:martini:
Here are transcripts from AC360 last night and JVM tonight where O'Mara explains how he received the $200K (or 150K?) from GZ. (JVM didn’t have transcripts up yet so I transcribed part of the interview).
4/26/12: AC360 (part of O’Mara interview)
COOPER: Are you upset that George Zimmerman didn't disclose this to you earlier? Do you -- I mean do you feel like he was trying to keep it from you? Or what?
O'MARA: I truly don't think so because it was almost offhand that we discussed, and he said what to do with all the money in the PayPal accounts after we closed out his presence. And I asked him what he talked about.
He told me the amount. I said, well, that's a significant amount of money, we need to secure that because we need to make sure that we administer it properly. And it came right to me. He'd literally FedEx'd me the checks.
COOPER: You've -- his Web site is now shut down. Will he be soliciting more money from supporters in other ways to your knowledge?
O'MARA: We certainly intend to open a legal defense fund under my purview done the right way, because I've had dozens -- hundreds actually of people wanting to donate. I don't believe that I can request donations at this point. There's a certain process you have to put in place. But I've already had, I think, 30, 40, 50 people just send money and checks to us. We've, of course, logged all of those and have all the money now in that same trust account.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1204/26/acd.01.html
4/27/12 Jane Velez Mitchell (part of O’Mara interview)
JVM: When did you find out exactly about this money & were you as shocked as many others have been?
MOM: Well I think it was late Tues late afternoon, I can go back & look, um and it really came up literally as a matter of closing out some of the online presence that GZ had. Once we closed down all of the websites, he asked about the PayPals, and that’s when I found out there was that much and I I must agree it is a lot of money, it was surprising that people have been so committed to George that they would offer or donate that much money. Not to suggest that it’s not going to take a lot more than that to defend him but I was surprised that there was that much gathered in one month.
JVM: We knew about this website before last week’s bond hearing, did you ever flat out ask GZ before the hearing, hey, how much money have you raised with that website of yours?
MOM: NO. Actually, the only insight that I had, there were 2 other websites administered by somebody else, um I think one was a local group who was raising money for him and then one by one of his friends. I heard that there was like 2000 in one and 700 in the other, that’s what I told Judge Lester at the hearing. I didn’t know about the money, it just wasn’t really discussed, I guess I’ll take some responsibility for not really vetting all that through, but there was a lot else going on in trying to get this, keep him safe & get him ready for release.
JVM: Did you make a mistake by not asking GZ flat out how much money have you collected, before the hearing, where there wasa a cla m this guy was broke?
MOM: Absolutely. I mean without question. Think about it. Had, knowing what I know, which is that,
as soon as the opportunity presented itself for George to discuss it with me, as soon as that presented itself, him telling me without question, and transferring the money into my trust account literally moments later so I know his position in it. So certainly had I asked him that question beforehand, I would’ve said these very words, George do you have any money. Yes. How much is it. What’s its purpose. We’re going to move it into my trust account. We’re going to go before the judge and say judge, we have a little money in the family but there’s 200 or 150,000 in my trust account, that’s what we have. Because at that point, which would’ve accomplished the same exact thing, Judge Lester would’ve granted a bond, and it would’ve been a high bond, I consider 150,000 a high bond. All that would’ve been the difference, if you think about it, is that money would’ve already been in my trust account to be used for the purpose it was created. Now the only caveat is, the purpose that he asked for before I was involved was, to help him with his legal defense and his living expenses. Because I’ll tell you right now, he has spent some of that money on living expenses.