Rebecca Manochio, a bookkeeper who works at Trump Organization, is testing about how she handled Donald Trump’s personal checks through the organization and how the process worked. She was on the stand until a short lunch break.
Here are the highlights so far:
Who is she? Trump Organization junior bookkeeper Manochio says she has worked at the company for 11 years. “I worked at a supermarket and then I got a job at the Trump Organization” in 2013, she said
Her responsibilities: Manochio said she worked as an assistant to former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg for eight years and sat outside his office. She said she attached invoices to checks for Weisselberg to sign. She also worked for former executive Jeffrey McConney, who was controller at the time — he already testified about how Michael Cohen’s payments were listed in Trump’s financial documents.
How Trump paid personal expenses: Trump’s personal expenses were handled by the Trump Organization, and he paid his expenses by check. When Trump was in the White House, Manochio said she would FedEx checks to Trump once a week.
Sending the checks to the White House: Manochio testified that she often sent 10 to 20 unsigned checks to Washington and they came back signed by Trump, typically in a few days. If a check was missing, she would as if Madeline Westerhout at the White House if she had it. When the checks came back to Manochio with the backup invoices attached, she would send them to Deborah Tarasoff in the organization’s accounting department, she said.
Getting emails and invoices into evidence: The prosecution is using this bookkeeper’s testimony to obtain emails and invoices into evidence, focusing on a series of correspondence regarding Trump’s personal checks from 2017. Several invoices show packages shipped from Manochio to Keith Schiller, the Trump Organization’s former head of security.
Why it matters: The documents outline how Trump’s personal checks were dealt with around the time of the hush money payments. Documents show they were facilitated in Washington, DC, by the bodyguard Schiller and then by the personal aide John McEntee, once Schiller left.
