‘The American people will revolt’ if Trump is impeached
DONALD TRUMP’S long-time financial gatekeeper has taken immunity from prosecution to discuss what he knew about payments to the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, numerous US media outlets reported yesterday.
Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organisation’s chief financial officer, was said to have met prosecutors weeks ago after a grand jury summons.
The conversations reportedly were about Mr Cohen, who this week pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws over payments to two women claiming affairs with Mr Trump before the 2016 election.
Prosecutors said that Mr Cohen was reimbursed for his role in the payments through a $35,000 (€30,000) monthly retainer arranged by Trump Organisation executives.
Mr Cohen effectively accused Mr Trump of being a co-conspirator in a crime by claiming he gave the direction to make the payments.
The fact that Mr Weisselberg had been talking raised questions about how much he had said. Commentators suggested that the conversation could be a “Pandora’s box” for prosecutors. The development was first reported by the ‘Wall
Street Journal’.
Mr Weisselberg has spent decades with the Trump Organisation, and reportedly got Mr Trump to sign off cheques on an almost daily basis. When Mr Trump stepped away from the company after his election victory, he handed control to his two sons and Mr Weisselberg.
The developing legal drama centres on payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, a ‘Playboy’ model.
Both women claimed affairs with Mr Trump, which he has denied, and were paid for their silence. Ms Daniels got $130,000 and Ms McDougal $150,000.
Mr Cohen, who for a decade was Mr Trump’s lawyer and fixer, admitted on Tuesday to breaking campaign finance laws and said the payments were an attempt to “influence” the election.
Mr Trump said the money did not come from campaign finances and denied any crime. He also said he was only aware of the payments “later on”.
David Pecker, a friend of Mr Trump who is chief executive of the publishers of the ‘National Enquirer’ tabloid magazine, has also reportedly been given immunity by New York prosecutors.
His firm has been accused of involvement in both payments, including buying Ms McDougal’s story and “killing” it.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump and his legal team have hit back at suggestions he could soon be impeached, with his lawyer saying that the American people would “revolt” if such a move was taken.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is now a legal adviser to Mr Trump, said that it was “inevitable” any attempt at impeachment would fail.
Crash
Mr Trump himself claimed that the stock market would “crash” and leave people across the country “very poor” if he was ever forced from office.
And Mr Trump has ordered his secretary of state Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned visit to North Korea because the regime is not making “sufficient progress” over denuclearisation.
The US president’s comments, delivered by tweet, amount to the strongest criticism yet of North Korea from Mr Trump since he met the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in June.
Previously Mr Trump has repeatedly played up the success of the talks, saying that North Korea “no longer” posed a nuclear threat and pointing to the fact no missiles had been tested.
Mr Pompeo, who is leading the talks for America, had been due to fly to North Korea next week to hold further talks about securing the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula – something agreed by both sides when the US president met Mr Kim.
It is unclear what exactly triggered the latest decision by Mr Trump. It followed days of intense domestic pressure and negative headlines.
Mixed reports on North Korea’s co-operation have emerged since the June summit in Singapore. Mr Kim has returned the remains of what are believed to be 55 American soldiers who served in the Korean War.
There is also evidence captured by satellite images that North Korea has started to dismantle a key military engine test site at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, as Mr Kim said he would when he met Mr Trump.
However US intelligence officials have also said that North Korea may have increased production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites, according to an
NBC News report in July. (© Daily Telegraph London)