Michael Cohen, a convicted hypocrite, is the main witness in the prosecution’s flimsy case against previous president Donald Trump, who was the main witness in the Manhattan District Attorney’s event. But understandably, Cohen— and his allegations against Trump — fell apart on the witness remain under mix- investigation by Trump’s protection team on Thursday.
Even CNN could n’t help but admit it.
According to senior legal analyst Elie Honig, the network’s senior legal analyst,” I do n’t think I’ve ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen.”
CNN’s Anderson Cooper called what Trump lawyer” Todd Blanche did to Cohen” an “extraordinary combination- examination”, admitting” Cohen was cornered in what appeared to be a lie”.
Cohen lied to a Senate committee in 2017, pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress, and told the public he did not commit income denials “despite having told a federal prosecutor, U. S. District Judge William Pauley, in court that he had”, Politico reported.
Federal prosecutors even expressed” significant fears about Cohen’s trustworthiness as a see” and “material fake comments” he reportedly made to the FBI and lawyers.
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CNN called Cohen’s efficiency under cross- examination by Trump’s defense team the original president’s “best day … but way” in the lawfare case. His testimony, the corporate press outlet acknowledged, presented the “kind of inconsistency that Trump’s lawyers can use to try to cast reasonable doubts about Cohen’s integrity and credibility in the brain of a second judge.”
That’s putting it somewhat.
Trump’s community worries him, too.
Since the former president allegedly paid Cohen to buy Stormy Daniels ‘ silence as campaign expenses rather than legitimate fees, the former president may have relied on that fact to inform Bragg about the lawfare case against Trump, which is totally legal.
Matthew Colangelo, the lead attorney and former Biden Department of Justice standard, claimed in opening remarks that” this was a planned, long-running plot to control the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal investments to silence people who had something bad to say about his habits.”
Cohen, however, acknowledged on the stand that Trump expressed concern that the allegations would harm his family when they first surfaced in a 2011 blog post.
Fair to say that when you spoke with President Trump about that and the Ms. Daniels story, he said he was concerned about what his family would think, which is true? Blanche asked.
” Yes, as well as, of course, for the brand”, Cohen testified.
The first thing President Trump said to you was that his family did n’t like that very much, he said. Blanche pressed.
” That’s true”, Cohen responded.
Phone Call from Keith Schiller
Cohen testified earlier in the week that a call he had with Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, on Oct. 24, 2016 was to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it”.
” That was a lie”! Blanche told Cohen, according to CNN. ” You did not talk to President Trump on that night, you talked to Keith Schiller”.
Blanche then showed the jury that Cohen messaged him and said he wanted help with prank calls he kept getting from a 14-year-old prior to calling him.
Cohen attempted to keep his story together by claiming that” I believe I also spoke to President Trump and told him that everything related to the Stormy Daniels case was being worked on and it’s going to be resolved.”
But, as Blanche reminded the jury, the call only lasted 96 seconds in total.
Convicted Liar Lies Again
Cohen acknowledged to having never met Bragg on Thursday, but Blanche gave the jury audio from a podcast episode where he thanked Bragg for his efforts to defeat Trump.
” Alvin Bragg, with whom I spent countless hours explaining how Trump handled those hush money payments and numerous other financial crimes. He will soon experience what I went through, and I’m sure it wo n’t be fun. Picturing Donald Trump being led through the booking process, getting fingerprinted, having his mug shot taken, fills me with delight and sadness all at the same time”.
Cohen also tarnished his reputation on Thursday when he admitted to lying under oath for a different reason because, Blanche said,” the stakes affected you personally.”
” Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally”? Blanche then asked, to which Cohen affirmed “yes”.
The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman is a correspondent for elections.
