NEW YORK — Prosecutors finally displayed the documents at the heart of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump on Monday, but have yet to establish a direct link to demonstrate Trump’s culpability.
Until Monday, prosecutors had been focused on setting up other pieces of their case: the context for the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about claims of a sexual encounter and the broader “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election they allege Trump was involved in. Monday’s witnesses — former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney and Trump Organization accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff — offered starkly different testimony than earlier witnesses like David Pecker and Keith Davidson, providing no salacious celebrity stories and an almost exclusive focus on accounting.
Through their testimony, prosecutors introduced the invoices, ledger entries and checks the 34-felony count indictment against Trump claims he falsified, allegedly to reimburse his former attorney Michael Cohen for the Daniels payment.
Bragg was only able to bring the core charges for falsifying business records, which had passed the statute of limitations, by charging them as felonies and alleging they were done to conceal or commit another crime, which is why much of the prosecution’s case has focused on highlighting Trump’s involvement in the alleged “conspiracy.”
