Former President Donald Trump hid reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen by marking monthly checks for “legal services,” according to the statement of facts, in a deal the two worked out in the Oval Office.
“In early February 2017, the Defendant and Lawyer A met in the Oval Office at the White House and confirmed this repayment arrangement,” the statement of facts said referring to Cohen.
Trump personally signed checks reimbursing Cohen, his attorney at the time, for the hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, the statement of facts said.
The payment included $130,000 for Daniels in exchange for her signature on a non-disclosure agreement.
He also allegedly agreed to pay Cohen $35,000 monthly for one year, prosecutors allege.
The document also detailed how two of the payments were made from a trust set up in Trump’s name, but nine subsequent ones, “corresponding to the months of April through December of 2017, were paid by the Defendant personally.”
The payments stopped after December 2017, according to the document.