Michael Cohen testimony continues as star witness in Trump’s hush-money case
Good morning. Michael Cohen, once one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants and enforcers, will return to the stand this morning to be cross-examined by the former president’s lawyers in his historic criminal trial.
Cohen, the star witness in the case against Trump, testified earlier this week that his former boss instructed him just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison, demanding that he “just take care of it”. Cohen is core to the case against Trump, because prosecutors allege that the former president cast reimbursement for a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels as legal expenses for Cohen, constituting falsification of business records.
The entire case is likely to succeed or fail on whether jurors believe Cohen’s account, or the defense claims that he is an “admitted liar” motivated by publicity and attention.
We’re at the courthouse again today. Stay with us.
Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
Key events
Who is Michael Cohen?
Michael Cohen is Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer who was for more than a decade his Mr Fix-It, but is now the prosecution’s star witness as it builds its case that the former president sought to conceal hush-money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
Cohen served as Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney and self-described “attack dog with a law license”. But the relationship soured after Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 and did not offer Cohen a role in his administration.
Cohen, a native of Long Island, began practicing law as a personal injury lawyer in 1992 and joined the Trump Organization in 2006. He’d told Trump he’d read his book The Art of the Deal twice and soon became a close confidant.
In a 2018 profile, it was noted that Cohen performed a role much like that of Roy Cohn, the notorious New York political and legal fixer who had worked for Trump and his father. Cohen’s duties led him into fixing situations of a sensitive nature, including setting up “catch-and-kill” arrangements with David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, which has circuitously led to today’s court confrontation.
Michael Cohen testified on Tuesday that he submitted phoney invoices for legal services to cover up what were, in fact, reimbursements for a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels on his then boss’s behalf.
He repeatedly identified Donald Trump as the driver of the Daniels payoff scheme – and said that he did it to protect Trump from losing the election. Cohen said he got the money to Daniels “to ensure that the story would not come out, would not affect Mr Trump’s chances of becoming president of the United States”.
“At whose direction, and on whose behalf, did you commit that crime?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked him. Cohen replied:
On behalf of Mr Trump.
Victoria Bekiempis
Michael Cohen, testifying on Monday, talked about how controlling media narratives about Donald Trump was among his key duties: he described helping catch and kill negative press that could have tanked his then boss’s chances in the 2016 election.
This came to include fronting $130,000 of his own money to pay off the adult film actor Stormy Daniels – who, weeks before election day, had been trying to peddle a story that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006. This came just shortly after a Washington Post story of a hot mic recording in which Trump boasted that he could grab women “by the pussy” without consent.
Cohen described Trump as “really angry” when he learned that Daniels’s story was in effect up for grabs. He recalled Trump saying:
I thought you had this under control. I thought you took care of this.
Cohen said Trump told him to “just take care of it”, adding that “This was a disaster, a fucking disaster.” Cohen said Trump wanted him to take care of the Daniels matter, but also told him to “push it out as long as you can, past the election, because if I win, I’ll be president, and if I lose, I won’t really care.”
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Cohen said. “This was all about the campaign.”
Michael Cohen testimony continues as star witness in Trump’s hush-money case
Good morning. Michael Cohen, once one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants and enforcers, will return to the stand this morning to be cross-examined by the former president’s lawyers in his historic criminal trial.
Cohen, the star witness in the case against Trump, testified earlier this week that his former boss instructed him just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison, demanding that he “just take care of it”. Cohen is core to the case against Trump, because prosecutors allege that the former president cast reimbursement for a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels as legal expenses for Cohen, constituting falsification of business records.
The entire case is likely to succeed or fail on whether jurors believe Cohen’s account, or the defense claims that he is an “admitted liar” motivated by publicity and attention.
We’re at the courthouse again today. Stay with us.
Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
