights to the story as the amount agreed was completely disproportionate to the market price for these stories (approximately $10,000.00). So the contract was drawn up to include not only the transfer of perpetual rights to the story but also its availability to appear in a certain number of magazines (which McDougal appreciated because she wanted to relaunch her fame).

Just following up on the agreement, the story was buried and never published but Pecker expected AMI to be reimbursed by DJT who, instead, dragged it out and hence the need for MC to record the famous conversation with DJT (which then ended up ‘trial documents) to assure DP and AMI that the "Boss" he would pay. The parties (DJT, MC, DP, AMI, etc.) also went so far as to outline how the reimbursement would be made, i.e. through the transfer of the rights to a shell company controlled by DJT. However, DP and AMI preferred to give up and take home the loss of $150,000.00, largely compensated by the excellent sales of the magazines with McDougal on the cover.

The second one "catch & kill": Stormy Daniels

When the story of Stormy Daniels, DP and AMI came out I had no intention of shelling out another tens of thousands of dollars, so I turned the problem directly to Cohen who, after negotiations with Stormy Daniels’ lawyers and a discussion with Alan Weisselberg (AW), CFO of the Trump Organization, came to the solution of forming a shell company, transferring $130,000.00 from his personal account to it and paying Stormy Daniels.

The agreement, obviously, provided that MC would then be reimbursed by DJT or whoever for it.

Reimbursement to Michael Cohen

Once the agreement with Stormy Daniels was concluded and the sum of $130,000.00 was paid, Cohen began to push for reimbursement of the same as well as payment for the services rendered by another company that DJT had refused to pay and to which Cohen had to cope. The agreement reached with DJT and AW was crystallized in the shell company’s bank statement found in the offices of the Trump Organization:

• Stormy Daniels: $ 130’000,00
• Red Finch: $ 50’000,00
• Total: $180,000.00

Since MC would have invoiced these sums to the Trump Organization and, therefore, would have paid us approximately 50% in taxes, on the left of the sheet Alan Weisselberg hand wrote that the sum of $ 180,000.00 had to be multiplied by two to take taxes into account and the annual bonus of $60,000.00 for Cohen was added for a total of $420,000.00.

Corporate and tax crimes

At this point MC issued 11 invoices to the Trump Organization indicating a generic as the reason "Retainer Agreement" (legal services) and obtained as payment 11 checks (9 of which personally signed by DJT) drawn on personal accounts of DJT or the DJT Revocable Trust.

The prosecution, in light of the above account statement and the non-existence of any significant legal service rendered by MC to the Trump Organization during 2017, argued that these were false invoices (phony invoices) as they were issued not for services actually rendered but to reimburse Cohen for payments to Stormy Daniels and Red Finch.

The subsequent registration in the accounts in the costs therefore determined both a crime similar to false accounting and a tax crime because they would have reduced the profit and, therefore, the taxes due.

The chain of crimes according to the prosecution theory

According to the prosecution (and, at this point, also according to the jury) the payment made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels did not serve to hide the affair from his wife Melania but rather from the voters. This was directly confirmed by several witnesses, especially by Hope Hicks, DJT’s press secretary, who testified that, after the Hollywood Access Tapes scandal (see notes), Stormy Daniels’ story would have dashed any hopes of victory for DJT .

Thus, the transaction between Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, and the Trump Organization served to influence an election through illicit means consisting of above-threshold campaign financing concealed through the commission of corporate and tax crimes.

In themselves, those corporate and tax crimes are considered misdemeanor under New York state law; however, in the United States a minor crime committed to conceal another crime becomes a major crime (felony).

Here, this is in "synthesis" what happened.

Alcune notes:

1. Hollywood Access Tape: this is the approximately twenty-year-old recording in which Trump declared that there is nothing wrong with "grab women by the vagina"

2. the 34 charges: given that the American legal system is very different from ours, the 34 charges emerge from the sum of the number of invoices issued by Cohen (11), the number of accounting records (12, because the first invoice was for two months) and the number of checks (11)

3. While Cohen had admitted to having committed the crimes alleged against Trump as part of a broader plea agreement that cost him prison and house arrest, AMI reached an agreement with the New York prosecutor’s office according to which she would not be prosecuted if she paid a fine and had testified in a possible trial

4. The defense: DJT’s defense has objectively done a terrible job and this emerges clearly both in the interrogation of their only "witness" Robert Costello was in the prosecution’s closing argument which literally demolished all the defense’s arguments. For those who know English and want to get an idea, I highly recommend reading the transcriptions you find in the first link I posted.