By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial book - NY Mag
FOLEY SQUARE, Nov 15 – Back on opening day of the Trump Organization trial, controller Jeffrey McConney was on the witness stand. Inner City Press went and live tweeted here.
Jump cut to to November 15, when main cooperator Allen Weisselberg took the stand. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted, thread here:
OK - now in Trump Org trial, cooperator Weisselberg is on the stand, with the prosecutor asking why bonuses paid in January and not December.
Prosecutor: To 2017 did you get any raise to your set salary?
Weisselberg: No. Prosecutor: And after your bonus was raised to $400,000 in 2011, was it raised after that?
Weisselberg: No.
Prosecutor: Did the Trump Organization start paying your rent in 2005? A: Yes. Judge: Let's take our afternoon break.
All rise! Jurors exit. Judge: Anything to raise?
Defense: There have been too many leading questions. I would ask that in the afternoon, we return to a more normative -- Prosecutor: I agree. Thread will continue.
Weisselberg is back on the stand. Judge: May I remind you that you are still under oath? Weisselberg nods.
Judge: Bring in the jury. All rise! Jury entering! Prosecutor: Did the Trump Organization pay your rent from 2005 and 2017?
Weisselberg: Yes. And utilities
Defense: Objection! Judge: Sustained. Please try not to... Prosecutor: Did the Trump Organization pay for your parking expenses? Weisselberg: The Trump Corporation. Prosecutor: Who authorized that?
Weisselberg: The rent, by Donald Trump. Prosecutor: Himself? A: Yes
Prosecutor: Did the Trump Corporation lease you a Mercedes? Weisselberg: Yes. Prosecutor: And who authorized that? Weisselberg: Donald Trump.
Prosecutor: Did they pay for you to have cash at Christmas to use for tips? Weisselberg: Yes.
Prosecutor: Did Donald Trump personally pay for your grandchildren's tuition? Weisselberg: Yes. Prosecution: Did you know these payments were part of your employee compensation? Defense: Objection!
Judge: Sustained. Prosecutor: Did you know it was taxable? A: Yes.
Prosecutor: Did you know this should have been reported in your W-2s? Weisselberg: Yes.
Prosecutor: Did the Trump Payroll Corporation report this as income? Weisselberg: No. Prosecutor: Did you know your W-2s were false? Weisselberg: Yes.
Prosecutor: Why didn't you just seek a raise? Weisselberg: The Trump Corporation would have had to give me double the amount, to pay taxes. Prosecutor: Were you getting some $200,000 a year in personal expenses from the Trump Corporation? Weisselberg: Yes.
Prosecutor: Who prepared your personal taxes? Weisselberg: Donald Bender at Mazars. Prosecutor: Did you know -- Defense: Objection! Whispered sidebar is convened, ten lawyers standing beneath the judge's bench. Then: Judge: Objection sustained.
Prosecutor: Why didn't you tell Bender and Mazars about these payments? Weisselberg: They wouldn't have signed my tax returns.
Prosecutor: You moved into Riverside Blvd in 2005? Weisselberg: Yes. Prosecutor: Was there a terrace looking at the Hudson? A: Yes.
Prosecutor: Who signed the lease for the apartment? Weisselberg: Donald Trump. Prosecutor: Who was the building sold to then? Weisselberg: EQR.
Prosecutor: How did the lease come about? Weisselberg: My wife required 22 eye operations. We had to live in the city
Prosecutor: Who did Mr Trump say it would help? Weisselberg: The company & me, I wouldn't have be on the train 3 hours every day.
Prosecutor: Did they cut checks? Weisselberg: Yes Prosecutor: Who signed the checks? Weisselberg: Donald Trump or me. I don't remember
Prosecutor puts on the screen a Trump Corporation check, made out to Trump Place, asks, What is that? Weisselberg: From 59th Street on down.
Judge: We're going to call it a day.
From October 31, McConney: OK - now in Trump Org trial as questioning turns to 2007 O'Brien case, to witness doing Trump world payroll processing for decades. Q: Would you say that gross payroll is pre-tax and net payroll is post-tax?
A: Yes...
Q: Are you familiar with tax withholding and was it your job to ensure withholdings were appropriate?
A: That was up to PayChex.
Q: But you input the info, right? A: I did.
Q: What is the difference between W2s and 1099s?
A: W2 withholds taxes, 1099 doesn't. W2 is for an employee, 1099 for an independent contractor.
Q: Was it part of your job for the Trump Organization to make sure its W2s were correct? A: Yes.
Q: I'm going to show you a thumb drive. Do you recognize it?
Jeffrey McConney: The handwriting on it, yes.
Counsel: I'm going to read this stipulation about... spreadsheets, business records. "The people have agreed to remove the first names of Trump children."
Defense: Objection! On relevance. Sidebar is called - then 10 minute break.
With jury out of courtroom (and witness too, through the same door up in the front of the courtroom), the argument about relevance is not at sidebar, but open.
Counsel: These are Trump Corporation general ledgers and they do contain many transactions...
Counsel: These records go to how camouflaged these transactions were. Judge: The objection is noted and overruled. Now a real break: Judge leaves the bench, some in gallery go out.
Judge is back. He says, Usually I try to go straight through the afternoon, but I notice that several of the jurors were looking a little tired.
[Inner City Press: generic testimony about W2s and 1099s can to that.]
Jury entering!
Q: Mr. McConney, did you notice on the thumb drive there are files, then A or B that is a PDF of an Excel spreadsheet? McConney: Yes.
Q: Let's look at TO-18, a general ledger produced by the Trump Organization to the grand jury. Do you recognize DANY #'s? A: Yes
Q: Let's turn to TO-43 - a payroll run for Allen Weisselberg, correct? McConney: Yes. (Coughs). Q: And this was a $100,000 payment to Allen Weisselberg on January 1, 2016 as part of his bonus for the previous year? McConney: Right.
Q: And are these W2s from Trump Payroll to Allen and Barry Weisellberg from 2005 and 2020? McConney: Let me see. (Counts each name, each name). Yes.
Q: And do you remember the original question? McConney: No. [Some jurors laugh seemingly sympathetically]
Judge: OK, I'm going to call it a day. Don't read anything about the case, jurors. Don't receive any payment about the trial. Do not communicate or Google about the case
[Extra: afterward, Inner City Press stopped in 1st floor courtroom, two tweets on three cases here
Defendant getting conditional discharge as long as he doesn't go (return) to NY Punlic Library on 5th Ave. RoR on Brooklyn warrants. Next defendant is in a skeleton shirt, for Halloween presumably...
Skeleton man, after three previous arrests for robbery, 4 open cases, stole from Nordstrom. Judge is asking about open warrants. Defendant is handcuffed behind his back with winter parka half off. Halloween evening nears, the sun sets before 6 pm, soon 5 pm...
Earlier the jury was selected in the New York criminal case about the Trump organization(s). Inner City Press live tweeted on October 25, here:
Prospective juror Ms. Coolibaly is asked if she take fairly listen to cooperator Weisselberg.
She says yes.
Ms. Coolibaly is asked if her mother working in Accounts Receivable will be a problem. Seems not.
Next up: an adjunct at NYU, in "advanced archival" -- No conflicts seen.
Next man says he likes to write political criticism. Uh oh
Prospective juror: It's not that I have a problem with propaganda. I just need to know what it is. I am interested in income disparities, some people pay different interest rates... "what happened in 2008, what the Federal government did for some and not others"
Con't: "I lived in a dictatorship for a while... When I lost my freedom overseas, I saw you don't have any type of protection. The system needs work."
Counsel: "Thank you for those remarks... Could you be fair?"
A: I wouldn't bring my idealism to this.
Prosecutor: The defendants here are corporations, but it must be beyond a reasonable doubt. Can you hold us to that standard? Can you call it like you see it?
Last juror in (this) pool: Yes I could do it.
Centre street video here.
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