Michael Cohen Confesses to Stealing Money from Trump Organization

In a bombshell revelation that could upend the entirety of former President Donald Trump’s New York trial, star witness for the prosecution Michael Cohen admitted on the stand to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.

As the Daily Caller reports, Cohen’s testimony on Monday revealed that when he needed to make a payment to the tech company RedFinch in 2017, he asked the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg for $50,000; but instead, he only paid RedFinch $20,000, pocketing the remaining $30,000 for himself.

President Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen on the stand “You stole from the Trump Organization, correct?” Cohen simply replied, “Yes, sir.”

Cohen’s request for $50,000 was made alongside his request for $130,000 that was allegedly paid to former porn actress Stormy Daniels for a nondisclosure agreement prior to the 2016 election; the nondisclosure agreement, which has been repeatedly and falsely referred to as “hush money,” is the core of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against President Trump.

To date, Cohen is the only person to have ever claimed in his testimony that Trump himself was directly involved in the payments to Daniels, which was allegedly broken up into monthly payments of $35,000. Bragg’s office has accused Trump of falsifying business records by making these payments.

Cohen’s admission to stealing $30,000, which qualifies as larceny, stunned many legal and political commentators and is considered to have severely crippled the credibility of the prosecution. Legal expert Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, pointed out that Blanche’s questioning exposed the fact that the prosecution “had a man admitting to a major larceny but never charged Cohen.”

“That made Cohen not only their man, but allowed him to keep stolen money,” Turley added, hinting at the possibility of some kind of secret agreement between Cohen and the prosecution, even though no formal plea deal has been agreed to regarding this particular crime.

Cohen had previously pleaded guilty to perjury after he lied under oath to Congress in 2018, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of $50,000. The prosecution rested its case on Monday.