Former President Donald Trump may have been involved in witness tampering, including in his latest hush money case, where he was found guilty on 34 counts of felony, according tor reporting by ProPublica.
As ProPublica reported Monday, nine witnesses who have testified in proceedings involving the former president were provided “significant financial benefits." The money “often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump,” the outlet reported, sometimes between when witnesses were subpoenaed and when they testified. Benefits included “large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares, and cash from Trump’s media company.”
One of Trump's lawyers, David Warrington, sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding ProPublica not publish the exposé, warning that if the outlet and its reporters “continue their reckless campaign of defamation, President Trump will evaluate all legal remedies." The intimidation did not work.
Examples of witnesses receiving benefits included Dan Scavino, Trump’s aide who was given a “plum position on the board of Trump’s special media company,” and Boris Epshteyn, campaign adviser, who had his pay more than doubled. Trump’s campaign also hired the daughter of another witness, Susie Wiles, who in turn received a raise of her own.
The list goes on. Payments to lawyer Evan Corcoran’s law firm “dramatically increased” around the time he was asked to testify in the classified documents case against Trump. And the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, received a $2 million severance package four months after Trump was sued for financial fraud by the New York attorney general.
In addition, Weisselberg’s severance agreement contained a nondisparagement clause that bars him from voluntarily cooperating with investigations against Trump. Prosecutors in the hush money trial brought up the agreement when trying to explain why they didn’t call Weisselberg to the stand as a witness.
The ProPublica report — written by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliot, and Alex Mierjeski — noted that, while its investigation did not find evidence that Trump personally approved the benefits to witnesses, the former president is an infamous micromanager.
For its part, the Trump campaign denies everything. Steven Cheung, a spokesperson, said that “[a]ny false assertion that we’re engaging in any type of behavior that may be regarded as tampering is absurd and completely fake.”
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