(AFP) – Donald Trump’s one-time fixer and the star prosecution witness in the former president’s historic criminal trial testified Monday that he lied and bullied for his former boss.
Michael Cohen, once Trump’s attack dog, gave calm, unemotional evidence against him, occasionally glancing at Trump who sat slouched in his chair at the defendant’s table.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse Cohen for a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, when her claims of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump could have proved politically fatal.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he lied and bullied people when working as Trump’s personal lawyer.
“Yes… It was what was needed in order to accomplish the task,” Cohen told the courtroom, as Trump looked on just six months before the election in which he hopes to retake the White House.
Cohen spent 13 months in jail, and a year and a half under house arrest, after he pleaded guilty of lying to Congress and financial crimes.
In the first weeks of the trial, jurors in New York have heard from witnesses that Cohen was a difficult character who cajoled others to get his way, while the defense has painted him as a pathological liar and convicted criminal.
Cohen has long acknowledged arranging the $130,000 “hush money” payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about the alleged 2006 tryst.
Daniels and Trump — under the respective pseudonyms Peggy Peterson and David Dennison — were party to a nondisclosure agreement prepared by Cohen that has emerged in court filings.
The payment was revealed by The Wall Street Journal in 2018 and forms the basis for the charges that Trump faces in the trial.
– ‘Catch and kill’ –
Cohen testified Monday that he worked on both personal and corporate issues for Trump, who he claimed did not have an email address for fear of leaving a paper trail that could be used to prosecute him.
He also detailed how he would seek to place press articles favorable to Trump and damaging to his rivals, including Hillary Clinton, in the run up to the 2016 election.
Cohen told the jury how the Trump campaign would seek to buy unflattering stories, a practice known as “catch and kill,” which is what is alleged to have happened with Daniels.
“Because of the nature of the issue (we had) to make sure that it remained private,” Cohen said of separate negotiations to buy the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal who also alleged an affair with Trump.
The deal ultimately did not proceed, although Cohen secretly recorded a conversation with Trump about purchasing such stories.
During nearly eight hours over two days last week, Daniels walked the jury through the one-night stand she said she had with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament, and then the financial settlement.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his lawyers asked the judge for a mistrial on the grounds her detailed and graphic testimony was “extremely prejudicial” in what is essentially a financial records and election-related case.
Trump, 77, who is campaigning to avenge his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, could still stand in the November election and be sworn in as president if he was to be convicted and jailed.
Judge Juan Merchan denied two mistrial requests last week.
Merchan has imposed a gag order on Trump prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, and the ex-president — who has traded insults with Daniels for years, calling her “horseface” and other crude slurs — has not commented directly on her testimony.
Trump’s son Eric, who was joined in court by Senator J.D. Vance, a contender for Trump’s vice presidential pick, tweeted Monday that he had “never seen anything more rehearsed” than Cohen’s testimony.
In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He has also been charged in Florida with allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House but that case has been postponed indefinitely.
– Maggy Donaldson and Andrea Bambino
© 2024 AFP
