(UnitedVoice.com) – Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, took the stand in the New York criminal case. He was called the star witness by the press. After he left the stand, a paralegal from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office testified and dropped a bombshell.
Jaden Jarmel-Schneider worked on the Trump case in the prosecutor’s office. He dealt with the phone records in the case and other data, including information from Cohen’s phone. His testimony was important because it was related to a recording that was played earlier.
On the recording, the former president and Cohen appeared to be discussing hush money payments to former adult model Karen McDougal. The $150,000 payment was intended to keep her quiet about an affair that she allegedly had with Trump over the course of several months. Trump didn’t make that payment; the publisher of the National Enquirer paid her for the rights to her story, then never published it.
Trump’s attorneys have suggested that Cohen manipulated the call in some way. Jarmel-Schneider testified that phone records showed that he received a call 22 seconds after the recording was cut off. The prosecution brought it up because they wanted to show that Cohen didn’t edit the recording. Instead, he cut it off because he received another phone call.
During his testimony, Cohen claimed the former president directed him to pay off Stephanie “Stormy Daniels” Clifford. He alleged Trump was concerned that stories about his alleged affair with Clifford, a former adult film star, would hurt his chance of winning the 2016 election because the Access Hollywood tape had recently been made public.
Cohen also alleged Trump told him to falsify business records to hide the payments so they wouldn’t have to be reported to the Federal Election Committee. The entire felony case hinges on whether the former president committed the underlying election offense.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains he never had extramarital affairs.
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