the prosecution is questioning deborah tarasoff.vidence connected to michael cohen and the alleged hush money payments to stormy daniels, including multiple checks signed by donald trump in his signature black sharpie. let's go back to yasmin. the prosecutors have charged trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records. today's testimony -- it touched all 34 counts after today's testimony, right? >> reporter: we have seen all the evidence today, 34 counts, falsified business records, 12 counts with regard to ledgers, 11 with regard to invoices, 11 counts with regard to checks as well. connecting the dots for us. jeffrey was authenticating many of the invoices, telling us what was false and not false. deborah going through every check that was cut and legitimatizing, authenticating every one of those checks, completing the circle. we are seeing the signature of donald j. trump when it was coming from his personal account, in black sharpie. for the first time. i will say today when it comes to some of the testimony, it wasn't nece

she is deborah tarasoff.ked in accounts payable, and according to the indictment, she is the one who basically processed the invoices involved in the hush money payment. joining me now two reporters whose investigative work has been in the trial. david fahrenthold, and michael rothfeld who reported that trump played a central role until the hush money payments to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels and author of "the fixers." joyce vance, tristan snell, charles coleman, and susan del percio are back with me as well. charles, help us put this in perspective. again, this can all sound very dry. we're connecting the dots, right, from our last witness to this one, who actually prepared the invoices. >> sure. and so one of the things that people need to understand big picture wise is that last week, and everything leading up to today, there has been a certain amount of distance between donald trump and actual transactions. and that's not by design. that's not an accident. that's by design. donald trump keeps himself

to the extent the evidence about the underlying business records, we heard from deborah tarasoff whovided evidence that there was this falsification process that was going on at trump organization. to your point, that is the reminder to the jury that this case is about 34 felonies of falsification of business records. when you call necessary witnesses, the people that did the booking of these entries, that handled the paperwork, these are the people that actually may not have the personal knowledge of the conversations, and yet they can link the stories together. that's why they are important witnesses for the prosecution. >> thank you. >> we want to go to vaughn and talk about the next witness that has been called. the longtime cfo of trump org -- what can you tell us about her? >> reporter: they is where we link the business records part and the execution of the checks, the reimbursement checks from donald trump to michael cohen. allen weisselberg, along with don junior, signed the first two checks in 2017 through the trust that went to michael cohen as reimbursement. what she's ab

now this is essentially the number three person, ms tarasoff it's important to deborah tarasoff, right? it's important to keep in mind throughout the trump organization was a small operation. they have a lot of employees out of their golf clubs and hotels. but in terms of who ran the corporate side of it, it's really just a dozen or so people. now, there was an important moment that geoffrey mcglone testifying about this morning. he sent an email at one point to the witness who's taking the stand ms tarasoff, where he wrote to her quote please pay from the trust post to legal expenses. >> i'll say that again post to legal expenses. and that's really the heart of the alleged crime here that this was actually reimbursement for the stormy daniel's hush money but donald trump, they are you artificially said we're going to call this legal expenses. i think the testimony this morning was effective in providing a building block. here's how the accounting works. what's still missing though, is that direct link? to donald j. trump where we're just getting word in that. one of the district attor

one was jeffrey cima the former trump organization controller, another person, deborah tarasoff and accounts payable supervisor at the trump organization. and by the way, she's still works there. now, if you think here's how are these people going to be as exciting as michael co ones where may daniel's, it's a paper and documents case and i want to focus on two key pieces. >> the first is this bank statement showing that michael cohen page stormy 130,000 bucks in the so-called hush money. >> there are handwritten notes at the bottom by trump's former money man, alan yslow berg. now those notes, they actually calculate how much cohen should be repaid the tune of 420,000 bucks. now mccartney, he testified that in 2017 why isil berg told him to start repaying cohen anywhere is own calculations that you see here as my son knows, and school show me the math. so let's break it down for a second. how do you get to $420,000? well, there's the original hundred and $3,000 payment that cohen made to stormy. >> then they added about $50,000 for a tech services company that helped with the poles as it fi

>> well that accounts payable executive deborah tarasoff is on the witness stand and trump's lawyers have just begun cross-examination of her. she's been testifying under questioning from the prosecution, and she's explaining to them how the paperwork works, how they were with issued checks in this case, all related to the reimbursement to michael cohen and she described how when donald trump became president, they had fed ex, the checks and down to the white house for him to sign to be sent back to the trump world. organization. that then she would then send out to michael cohen that the prosecutor is walked her through each one of these checks so the juries repeatedly seeing this pattern of a invoice from michael cohen saying that pursuant to a retainer agreement, you should be paid $35,000 a month, seeing that entered into the general ledger, and then seeing that on the check stub and ultimately the check that assigned by donald trump in his signature, sharpies signing that are those are the elements of this alleged crime. those are the falsified documents that prosecutors have, 1

we heard from deborah tarasoff. you have her cutting these checks in trump tower, walking the checks up to for instance rhona graff when donald trump was not then president to get some of the checks signed by donald trump in his office in trump tower. when donald trump assumed the white house, assumed the presidency, those checks were sent by tracey menzies to the white house and that's where madeleine westerhout picks things up. she was the personal assistant at that point to donald trump, as she's explaining in the document right now in this testimony, right outside the oval office. she would have been the one, jose, to have taken the checks from the fedex envelope. walks them in to donald trump in the oval office. as we well know now from all of the books read, who have read portions of his books, he signs every check. he knows every number coming out of these checks. walks those checks into donald trump and donald trump subsequently signing these checks, eventually to reimburse and/or pay michael cohen. so they

. >> the checks are critical only insofar as deborah tarasoff explain what the checks are. certainly, deborah tarasoff, who was i believe accounts payable within the trump organization came and testified in excruciating detail about 34 we're checks. each four, i believe $35,000 that were at the heart of this scheme. now, it's boring testimony. it's not the splashes testimony that people will here, but critically important that we stay on the screen that looks very splashed. it's it's very splashy now and sort of like i was saying about stormy daniel's part of the task of prosecutors is to build a world around the thing there they're establishing. >> and if you're saying that 34 checks were written in order to further a criminal scheme. you actually have to introduce each of those 34 into evidence in painstaking detail, saying, is this true and accurate rendering of the check is you remember it, ma'am? yes. i think they spent 90 minutes. >> we were there for all of it. i i know. >> well, i mean, i think especially because the defense is refusing to stipulate this. so they're

on the stand right now, trump employee deborah tarasoff. she handled payroll. testimony is critical. she explains that only donald trump could sign checks that came from his personal account. that's the one used to reimburse michael cohen for the hush money payments. trump did that, even after becoming president of the united states of america. she also testified that if trump did not want to sign a check, he didn't have to. she was one half of a double whammy against the ex-president today. testifying after mcconney. he was a co-defendant of the ex-president. that was back in the civil fraud case against trump and the trump org. he testified that most of the money used to reimburse michael cohen came from trump's personal account. nine of the 11 payments made to him. in fact, he testified that why cohen was reimbursed $420 was complicated but not so much when you see it laid out. it was the hush money payment plus a bonus plus what they referred to as plussing up, paying him additional money to cover the taxes that would be owed. he said that he told deborah t

another trump organization employee, deborah tarasoff, testifying about mr. trump's process of signing checks including to cohen, which were shown to the jury saying "if he didn't want to sign it he didn't sign it. it was signed in sharpie and it was black and that's what he uses." >> vaughn, the prosecution also giving an indication of the timing of this case. >> reporter: yeah, lester. prosecutors said they intend to call witnesses for about the next two weeks. at that point mr. trump's team will be able to present its own defense. and of course the question of whether the former president will take the stand himself. lester? >> all right. vaughn hillyard in new york tonight. thank you. >>> there is a new severe weather threat we're following tonight after that flooding emergency in texas led to more than 600 rescues in the houston area alone. officials said two people were killed including a 4-year-old boy. the flooding left homes submerged, cars floating and lives upended. bill karins is here. bill, conditions are really ripe for another tough night. >> l

after the break, we heard from a woman named deborah tarasoff or worked in the accounting department entered mcconney and allen weisselberg. she labeled them as legal expenses and that was one day of testimony. there's more to come in the case which prosecutors say they are halfway finished, at least for their part. with michael cohen and stormy daniels yet to testify, it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. the former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york relet hype profile prosecution of white collar criminals, and he joins me now. i am not a lawyer. i tried to summarize what we learned today. i talked to a lot of smart ones. i tried to summarize what we learned today. did i get anything wrong? >> it was a pretty good summary. what you heard today was testimony that was not so dramatic. not as salacious as some we have heard before. we are certain to here in coming days, but it goes to the core the basic criminal charge which is falsification of business records. i think, based on what happened today, and how uninspiring the cross-examination was because the

prosecutors also calling longtime trump organization employee deborah tarasoff a direct report to mcconneyrvisor when cohen submitted invoices to be reimbursed in 2017. trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records and has denied that encounter with daniels, the judge also finding trump in contempt of court for the 10th time after he violated the limited gag order in the case by commenting about the jury in a recent interview, the judge telling trump he does not want to put him in jail, but he will if necessary and appropriate. reena roy, abc news, new york now, in yet another legal battle, trump's defense team has requested a delay in the classified documents case due to the documents being disorganized. >> special counsel jack smith admitted that some of the documents are out of order in the various boxes. the fbi retrieved from trump's mar a lago estate. he says they've been reviewed multiple times, including one review requested by trump. trump is charged with mishandling national defense information for one year. >> the city of antioch has deployed a community

jeffrey mcconney and deborah tarasoff helped reimburse mr.ormer attorney, michael cohen, for the payments cohen made to adult film actress stormy daniels during the final days of the 2016 campaign. the former president also received another fine and a tough warning from the judge in this case, who again said if trump continues to violate the court's gag order, he could face jail time. ximena bustillo is covering the trial for npr, and joins us now. so nice to see you again. today we heard from these two former financial officers of the trump organization who were part of paying and accounting of these payments to michael cohen. what did we learn today from their testimony? ximena: the former and current employees of the trump organization detailed step-by-step the process for reviewing vouchers, invoices, and ultimately cutting checks at the trump organization. we looked at almost all, if not all of the 34 business records the prosecution is alleging that the trump organization and trump himself falsified in order to hide the actual reason wh

it doesn't matter if trump never had contact with deborah tarasoff who prepared the invoices or involved in the general ledger entries. it won't matter for the underlying conspiracy that trump may not have signed that nda. that underlying conspiracy is a conspiracy to promote trump's election to the presidency, through unlawful means. but he himself doesn't have to be the one who takes the unlawful means. as much distance as blanche is trying to create between trump and some of the key documents here, the law itself doesn't require that he be hand and glove with that evidence. i expect you're going to hear that from the d.a.'s office when we come back from the lunch break. >> those people on the jury, who don't follow, who don't follow donald trump's behaviors, that closely as president or before, so there has been so much testimony that he was a penny pincher, he tracked everything down to a picture frame, but now he's too busy, in the oval office, the president of the united states, he's too busy to know what he's paying. well, those of us who covered him know that he was not a detaile

have 11 from the invoices submitted by michael cohen, 12 from the vouchers that were logged by deborah tarasoff. this was created by the manhattan d.a.'s office, and it is in evidence. this document, this exhibit we're all looking at right now, the jurors get the chance to be able to look at it as well. there's also something i want to highlight before i turn it back to you. their jury is going to be looking at the checks, the checks that constitute some of the multiple counts that donald trump is looking at. remember, there was one count that deals with the revocable trust account, and there was a second one. you'll see this, katy, over and over again, starting from donald trump's personal checking account, you've got the $35,000 made payable to michael cohen, and then you have here donald trump's signature, and so the jury is going to be asking themselves, when they're going through each and every one of these counts, these checks, could donald trump credibly say that he did not know that he was a part of this scheme to defraud and so, katy, let's see what type of questions, if any, more that

this is the account and of course, deborah tarasoff. and so this was what happened in response to brass tacks. we're right now on the actual documents. right. so what happened? prosecutor asked the following question. what if you cut a check from the dj t account? did mr. trump have to sign the check because mr.. weasel berg, of course, he's the chief financial officer or was approved. it witness answers. no. if he didn't want to sign it, he didn't sign it. prosecutor then asked, did you ever see situations where he didn't sign checks witness? yes prosecutor than asks abby what would happen in those situations? witness tarasoff, the accountant, he would write void on it and send it back prosecutor than asks, how do you know he would write void on it? answer by the account ms tarasoff, it was signed in a sharpie and black that is what he usually uses. >> okay. so this is significant because now we're getting into hardcore evidence, right? remember it's about the business records, the legend here's the invoices, the checks you have an acc

a mcconney testified also testifying on monday, deborah tarasoff, a trump organization accounts employee who cut the checks to cohen. tarasoff said that trump was the only one who signed the checks for his personal account only mr. trump. she testified adding if he didn't want to sign it, he didn't sign it. >> it's goes well past the stormy daniels hush money payments monday morning before the weaknesses took the stand, the judge found trumped in contempt for again, violating a gag order, preventing him from discussing witnesses or jurors and the case this time criticizing the makeup of the jury in an interview with the outlet real america's voice. >> that's yours. it's so fast. 95% democrats the areas, mostly old democrat. you think of it as just a purely democrat area. it's a very unfair situation that i can tell you judge. >> one, we're sean said the magnitude of this decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the de, i have a job to do. so as much as i don't want to impose a jail sanction, i want you to understand that i will, if necessary, and appropriate order and suitability ja

we heard this from deborah tarasoff, who works in accounts payable for the trump organization.he said, look, she was asked by the attorney. now you talked a little bit about invoices and i'm quoting here, i want to talk a little bit about who could sign the checks, particularly for the donald j. trump account, who could sign the checks? he asked for the accounts in 2016 and 2017 and she says, well, you're talking about mr. trump's personal account and the attorney says, yes and she says only mr. trump the attorney asks again, was that true back in 2017 and 20 she said yes. and she said that it's still that way today so she is still working for that organization. she further says that if trump didn't want to sign a check, he certainly wouldn't do it can you give us some sense of how important this kind of testimony is and how far this went to help potentially the prosecution make their case. that donald trump knew what was going on here because he signed the checks well, our testimony was important because it starts to connect some of the dots and that is can you actually put a

we had this testimony from jeff mcconney and deborah tarasoff to trump organization employees.t might have put jurors to sleep, but prosecutors can't establish a case about financial improprieties without getting those documents and people have sort of law and order or perry mason notion of how trials work. but witnesses like this were critically important another one that i would point to is the denial of a mistrial. and i think america god, it's introduction to the concept of a mistrial this week where an error happens at trial fireball that is so grave that it deprives the defendant of his ability to have a fair trial and the defense made the argument this week that stormy daniels is testimony that got into all kinds of salacious details about sex and positions and pajamas and all that business was so precious, sorry, a jackie prejudicial we, can about with your alliteration. >> know the illinois we chuckle about it because it is preposterous and absurd that you're talking about a foreign president of the united states in this context, then the argument they made was that it

trump sign the checks when she received the checks back from washington, she would give them to deborah tarasoff, monarch. dan. go ahead, please. so looks just remember they're 34 counts of falsifying business records and they're not all checks some relate to false invoices, exact sum relate to false ledger entries, and some relate to false checks. you don't have to prove the prosecution doesn't have to prove that this was in aid of another crime being committed. it could also be to conceal. it could also be to commit there's different theories as to each of them. now, one of the things that i think on cross-examinati on the defense did a really good job here was to show that look the when it comes to classifying it in the drop-down menu of the computer program it's legal fees. and that's that's what we had there. but look, it's going to also have these invoices. and if trump if they can put these invoices and trump's hands and these checks and trump's hands, and he knew exactly what was happening there, that he was trying to hide this, that this was happening that can be enough even if he didn'

earlier saw these records during testimony from jeff mcconney and trump organization employee deborah tarasoff, let me ask a question here, guy lives and this is a theory, if they paying michael cohen for his prior payment to stormy daniels, and we're falsely calling me he's legal retainer fees to hide that that then the answer is yes, technically, an important distinction to make here is that what we're seeing here is evidenced of a misdemeanor of falsifying business records. >> there's the additional campaign question, which is the one that we've been talking about for two weeks now. yeah. >> that's what bumps it up to the level as of right now. misdemeanor is abundantly clear right now, based on the evidence, are so mcconney, who worked at the trump organization earlier testified that he would forward the invoices, these fake invoices, according to michael cohen, $35,000 retainer every month, which is not real. it's not really for services rendered. it is actually just a repayment, according to michael cohen, he would forward these faking invoices to tarasoff, an employee of the trump organ

donald trump's organisation's former controller, jeff mcconney, and another accounting executive, deborah tarasoffvoices, emails, ledgers and cheques that they say all corresponded to the reimbursement of michael cohen for the so—called hush—money payment. and then stormy daniels, with her vivid, salacious testimony, that was meant to corroborate her account that the alleged sexual encounter with donald trump did take place and that she was paid off to keep silent about it. the defence all throughout tried to sow enough doubt in jurors' minds, but with michael cohen, he is a make—or—break witness for prosecutors. he has a history of lying under oath, so he is problematic. but they are hoping they have built up enough evidence to bolster his account when he takes the stand. for the defence, they are hoping that they are able to attack his credibility enough to make jurors second—guess everything he says. prince harry and meghan are in nigeria this weekend as part of the duke's promotion of the invictus games. they will meet wounded soldiers who are representing the country at next year's event in c