Monday, May 13, 2024

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1/ Michael Cohen testified that Trump directed him to personally make the $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels because her story would be “catastrophic” for his campaign. During testimony in Trump’s election interference trial involving falsified business records, Cohen described his role at the Trump Organization as essentially “whatever” Trump “wanted.” Cohen testified that Trump instructed him to “just do it” – referring to the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels – when he learned that Daniels was looking to sell her story about their alleged affair in 2006. “I thought you took care of this,” Trump told Cohen. “I thought this was under control. This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women will hate me […] this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.” Trump later instructed Cohen to “just take care of it,” but to drag out negotiations as long as possible to “just get past the election. I win, it has no relevance because I’m president, and if I lose, I don’t really care.” (New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Washington Post / Politico / Bloomberg / Associated Press)

An aide to Trump’s 2016 campaign alleges that the campaign intentionally obscured settlement payments to women who made discrimination or harassment claims in violation of federal law. “A.J. Delgado’s filing presented evidence of top Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz openly admitting that the campaign wanted to use a law firm to cover up a potential settlement payout in 2017. The arrangement, as Delgado described it, appears specifically designed to evade the consequences of federal disclosure laws that require campaigns to publicly report the identities of payment recipients.” (Daily Beast / Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington)

Trump may face a $100 million IRS bill after an audit suggests he double-dipped on tax losses tied to a Chicago skyscraper. The first write-off came on Trump’s tax return for 2008, when he claimed that the investment met the tax code definition of “worthless,” because his debt on the project meant he would never see a profit. Trump claimed as much as $651 million in losses on the project. In 2010, Trump then he shifted the company that owned the tower into a new partnership and used the shift as justification to declare $168 million in additional losses over the next decade. (New York Times / ProPublica)

2/ A State Department report said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had used American-provided weapons in Gaza that are “inconsistent” with international law. The report, however, stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law, saying there was insufficient information to draw firm conclusi...

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