Trump Org Defense Team Calls for Mistrial Over DA's References to Ex-President's Actions

Gunnar Larson g at xny.io
Fri Dec 2 22:24:10 PST 2022


https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2022/12/02/trump-org-defense-team-calls-for-mistrial-over-das-references-to-ex-presidents-actions/?kw=Trump%20Org%20Defense%20Team%20Calls%20for%20Mistrial%20Over%20DA%27s%20References%20to%20Ex-President%27s%20Actions






Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in
Bedminster, N.J., Wednesday, July 7, 2021. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP
NEWS

Trump Org Defense Team Calls for Mistrial Over DA's References to
Ex-President's Actions
Defense attorney Michael van der Veen argued that the Manhattan DA had
presented Donald Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in the fraud scheme,
putting a bias on the jury “that can’t be undone.”

December 02, 2022 at 02:51 PM

 4 minute read

Criminal Law

Jane Wester
Jane Wester More from This Author
During his closing argument Friday in the criminal tax fraud trial of the
Trump Organization, Manhattan assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass
showed jurors a memo initialed by former President Donald Trump.

In the memo, Trump Organization chief operating officer Matthew Calamari
asked the company’s controller, Jeffrey McConney, to reduce his salary by
$72,000, the amount the Trump Organization paid for his rent in 2012.
Prosecutors have argued the process of “backing out” personal expenses from
executives’ salaries was one way the Trump Organization avoided taxes in
the later years of the alleged fraud scheme.

Steinglass noted that Trump had written “OK” and his initials on the memo
in his signature black Sharpie.

“There’s only one reason for that, which is to underreport income,”
Steinglass said. “Mr. Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud.”

The Trump Organization defense team immediately offered an objection, which
was sustained by Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Steinglass reiterated after a sidebar that Trump “is not on trial,” but he
emphasized that jurors should be skeptical of the defense narrative that
McConney and Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to 15 counts in August
and testified under a plea agreement, “went rogue” and acted without the
knowledge or approval of the company’s CEO.

“This whole narrative to show Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant is just
not real,” he said, later urging jurors to “put aside the elephant that’s
not in the room” while remembering that “the rules apply to everyone.”

The “explicitly sanctioning” comment was one of several issues raised by
Trump Organization defense attorney Michael van der Veen when he moved for
a mistrial at the conclusion of Steinglass’ summation.

“We picked a jury and voir dired a jury based on the People’s
representation that this case was not going to be about Donald Trump,” van
der Veen said.

Van der Veen argued that Steinglass had presented Trump as an unindicted
co-conspirator in the fraud scheme, putting a bias on the jury “that can’t
be undone.”

Steinglass argued that the DA’s theory has always been that corporate
liability is predicated on the actions of Weisselberg and McConney, not
Trump, but Trump was nevertheless the CEO and president of the Trump
Organization.

“If the name of the CEO were John Doe, there’d be no objection here,”
Steinglass said.

Merchan said he did not recall Steinglass promising not to mention Trump.
Instead, he said, he recalled Steinglass saying the DA’s case would not get
into politics or suggest Trump should be sitting at the defense table.

“I don’t believe that it’s necessary to declare a mistrial,” Merchan said.
“In fact, that’s not even really a thought.”

The Trump Organization defense attorneys also objected strongly to a chart
prepared for Steinglass’ closing argument, which Merchan eventually allowed
him to present.

The chart showed the various ways in which Weisselberg earned money through
salary, bonus and unreported personal expenses across the years of the
alleged fraud scheme.

Steinglass argued that, contrary to the defense team’s argument that the
Trump Organization saved only an incidental amount on Medicare taxes
through Weisselberg’s scheme, the company saved hundreds of thousands of
dollars by funding its executives’ cars and apartments with so-called
“pre-tax” dollars.

“In order to do this legally, to get the same amount into Allen
Weisselberg’s pockets, the Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. would have
had to gross him up roughly double,” Steinglass said.

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