Michael Cohen, a former plumber for Donald Trump, testified to jurors on Tuesday about a 2017 Oval Office conference where the then-elected US president confirmed a secret payment plan to charge Cohen for a movie star.
Cohen, the lawyer’s celebrity witness at Trump’s legal trial in New York, even acknowledged lying on various occasions- including under oath- but emphasized that he did so out of loyalty to Trump, as prosecutors sought to post- empt an expected defense attack on Cohen’s credibility.
Cohen’s first day as a witness on Monday detailed how Trump had instructed him to paid Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress,” Just do it,” as he remembered Trump, to keep her account of an alleged sexual encounter with him a secret.
Cohen’s$ 130, 000 settlement in October 2016 is at the center of Trump’s historical trial, now in its second month.
Trump, 77, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has pleaded not guilty and denies any intimate experience with Daniels. He described the incident as a political try to stifle Joe Biden’s bid to retake control of the White House he lost in 2020.
After the vote, Cohen’s attorneys claim that Trump paid him back by making false data that claimed to be Cohen’s. The 34 counts of falsifying company documents that Trump is accused of pursuing are based on those covert reimbursements.
Cohen recalled a February 2017 Oval Office conference where Trump promised to pay him the initial monthly payments of a bonus package, which Cohen claimed included payments for the Daniels payment in his testimony on Tuesday.
Cohen claimed that the attorneys who hired him for legal services walked him through a number of payments and inspections, some of which were signed by Trump himself.
” There was no fee agreement, was it”? Hoffinger asked.
” No, ma’am”, Cohen replied.
Cohen, 57, said he lied several days to Congress during an investigation into Trump’s Russia relationships, later pleading guilty to fraud. He also claimed to have lied to jurors frequently about Daniels ‘ payment, claiming to be a victim of a false narrative.
In 2018, after the Justice Department began investigating the Daniels pay, FBI officials raided Cohen’s home. He claimed to have panicked Trump.
” He said to me,’ Do n’t fear, I’m the president of the United States, there’s little ok, everything is going to be OK, be difficult, you’re going to be Alright,'” Cohen said. That was the last day they spoke instantly, Cohen added.
Otherwise, Cohen testified, a attorney named Robert Costello who was near to Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani offered a “back network” to Trump. In messages shown to judges, Costello passed along Giuliani’s claims that he was loved and had “friends in great sites”.
However, Trump was defending Cohen on social media and decrying the idea that he does “flip” and cooperate with prosecutors. It all added up to a “pressure strategy” to preserve Cohen in column, he said.
He finally, however, consulted with his family before deciding to cooperate. ” It was about time to listen to them, to remain faithful to my child, my wife, my brother and the country”, Cohen said.
Cohen pleaded guilty to federal acts in 2018, including those involving the Daniels pay, and claimed that Trump had directed him to make the transaction despite the fact that he had already been charged.
Trump’s attorneys have already portrayed him as a liar and a liar who ca n’t be trusted, and his checkered history will undoubtedly give him a bruising cross-examination.
” A overall devastation,” that is.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson joined him the day after Trump’s trial was contested by a number of Republican politicians, who afterwards after criticized the circumstance outside the courtroom.
A middle-level appeals court rejected Trump’s most recent attempt to overturn a joke order, which he claimed violated his right to free speech, while Cohen testified on Tuesday.
The purchase, imposed by Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the prosecution, prohibits Trump from making common remarks about judges, witnesses, and people of the judge and lawyers if meant to tamper with the situation.
Cohen claimed on Monday that Trump had approved numerous payments to keep damaging sex-scandals atop the news media, preventing further damage to his presidential campaign.
” Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign- off”, Cohen said.
Cohen said that he, Trump and tabloid publisher David Pecker had secretly agreed in 2015 to help Trump’s campaign.
According to Cohen, that arrangement included a$ 150, 000 payment from Pecker’s company to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to buy her account of a year-long affair she claimed she had with Trump. Trump has also denied that relationship.
Similar to Daniels, the intention was to only buy the rights to the story and bury it, a practice Pecker called” catch and kill.”
In October 2016, Cohen said, he learned Daniels was shopping her story to tabloids. Following the release of an audio recording in which Trump boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, the Trump campaign was in crisis at the time.
” He said to me,’ This is a disaster, a total disaster. Cohen told the jury that Trump had said,” Women are going to hate me.”
Cohen claimed that Trump was only concerned with the possible effects of Daniels ‘ story on his White House bid and not, as Cohen’s attorneys have suggested, with the impact on his wife and family. That distinction is crucial to the prosecution’s case.
If a business record falsification was part of a scheme to conceal another offense, it can now be a felony under New York law. Prosecutors have argued in Trump’s case that the payment was essentially a covert donation to his campaign, breaking both federal and state laws.
The Trump trial’s Manhattan trial, which is stymied by delays, is viewed as less consequential than the other three criminal prosecutions he faces.
Trump is accused of trying to overturn his 2020 presidential victory and of leaking classified documents after stepping down from office in the other cases. Trump entered a not-guilty plea to each of these.
