When the Son of a Witness in the Hush Money Prosecution Quickly Regretted Teaching Trump How to Tweet

Jeffrey McConney, the longtime controller of the Trump Organization, was summoned as the second witness by the prosecution on Monday in Donald Trump's hush money trial. Jeffery knew Trump via his son Justin McConney, who served as the former president's first social media director.

Trump was allegedly taught the ins and outs of Twitter (now X) by Justin, who later expressed his shock and trepidation at seeing Trump post his first tweet.

The night of February 5, 2013, @RealDonaldTrump tweeted a brief, thank-you message to actress Sherri Shepherd for her positive remarks about him. But when Justin read the post he was confused.

In 2018, Politico reported that Justin learned from other employees that Trump posted on Twitter all by himself. He remarked, "The moment I found out Trump could tweet himself was comparable to the moment in ‘Jurassic Park’ when Dr. Grant realized that velociraptors could open doors...I was like, ‘Oh no.’"

As per the outlet, McConney who left the organization in 2017, won the position after creating a video that was shown at Mar-a-Lago during a meeting with many of Trump's golf club managers. Trump was so thrilled after watching the video that he invited McConney into his office for a meeting.

The then 24-year-old film graduate introduced social media to him after realizing that the Trump business did not even have a YouTube account at the time. He advised the business magnate to create a YouTube channel to upload videos of himself.

According to McConney, Trump became more and more charmed with social media's directness and its ability to help him meticulously shape his public image. He tweeted 744 times overall at the end of 2012, which was around five times as many as he had in 2010, many of which had political overtones. It was a crucial turning point when McConney persuaded him to advertise his @RealDonaldTrump X account (previously known as Twitter) on The Apprentice.

Things got worse from there, as Trump started contacting McConney nonstop to dictate Tweets to him and hiring more employees to assist. At last, Trump purchased an Android smartphone and started tweeting on his own. By the time 2013 ended, Trump had tweeted almost 8,000 times.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance added this piece of information in her article 'Courting Disaster', which examined what happened in the Manhattan criminal courtroom. Jeffery, who testified as a witness for the prosecution was the main subject of Vance's newsletter. Days before the 2016 election, Jeffrey reportedly received and processed around a dozen fictitious invoices from Michael Cohen demanding reimbursement for giving Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money.

Prosecutors claim that to conceal the hush-money payment from voters, Trump passed off the repayment as legal costs. Based on the 12 ledger entries, 11 checks, and 11 invoices that the Trump Organization handled in 2017, Trump is accused of 34 felonies. Meanwhile, after more than 20 years as the Trump Organization's controller, Jeffrey left the firm amid many criminal and civil investigations, receiving a $500,000 severance package.

Jeffrey was found guilty earlier this year for engaging in ten years of corporate fraud with co-defendants Allen Weisselberg, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. As reported by ABC, Jeffery was the only co-defendant not to receive a fine in the civil case, but Judge Arthur Engoron permanently barred him from managing the finances of a New York firm.