Trump paid Michael Cohen from his own personal bank account, former Trump Organization employee says

Time 12 of Donald Trump’s Long island trial started with a unutilized eyewitness to the be on one?s feet, Jeffrey McConney, a former worker of the Trump Group who prosecutors say helped organize a $130,000 quiet cash fee to Breezy Daniels, who alleges had a sexual come upon with the previous president.

In his testimony on Monday, McConney, who served as a monetary controller, reprised his position within the Trump Group’s 2022 civil fraud trial, The Brandnew York Instances reported, discussing his interactions with the corporate’s former monetary officer, Allen Weisselberg. 

McConney mentioned that he and Weisselberg, who’s these days in prison, were related and would consume lunch in combination each and every time. He was once much less related with the previous president’s ex-fixer, Michael Cohen; requested to explain Cohen’s position on the Trump Group, McConey flatly said that, “He mentioned he was once a legal professional.”

But the former Trump Organization staffer also spoke to Trump’s interactions with Cohen. In 2017, he testified, Trump told him that Michael Cohen was owed money, some of which was said to be a for a bonus but the rest was “alternative cash.” This other money was specifically for the hush payment, which prosecutors allege was falsely described in business records as “felony bills,” and was meant to cover the taxes Cohen would incur by claiming the money as income.

McConney, who started working for Trump in 1987, also testified that, about a year into his employment, he was warned by the Trump himself against paying the former president’s bills without first seeing if he could negotiate for a lower payment. That claim could help prosecutors show that Trump would have been intimately involved in any scheme to misclassify the payments to Cohen.

Indeed, on Monday jurors were shown an email, from Weisselberg to McConney, discussing the payments to Cohen, “as consistent with word of honour with Don and Eric.” McConney said that he had emailed Cohen in 2017, asking him to submit invoices for the money. The subject line read: “$$.”

The cash to Cohen, McConney testified, got here from Trump’s private store account.