Former President Donald Trump and his legal team will likely blame a staffer for business documents at the heart of his criminal hush money trial, a legal expert said Monday.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani predicts Team Trump will say the former president was oblivious to slippery bookkeeping practices of his accountant, she said in an interview with Salon.
“They’re going to blame the accountant,” Rahmani said. “The accountant is going to be the fall guy.”
Specifically, Rahmani predicts Trump’s lawyers will distance their client from payments to former fixer Michael Cohen that were listed as legal expenses.
“I think they’re going to say that Trump had no involvement in booking these payments to Cohen as legal expenses,” Rahmani said. “That that was something the accountant did.”
The former president faces a 34-count indictment on charges he fudged business records to hide hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump repeatedly denied the affairs and has pleaded not guilty.
Salon’s report notes Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche acknowledged in his opening statement that Daniels signed an non-disclosure agreement for $130,000, but denied payments made to Cohen represented a reimbursement of that cash.
“You’re going to learn this was not a payback,” Blanche told the jury. “The $35,000 a month was not a payback to Mr. Cohen for the money that he gave to Ms. Daniels.”
Salon then points readers to a recent tweet from former federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman in which he shared that opening statement to a California court holding in 2020.
“Trump admitted in court filings to reimbursing Cohen for hush money to Daniels,” Goodman claimed.
Rahmani said that court filing won’t hold much water in court.
“Unless they were verified pleadings, or like a declaration, they are not something that can be used against Trump,” Rahmani said. “Just because his lawyers are making inconsistent arguments is not something that can be used against Trump.”
