Heres how it came to be. In may of this year, may 22nd, the New York Times had a scoop that they probably only got because they are specifically the New York Times. They sent crack reporters to an otherwise sleepy courthouse in albany, new york, not a Federal Courthouse, a state court, because that day in that state court in new york, a longtime Business Partner of Michael Cohens, A Taxicab Mogul Named Gene Friedman Who everybody called the taxi king, he was in court. He had been facing really serious charges in new york, Tax Evasion Charges in new york more than 5 million and four criminal counts of tax fraud and facing a charge of grand larceny. A big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. The story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge Criminal Liability he was facing winnowed down to almost
nothing. He was able to work out some sort of deal where all of that prison time and
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Charge of grand larceny, a big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. The story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge Criminal Liability he was facing winnowed down to almost nothing. All the prison time and felonies evaporated. Instead of being tried for evading 5 million in taxes, prosecutors let him plead guilty to one count of evaluating 50,000 worth of taxes. Not 5 million, 50,000. Instead of decades in potential prison time the deal he cut with prosecutors got him zero prison time. People do plea deals all the time they offer their testimony for prosecutors letting them off the hook and going easier on
them. This was like the mother of all plea deals. The amount he offered must have been very very valuable to the government given how sweet the deal was he got from them in return. That happened in late may.
Remember, it was a Grand Jury that indicted Donald Trump in this case. And in this indictment he is quoting the first count the Grand Jury accuses the defendant of falsifying Business Records in the first degree. The defendant on or about february 14, 2017, attempted to defraud and conceal another crime by falsifying Business Records of an enterprise. The remaining 33 counts in this indictment count each monthly Payment And Invoice falsely describing a request for legal services, falsely describing the payment as one for legal services, also falsely describing the nature of the payment. 11 falsified invoices, 11 falsified ledger entries and 12 falsified checks. Temidayo, theyre jumping right into the details. What stands out to you from how the prosecution is framing all this, the narrative they are creating right now. I think theyre doing exactly what caroline said, about the upside down pyramid. They started broad and theyre
county of new york an elsewhere on or about february 14, 2017 with intent to defraud and intent to commit other crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise to wit an invoice from michael cohen. that s where it gets different. can you explain what intent to defraud, intent to commit another crime? to aid and conceal the commission thereof. do you know what the hell they re talking about here? normally the indictment clears it up. here it doesn t. it simply says there s a false business record, as you cited properly, or the attempt or intend to defraud or aid and abet the commission of a crime or cover up another crime.
let s go through everything to see what you possibly remember. i want to go through the checks. we have the six new checks that are out. new reporting in the new york times illustrates how the president s trust money collaborated routinely. as the new york times lays it out, starting february 14, 2017, the day after trump s national security adviser mike flynn resigned. and the day trump pressured jim comey to let the flint investigation go. his trust cut michael cohen a check for $70,000. on march 17, trump playing president, hosted german chancellor angela merkel in the overly office. another check is written to cohen for $35,000. trump meets with world leaders trying to negotiate peace between the u.s. and palestine, he find time to write a $35,000