Why Michael Cohen's Plea Arrangement Likely Also Implicates Donald Trump Jr.

by Nomad

It's hard not to view yesterday as a turning point in the Trump debacle.
At the trial of Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight felony charges, five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud. He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.

Meanwhile, in a Manhattan court, Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen yesterday pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws. He told the District Court judge that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
And that candidate was not Hillary "Lock 'er up!" Clinton.
Altogether, it was a terrible day for Donald J. Trump and a terribly good day for the rule of law in America.

Coordination

Cohen's plea agreement also goes into the specifics and the particulars about his role in facilitating payments between the National Enquirer (for suppressing damaging information) and the lawyer of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, Keith Davidson.

Michael Cohen, the defendant, caused and made the payments described herein in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. In so doing, he coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls about the fact, nature and timing of the payments.

So, that tells us that one or more members of the Trump campaign staff were aware of the payments and, more importantly, the "nature" of the payments. But who?

Well, the most obvious person would be Paul Manafort who was the acting campaign manager. It's not out of the question that the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr. could have been involved. In any case, we know the results. Following the payments, the two women did not publicize their alleged affairs with Trump.

The Reimbursement Arrangement

On the next page, there's something even more interesting. According to the arrangement, following the payments to McDougal and Daniels, Trump's lawyer sought reimbursement "for election-related expenses" from the Trump Organization (referred to as "Company-1"). 

It was not a small sum of money. The total of the reimbursement came $420,000, which Cohen had already paid. 

Cohen then presented executives at the Trump Organization with a copy of a bank statement reflecting the money he had paid from the bank account of Essential Consultants. This was a dummy company Cohen set up for the purpose of making the payments while keeping the transaction below the radar. The court document also mentions another payment without much in the way of explanation. 

 adding, in handwriting, an additional "$50,000." represented a claimed payment for "tech services," which in fact related to work COHEN had solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign. 

There's not much in the way of explanation. At the very least, it opens the question: why the secrecy about tech services if they were legitimate and legal?

Update: After this post was published, Rachel Maddow asked the same questions about the mention of "tech services." She speculates about the question "what tech services was Trump's lawyer secretly paying for?"
She points to the Steele Dossier which claimed that Michael Cohen met with Kremlin representatives in August and September 2016 to discuss "deniable cash payments to operatives who were participating in the anti-Clinton hacking campaign organized by the Russian government and various contingencies for covering up those operations."

Revocable Trust 

After receiving this paperwork from Cohen proving that payments had been made, the executives from Trump Organization made the monthly payment of $35,000, to be spaced out over a 12-month period.  Who might those executives (listed in the court document as "Executive-1" and "Executive-2") be?

Executive-1 forwarded that email to another employee at the company, stating: "Please pay from the Trust. Post to legal expenses..."

This provides us with a strong hint about the identities.

In April 2017, the Washington Post reported:

Newly released records show the trust agreement that Donald Trump used to put his adult sons in charge of his company allows him to draw money from it upon his request, illustrating the thin divide between the president and his private fortune.

The "trust" mentioned in the document apparently refers to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust which owns hundreds of Trump businesses "shall distribute net income or principal to Donald J. Trump at his request," or whenever his son and a longtime employee "deem appropriate."

Now we can get a good idea of how Trump ordered the Cohen's reimbursement. The trust's managers were- surprise- Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.

Seventy-one-year-old Weisselberg, as it happens, has already been subpoenaed by the grand jury investigating Cohen. According to Fortune, he was considered a witness in the ongoing investigation of Cohen for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

The WSJ reports that he has assumed a variety of duties, from “arranging for checks that Mr. Trump would sign,” to handling “dealings with banks and other important matters.” Weisselberg also reportedly oversaw many of Trump’s personal matters, including household expenses and personal purchases. He even prepared Trump’s tax returns for some time.

From the start, this arrangement raised legitimate ethical concerns. The trust, experts warned, offered little barrier against conflicts of interest as well as the potential that the president could derive personal profit from his public office.

Now we see that the trust was probably also being used to pay hush money during the campaign which would represent illegal campaign finance violations.

Here are the two relevant pages from the plea agreement.

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