https://manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-Indictment.pdf

The Trump indictment
https://manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-Indictment.pdf

The Statement of Facts from the D.A. on the Trump case
https://manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-SOF.pdf

-- In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme.

-- One component of this scheme was that, at the Defendant’s request, a lawyer who then worked for the Trump Organization as Special Counsel to Defendant (“Lawyer A”), covertly paid $130,000 to an adult film actress shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant.

-- Lawyer A made the $130,000 payment through a shell corporation he set up and funded at a bank in Manhattan.

-- This payment was illegal, and Lawyer A has since pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution and served time in prison.

-- Further, false entries were made in New York business records to effectuate this payment, separate and apart from the New York business records used to conceal the payment.

-- After the election, the Defendant reimbursed Lawyer A for the illegal payment through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (the “Defendant’s Trust”)—a Trust created under the laws of New York which held the Trump Organization entity assets after the Defendant was elected President—and then from the Defendant’s bank account.

-- Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, and each check was disguised as a payment for legal services rendered in a given month of 2017 pursuant to a retainer agreement.

-- The payment records, kept and maintained by the Trump Organization, were false New York business records.

-- In truth, there was no retainer agreement, and Lawyer A was not being paid for legal services rendered in 2017.

-- The Defendant caused his entities’ business records to be falsified to disguise his and others’ criminal conduct.

-- During and in furtherance of his candidacy for President, the Defendant and others agreed to identify and suppress negative stories about him.

-- Two parties to this agreement have admitted to committing illegal conduct in connection with the scheme.

-- In August 2018, Lawyer A pleaded guilty to two federal crimes involving illegal campaign contributions, and subsequently served time in prison.

-- In addition, in August 2018, American Media, Inc. (“AMI”), a media company that owned and published magazines and supermarket tabloids including the National Enquirer, admitted in a non-prosecution agreement that it made a payment to a source of a story to ensure that the source “did not publicize damaging allegations” about the Defendant “before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.”

-- (tax fraud....) Shortly after being elected President, the Defendant arranged to reimburse Lawyer A for the payoff he made on the Defendant’s behalf.

-- In or around January 2017, the TO CFO and Lawyer A met to discuss how Lawyer A would be reimbursed for the money he paid to ensure Woman 2’s silence.

-- The TO CFO asked Lawyer A to bring a copy of a bank statement for the Essential Consultants account showing the $130,000 payment.

-- The TO CFO and Lawyer A agreed to a total repayment amount of $420,000.

-- They reached that figure by adding the $130,000 payment to a $50,000 payment for another expense for which Lawyer A also claimed reimbursement, for a total of $180,000.

-- The TO CFO then doubled that amount to $360,000 so that Lawyer A could characterize the payment as income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement, and Lawyer A would be left with
$180,000 after paying approximately 50% in income taxes.

-- Finally, the TO CFO added an additional $60,000 as a supplemental year-end bonus. Together, these amounts totaled $420,000.

-- The TO CFO memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the bank statement that Lawyer A had provided.

-- (skipping ahead to the crime) The TO Controller forwarded each invoice to the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor.

-- Consistent with the TO Controller’s initial instructions, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor printed out each invoice and marked it with an accounts payable stamp and the general ledger code “51505” for legal expenses.

-- The Trump Organization maintained the invoices as records of expenses paid.

-- As instructed, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor recorded each payment in the Trump Organization’s electronic accounting system, falsely describing it as a “legal expense” pursuant to a retainer agreement for a month of 2017.

-- The Trump Organization maintained a digital entry for each expense, called a “voucher,” and these vouchers, like vouchers for other expenses, became part of the Trump Organization’s general ledgers.

- The TO Accounts Payable Supervisor then prepared checks with attached check stubs for approval and signature.

-- The first check was paid from the Defendant’s Trust and signed by the TO CFO and the Defendant’s son, as trustees.

-- The check stub falsely recorded the payment as “Retainer for 1/1-1/31/17” and “Retainer for 2/1-2/28/17.”

-- The second check, for March 2017, was also paid from the Trust and signed by two trustees. The check stub falsely recorded the payment as “Retainer for 3/1-3/31/17."

-- Lawyer A submitted ten similar monthly invoices by email to the Trump Organization for the remaining months in 2017.

-- Each invoice falsely stated that it was being submitted “[p]ursuant to the retainer agreement,” and falsely requested “payment for services rendered” for a month of 2017.

-- In fact, there was no such retainer agreement and Lawyer A was not being paid for services rendered in any month of 2017.

-- The TO Controller forwarded each invoice to the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor.

-- Consistent with the TO Controller’s initial instructions, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor printed out each invoice and marked it with an accounts payable stamp and the general ledger code “51505” for legal expenses.

-- The Trump Organization maintained the invoices as records of expenses paid.

-- As instructed, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor recorded each payment in the Trump Organization’s electronic accounting system, falsely describing it as a “legal expense” pursuant to a retainer agreement for a month of 2017.

-- The Trump Organization maintained a digital entry for each expense, called a “voucher,” and these vouchers, like vouchers for other expenses, became part of the Trump Organization’s general ledgers.

-- The TO Accounts Payable Supervisor then prepared checks with attached check stubs for approval and signature.

-- The first check was paid from the Defendant’s Trust and signed by the TO CFO and the Defendant’s son, as trustees.

-- The check stub falsely recorded the payment as “Retainer for 1/1-1/31/17” and “Retainer for 2/1-2/28/17.”

-- The second check, for March 2017, was also paid from the Trust and signed by two trustees.

-- The check stub falsely recorded the payment as “Retainer for 3/1-3/31/17.”

--  The remaining nine checks, corresponding to the months of April through December of 2017, were paid by the Defendant personally.

-- Each of the checks was cut from the Defendant’s bank account and sent, along with the corresponding invoices from Lawyer A, from the Trump Organization in New York County to the Defendant in Washington, D.C.

-- The checks and stubs bearing the false statements were stapled to the invoices also bearing false statements.

-- The Defendant signed each of the checks personally and had them sent back to the Trump Organization in New York County.

-- There, the checks, the stubs, and the invoices were scanned and maintained in the Trump Organization’s data system before the checks themselves were detached and mailed to Lawyer A for payment