Checks Mailed to Donald Trump's Bodyguard Raise Eyebrows

Legal experts have raised questions regarding the testimony of Rebecca Manochio during former President's Donald Trump's hush money trial amid the revelation that checks meant for him to sign while he was in the White House were sent to the home address of his bodyguard.

Manochio, a junior bookkeeper in The Trump Organization, said during Thursday's proceedings in New York that she was told by high-ranking members of the former president's inner circle to send checks to the home of Trump's longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller, in early 2017 but was not sure why.

The testimony came as the prosecution tried to paint to the jury that Trump was personally involved in signing checks and knew the reason they needed his signatures. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to the $130,000 hush money he arranged for his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election to conceal an alleged affair.

The payment was listed in Trump's company records as Cohen's "legal fees," which the prosecution said was part of a scheme by Trump to conceal the transaction to influence the outcome of the race.

Manochio told the jury how she would send invoices for Trump to sign in Washington, D.C. There were also at least two instances in which Manochio mailed checks to Schiller's home, instead of to the White House, with the bodyguard then sending them back.

Manochio said she doesn't know why they went to Schiller, but she was told to do so either by Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg or Trump's former assistant, Rhona Graff.

Reacting to the testimony, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance posted in X, formerly Twitter: "Nothing fishy about the President of the United States having checks for him to sign sent to his bodyman's home address."

Katie Phang, a lawyer and MSNBC legal analyst, added: "Why is Trump's bodyguard getting FedEx'ed (to his personal address) the unsigned checks from the Trump Organization to reimburse Michael Cohen???

"PS That was a rhetorical question LOL," Phang added.

Elsewhere, former prosecutor Karen Agnifilo, who used to work in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, suggested that Manochio's testimony could be crucial to the prosecution as it tries to prove that Trump committed financial crimes by concealing the payment to Cohen.

"The testimony we're seeing right now. it is very much not just about bookkeeping, but about his finances when Trump is in the White House," Agnifilo said on CNN.

"Manochio said she would FedEx checks to him once a week. So now we're getting into the nitty-gritty. So believe it or not, this witness is way more important than Stormy Daniels."

Daniels answered questions under oath on Tuesday and Thursday about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. While Daniels gave often salacious details, legal experts suggested that her testimony was largely irrelevant to the main aspects of the falsifying business records case.

The trial resumed Friday.