Deborah Tarasoff, an employee in the Trump Organization’s accounting department, testified for just over an hour Monday about the check-writing process at the company.
Tarasoff helped arrange the 12 checks for $35,000, each signed by Donald Trump and sent to former attorney Michael Cohen in 2017 as reimbursement for the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
She testified that after 2015 any invoice over $10,000 had to be approved by Trump or one of his sons. When she created the checks, Trump would sign them, she testified — or, if he disapproved, he would write “void” on them, she said.
“If he didn’t want to sign it, he didn’t sign it,” she said. She knew he was the one signing them because, “It was signed in Sharpie and it was black and that’s what he uses.”
She testified she had no decision-making authority but followed instructions, including getting invoices approved, entering them into the system, cutting the checks and getting them signed.
On cross-examination, she acknowledged that she was not present for conversations between Trump and former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg about the payments.
