CNN
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No one has anything nice to say about Michael Cohen.
Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer is scheduled to take the stand Monday as a key witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s case against the former president, alleging that Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. is prepared to testify in relation to Mr. Trump. 2016 Election.
Through three weeks of testimony, jurors have already heard a lot about Cohen through numerous witnesses who painted an unseemly portrait of an aggressive, impulsive and ungrateful lawyer.
David Pecker, former head of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, said Mr. Cohen “has a tendency to exaggerate.” Hope Hicks, a former Trump aide, said Cohen liked to call himself a “fixer,” a role she said was made possible because “he broke first.” And Keith Davidson, Daniels’ former lawyer, said that the person who worked with Cohen was Daniels’ then-manager Gina Rodriguez, who, like everyone else, didn’t want to hang out with Cohen and was a “disgusting person.” He said it was because he was “a guy.”
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“Gina called me and said, ‘This guy called me and was very, very aggressive and threatened to sue me. So I said, Keith, I’m calling this guy back. I want you to do that,” Davidson testified during the third week of the trial.
“I hate to ask you this, but who was that guy?” asked Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass.
“It was Michael Cohen,” Davidson replied.
Cohen is currently facing charges that Trump falsified business records after Trump allegedly reimbursed Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from going public about their past encounter before the 2016 election. He has become a witness that prosecutors rely on to prove that. Trump has maintained his innocence and denied that he had an extramarital affair.
Mr. Cohen is the only witness to testify about Mr. Trump’s alleged involvement in both the decision to pay Mr. Daniels and the plan to repay Mr. Cohen in advance. Mr. Cohen likely served as narrator for the prosecution during the first meeting in which Mr. Pecker, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump allegedly agreed to buy negative stories that could harm Mr. Trump’s presidential bid. to the payments made to Mr. Daniels in the days before Election Day. The Oval Office meeting took place in February 2017, just weeks after Trump took office.
Prosecutors allege that in a February meeting, Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen agreed on how to repay Mr. Cohen. Prosecutors said the arrangement included a false narrative that Mr. Cohen was working under a valet contract. Documents ranging from invoices and general ledger entries to checks signed by President Trump make up 34 criminal charges in the case.
Prosecutors are waiting to call Cohen until the end of the case, after presenting phone records, emails, text messages and bank records in hopes of increasing his credibility with jurors. They didn’t try to hide from the jury that he and the other witnesses had a lot of problems.
During jury selection, Mr. Steinglass told potential jurors, “Some of the witnesses in this case were carrying something that could be considered a package of your own.” “I’m going to be frank about the fact that there is,” he said.
The testimony will put Mr. Trump at odds with Mr. Cohen, who has previously said he would take a bullet for the former president. The last time the two met was when Cohen testified at President Trump’s New York civil fraud trial last fall. Although Cohen’s testimony was brief, the confrontation was tense.
The stakes are even higher this week with a criminal conviction and possible prison sentence for Republican presidential candidate Trump.
This ends a long journey for Mr. Cohen, who remains bitter about pleading guilty to federal campaign finance charges related to emoluments and serving three years in prison and home confinement. .
Mr. Cohen met with prosecutors more than a dozen times and testified before the grand jury in the hush money trial. He is exempt from state responsibility for his own role in the alleged conspiracy.
He will also face intense cross-examination from Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche. Lawyers for the former president have harshly criticized Cohen’s credibility by delving into his past, asking what kind of deals Trump struck with Cohen and how they are recorded on the company’s books. This is likely to suggest to the jury that he had no knowledge of what had happened.
“Mr. Cohen has been attacked and undermined by prosecution witnesses even before he takes the stand. On the other hand, he could become damaged goods before he takes the stand. He could also benefit from lower expectations if he decides he’s better than advertised,” said Ellie Honig, CNN senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor.
After his prison sentence, Cohen published a book and podcast attacking Trump.
The charges brought against Trump date back to events that occurred during the 2016 election. But in many ways, the case against Trump stems from his former fixer’s decision to plead guilty in federal court to two counts of making illegal campaign contributions in violation of federal campaign finance laws in 2018. is emitting. He acknowledged that Trump was directly involved in the scheme and orchestrated the payments to Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to tax charges and to lying to Congress about President Trump’s project to build Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, served under his house arrest.
Mr. Cohen’s plea prompted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to launch an investigation into the hush money payments that led to Mr. Trump’s indictment last year.
Mr. Cohen has become dedicated to antagonizing Mr. Trump. He has published two books, “Disloyal” in 2020 and “Revenge” in 2022, and started a podcast, “Mea Culpa,” all of which involve bashing Trump and rooting for his prosecution. spent a lot of time on.
Cohen continued to attack President Trump on social media in the weeks leading up to the trial and after it began. The social media attacks continued Friday when Judge Juan Melchán directed prosecutors to send a message to Cohen that he should stop speaking about the case “from the courtroom.” (Mr Marchan said a witness could not legally be gagged.)
Trump has often fired back in interviews and on social media, including in violation of a judge’s gag order against the former president, which prohibits him from discussing witnesses in the case.
Beginning with Mr. Pecker, the first witness in the case, jurors have heard criticism from a number of witnesses ahead of Mr. Cohen’s own expected testimony.
Mr. Pecker, who met with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump during an important meeting at Trump Tower in 2015, was asked by Mr. Trump’s lawyer Emile Bove whether Mr. Cohen was “prone to exaggeration.”
“Yes,” Pecker said.
Mr. Bove then asked Mr. Pecker if he believed everything Mr. Cohen said. The justices dissented from the question, telling Trump’s lawyers in a sidebar debate that it was not the appropriate forum to “impeach” Cohen’s credibility.
More witnesses will continue to do so anyway.
Mr. Cohen’s former banker, Gary Fallo, later testified that he was given Mr. Cohen’s account specifically so he could be firm with people who “may be a little resistant.” . Faro said it was fair to call Cohen an “aggressive guy.”
“He would call me for anything he needed, and it was always urgent,” the banker said.
Perhaps the most negative review of Cohen came from Davidson, who negotiated a hush-money deal with Cohen on behalf of Daniels in 2016. Davidson described a 2011 conversation between Daniels and a blog post about Trump on thedirty.com, in which Cohen unleashed a “barrage” of insults and innuendos and allegations. ”
“I don’t think he was accusing us of anything. He was just screaming,” Davidson said.
Daniels’ former lawyer went on to explain how he became involved in the hush-money deal after Daniels’ manager asked him to help him sign a non-disclosure agreement.
When asked why he joined, Davidson said, “The moral of the story was that no one wanted to talk to Cohen.”
Under questioning by Steinglass, Davidson recalled receiving a call from a “very disappointed and saddened” Cohen in December after Trump’s election in 2016.
“He said something to the effect of ‘Jesus Christ’. Can you believe I’m not going to Washington? All I’ve done for that son of a bitch is done. I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I can’t. I’ve saved that guy’s a** so many times, but you don’t know.”
Those who had less contact with Cohen than Davidson had nothing more to say. Former Trump Organization administrator Jeff McConney was asked what Mr. Cohen’s position was within the company.
“He said he was a lawyer,” Mr. McConney replied.
“Did he work in the legal department?” Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked.
“I think so,” Maconie said mockingly.
And Hicks, who worked at the Trump Organization before becoming a key aide on the 2016 campaign, explained how Cohen, Trump’s fixer, tended to exaggerate his influence on the campaign. explained to the jury.
“There were times when Mr. Cohen did things that you thought didn’t help what you were trying to accomplish, right?” Bove asked the 2016 Trump campaign press secretary.
“Yes,” Hicks replied. “He used to say that he liked to call himself “Fixer” or “Mr. I was able to fix it. ”