The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump ARRIVES at Trial PANICKING about WITNESSES

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s arrival at trial for week 4 where he started panicking about witnesses testifying against him and his lawyers tried to block Trump’s own former controller from testifying saying they weren’t ready for his testimony. Head to https://policygenius.com/MEIDAS to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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A future resources company. We'll be right back. to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Donald Trump's lawyers are saying that they are not prepared to ask the witness currently on the stand in Donald Trump's criminal trial questions. The witness on the stand is Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization's own former controller, someone who worked at the Trump Organization for about 40 years. And Trump's lawyers are begging Justice Mershon,

please don't have him testify. We're not ready to question him. Justice Mershon rejected that, and it's been an eventful morning thus far with Donald Trump already being held in contempt for for the 10th time so far during his criminal trial. And Jeff McConaughey's testimony has been very, very significant for the prosecution. Here is what Andrew Weissman said about this whole ordeal. Weissman is currently in the courtroom. He said, file this under truly lame excuses. Donald Trump's lawyers are saying that they are not prepared for Jeff McAnee to testify. He is the Trump Organization's longtime controller, and he testified at the other criminal trial against the Trump Organization, where the Trump Organization was found liable for over a dozen felonies, found guilty for over a dozen felonies and found guilty for over a dozen

felonies. Discovery was provided about McConaughey a long time ago. Justice Mershon swiftly rejected this request by Donald Trump's lawyers and McConaughey's testimony. Let me just tell you, it may not have been as dramatic as Hope Hicks or as dramatic as Keith Davidson or as dramatic as David Pecker, but I think it's been even more significant. But let's just go back a little bit. As Donald Trump arrived for trial today, he had with him that stack of papers that he has someone on his campaign payroll who I think the Political Action committee pays like $8,500 a month. I think she's made over $105,000 to follow Donald Trump around with a portable printer. And then she gives him articles that the campaign thinks that he'll like and Trump's lawyers think that he'll like, so it makes Trump feel good. So he starts off the proceedings getting these, the day,

getting the stack of paper from Natalie Harp and he starts going through it with the press and he talks about how unfair these witnesses are. Here, take a look at what he says right here before he arrived in court. Play this clip. Absolutely no case. It's a political hoax. It's election interference. Anything they can do, and even the witnesses they want to bring up, they have nothing to do with the case. This is a ridiculous situation. Not fair. Not fair. But we will fight.

Thank you. Then he arrived in court. And as we discussed in another video, you should go and check it out. Donald Trump was then swiftly found in contempt by Justice Merchant for the 10th time. Justice Merchant admonished Donald Trump to his face and said, you're leaving me no choice. The next time you do this, I am throwing you in jail. Do you understand? I didn't want it to get like this, but clearly these fines aren't stopping you, the monetary fine. So the next time you do this, I am putting you in jail. Then we had Jeff McConaughey show up. As I mentioned, Donald Trump's longtime controller. There he is right there. You see the courtroom sketch of him. Here he is walking

into court. Here's another photo of him right there. The people call Jeffrey McConaughey, Trump Organization's former controller and Trump's civil fraud trial co-defendant. Hat tip to Adam Klossfeld, who's in the courtroom and live posting about it as well. Klossfeld then explains, as usual during direct examination, Jeff McConaughey begins by going over his background, his job routine, what he did at the Trump Organization for close to 40 years before he retired. McConney continued to describe the daily operations of the Trump Organization. Then it gets to the approval of paying invoices. Now, the prosecution has to ask McConney all of those questions to establish a foundation, to build the foundation

for the fact that Makani is aware how invoices are paid, Makani is aware of the organization, how he works with the former chief financial officer at the Trump organization, Allen Weisselberg, how he knows about Michael Cohen, how Trump likes things to be paid, how the books and records are kept, which is all, of course, very important in a case involving the falsification of business records. McConaughey is then asked if Allen Weisselberg sometime approved invoices by email. McConaughey answered yes. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo hands a thumb drive over to Makani. Makani identifies it by his scribble, and the thumb drive contains emails, notes, and reports from the general ledger,

form 1099s regarding payments, Makani explains. Then the prosecutor goes through with Makani detailed, exacting questions to authenticate all of these records. I have enough to read already to keep up with the news to host this show. And I definitely don't want to spend my time comparing the overwhelming paperwork of life insurance policies on my own. So I got Policy Genius because with Policy Genius, you can find life insurance policies that start at just $292 per year for $1 million of coverage. Some options offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical exams. I have a growing family and making sure my family is

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paying Michael Cohen. And McConaughey mentions the complaint about his end of year bonus and that there was other money that was owed to Cohen. So they're really getting into when Cohen was reimbursed for the hush money payments that Cohen made to Stormy Daniels and McConaughey right here. This is why McConaughey's testimony may not be right now as dramatic as Hope Hicks or as dramatic as Pecker or Keith Davidson, but this is a falsification of business records case, folks. officer telling you about paying Cohen. And McConaughey goes, well, we've got to pay him other money that Cohen was owed. McConaughey agrees that his and Allen Weisselberg notes of Cohen's reimbursements were kept in a locked drawer. So that's suspicious, keeping it in a locked drawer. The jury sees the notes jotted on the essential

consultant's LLC account statement for First Republic. And now they're going through the notes that Allen Weisselberg took and the notes that McConaughey took regarding the payments that Cohen made through a shell company that Cohen set up. So they're all corroborating right now the Cohen payments that were made to Stormy Daniels. $180,000, which McConaughey says includes the Stormy Daniels reimbursement, plus some money for what's called Red Finch. And then the notes that McConaughey is saying, it says grossed up to 360, which McConaughey says is for tax purposes, additional bonus 60. So McConaughey's reading his notes right now, talking about $180,000 payment, which includes payments made to Stormy Reimbursement. I mean, this is in notes,

reimbursing Stormy Daniels for the $130,000 that she was paid. Then it's gross up so that when Cohen would have to pay taxes on it, it would basically, it would cover the payment that was made and Cohen wouldn't have to pay taxes on it. And then it has this thing called Red Finch. Red Finch is other money that allegedly Cohen had paid to online polling companies. The notations that McConaughey's going through adds the sum total to $420,000, the figure representing Cohen's total reimbursement. Prosecutors said that that was paid in monthly increments of $35,000, the figure representing Cohen's total reimbursement. Prosecutors said that that was paid in monthly increments of $35,000, masked by 34 falsified business records that were then

changed to make it seem like they were legal expenses that were owed to Cohen, when in fact that's not what they were at all. McConaughey emails Cohen in February of 2017, just a reminder to get me the invoices you spoke to Allen about. So here you have McConaughey emailing Cohen, get me the invoices you spoke to Allen about that you paid Stormy Daniels and this Red Finch. And we're going to gross it up to 360. Michael Cohen then sent his invoices to Allen Weisselberg via Jeff McConaughey that day, February 14, 2017. The email evidence shows McConaughey then goes to his account payable supervisor, Deborah Tarasoff, on February 14, 2017. please pay from trust, post to legal expenses, put retainer for the months of January and February 2017 in the description. You have

Trump's lawyers, objection, objection, objection. The judge is saying, no, these are business records. They can absolutely come in right here. And so that's where we are right now with McConaughey. And McConaughey's tying this from Weisselberg to Trump, the payments that are being made right here to Michael Cohen for the payments to Stormy Daniels. So that's what's happened thus far with this witness. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 3 million together. Thank you for watching.