Trump’s 2 Obsessions: Evan Corcoran, Testifying On Monday’s Hush $$ Case

Holy Snake Plissken, Batman! Let’s send Donald Trump a copy of Escape From New York because the American president in that movie and Donald Trump are soul mates, and we mean down to the molecular level: each of these characters is a coward and is forced to do things in New York City that they don’t want to do, because they can’t escape. At least the movie president had a remarkable anti-hero in the form of Snake Plissken to come and rescue his ass, Trump has nobody. Well, okay, he’s got his legal team but he’s going to need a hell of a lot more than that. Speaking of his legal team, guess who departed quietly and unnoticed, like the proverbial thief in the night? Evan Corcoran.

Who was Evan Corcoran? He was a lawyer in Trump’s stable of legal talent and like the others who actually have some legal talent, he, too, has gone the way of Tim Parlatore, Joe Tacopina and others. He resigned and that resignation indicates that he is most likely a material witness in the classified documents case, assuming it eventually gets to trial. And what could he testify about? He took copious notes and memorialized them in memoranda. He obviously realized that the day would come when he would be asked for these details and so he wrote everything down. That could fry Trump. And Trump knows it.

So that’s one thing that he’s obsessing on right now this Friday afternoon. The other thing he’s obsessing on is the Monday trial and testifying at it.

Oh, here it is …https://t.co/KFLixrBn6G

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 12, 2024

Trump attorney and newly promoted MAGA, Inc. chief Alina Habba says Trump will testify before the J6 Committee since he “has nothing to hide .. He has no issues being subpoenaed and answering questions about what happened that day.” pic.twitter.com/DMhgnOaziH

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 26, 2022

Todd Blanche is Trump’s lawyer for the hush money trial. I don’t know if Alina Habba is involved in any way. We should know that soon enough. She may just do commentary on Newsmax and the like. Blanche was a registered New York Democrat and a partner at Wall Street’s oldest law firm. Now, he is a registered Florida Republican who runs his own firm and his biggest client is the litigious Trump. I’m assuming that Blanche got his money up front, and a lot of it, in order to make all these lifestyle changes. Meidas Touch:

For prosecutors, the strength of this case are the clear cut and relatively undisputed facts: Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels hush money and the Trump Organization improperly recorded it as legal fees. It is not a plausible defense to contend that Michael Cohen acted on his own to pay Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket, and that Trump knew nothing of the arrangement or the reimbursement. Cohen has an audio recording of Trump that shows otherwise.

Cohen is the key prosecution witness and will be pilloried by Trump’s legal team for being a convicted liar and felon. But Cohen was convicted of lying on behalf of his then-boss, Donald Trump, and a reason he went to federal prison was for his role in this very same scheme. In addition, Cohen’s testimony will be corroborated by other evidence, such as key testimony from David Pecker, former CEO of American Media, Inc., Hope Hicks and Stormy Daniels herself.

The weakness of the case for prosecutors is that it depends on an untested legal theory. It is only a misdemeanor to falsify business records. It rises to a felony if the falsification helped to commit a second crime. DA Bragg continues to frame this case not as a hush money matter, but more of a case of election interference. As such, the prosecution seems to rely on campaign finance violations as the second crime. Problem is, the Presidential election of 2016 was a federal race, not a state one. So is it a violation of New York election law? This is unchartered territory, and an appellate court will probably have the final say.

One likely argument for Trump is to borrow the John Edwards defense, which is to claim that the hush money payments were not for campaign purposes, but rather to protect Trump’s marriage. This defense, however, can be easily debunked:

First, Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ lawyer first spoke about the affair in 2011, yet no hush money was paid until two weeks before the 2016 election. Second, Trump’s wife, Melania, was not likely to pour over the books of the Trump Organization, a private company, so why falsify the internal records just to keep it a secret from her?

Third, Trump allegedly directed Cohen to delay paying Stormy Daniels until election day so they could avoid paying her altogether, since then it would not matter if she went public. That goes to Trump’s intent to commit a campaign finance crime.

And of course Trump rails that this is all Joe Biden’s fault, that all the criminal cases are “lawfare” and Biden’s fault and that simply is not how the system works. Not now, at least. Trump is, as usual, projecting how he would run this country, should he have a chance to run it again, and run it straight into the ground and into banana republic status.

Once again, Trump is not really running for president, so much as the presidency affords him his only escape in running from the law. Staying out of prison is his true quest. This is Escape From New York on a completely different plane. Trump will shuffler between Trump Tower and the courthouse, using different routes, which will be worked out by the Secret Service.

Get ready New Yorkers, the circus is coming to town in two days. It’s a circus for us, in any event. For New Yorkers, who have been watching this the past half century, it’s just Trump doing his tabloid thing. It’s a part of New York like the pigeons and the hot pretzels in Central Park.