NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers began questioning prosecutors’ star witness in his hush-hush trial on Tuesday, portraying former lawyer Michael Cohen as a media-obsessed liar who is determined to see the former president behind bars.
Cohen underwent intense cross-examination by defense attorney Todd Blanche after providing key testimony that tied the presumptive Republican presidential nominee directly to the hush-money scheme at the center of the case.
Trump’s former agent will return to the witness stand Thursday for more questioning before prosecutors rest their case alleging a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Trump denies having sex with the women and denies any wrongdoing in the case.
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s proceedings:
Prosecutors confronted Cohen’s history of falsehoods head-on in an attempt to get ahead of an issue that Trump’s lawyers are seizing on to attack the now-disbarred lawyer’s credibility. Prosecutors also sought to portray Cohen as a Trump loyalist whose crimes were committed in the former president’s name.
Under questioning by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Cohen admitted that he lied to Congress during an investigation into possible ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, admitting that he lied, among other things, about the number of times he spoke with Trump about a real estate project in Moscow.
Hoffinger also asked Cohen about concerns that he may have lied on the witness stand at the former president’s civil fraud trial last year. At that trial, Cohen insisted he did not commit tax evasion and said he lied to the judge who accepted his guilty plea to the 2018 charge.
Cohen told Hoffinger that he did not dispute the facts of his guilty plea, but that he did not think he should have been charged with a crime “as a first-time offender who always paid his taxes on time.”
Cohen also told jurors that he repeatedly lied to Trump, including after Cohen paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from going public shortly before the 2016 election with her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump.
Asked by Hoffinger why he would do this, Cohen said: “Out of loyalty and to protect him.”
Cohen described to jurors how his life and relationship with Trump were affected after the FBI raided his office, apartment and hotel room in 2018. This would lead to Cohen pleading guilty to federal charges and implicating Trump in the hush-hush scheme. Trump was never charged with any crime related to that federal investigation.
Asked by the prosecutor how he felt at the time, Cohen said: “How do you describe your life being turned upside down? Worried. Sad. Nervous.”
Initially, Cohen said he felt comforted because Trump, who was in the White House at the time, assured him not to worry. Trump’s lawyers also continued to pay his legal fees and he continued to be part of a joint defense agreement with Trump and his lawyers, he testified.
But his family eventually convinced him to turn against Trump, Cohen said.
“My family, my wife, my daughter, my son, they all said to me, ‘Why are you keeping this loyalty? What are you doing? We should be your first loyalty,’” Cohen told jurors.
Following Cohen’s guilty plea, Trump blasted him on Twitter, writing: “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I strongly suggest they do not retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
Trump’s team opened its interrogation by pressing Cohen about critical comments and vulgar social media posts he has made about the former president since the trial began. The defense’s questions on Tuesday did not address the central facts of the case, but were designed to portray Cohen as an obsessed Trump loyalist who, rejected by his former boss, is now on a mission to achieve fame and revenge.
“Is it fair to say you are motivated by fame?” Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, asked Cohen.
“No, sir, I don’t think that’s fair to say,” Cohen responded. He later added – in response to a question about whether he was motivated by publicity – that he is “motivated by a lot of things.”
Blanche asked Cohen to listen through headphones to an October 2020 podcast episode in which the former lawyer said Trump needs to wear handcuffs and that “people won’t be satisfied until this man is sitting inside a cell.” .
Cohen told Blanche he didn’t remember saying that, but added, “I wouldn’t let it go.”
Blanche also pressed Cohen on whether he wants to see Trump convicted in the case. Cohen initially hedged, saying, “I would like to see accountability. It is not for me. It’s for the jury and this court.”
But asked again, Cohen replied: “Of course.”
As jurors heard Cohen’s testimony, Trump suffered another legal blow when an appeals court upheld a gag order limiting what he can say about the case.
Trump challenged the gag order, which prohibits the former president from commenting publicly about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case, including the judge’s family and prosecutors other than District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The appeals court ruled that Judge Juan M. Merchan “properly determined” that Trump’s public statements “posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses.”
Trump defied restrictions on his ability to comment on Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department official who is on the prosecution team, and the daughter of Merchan, the head of a political consulting firm who worked for Trump’s rival, Joe Biden, and other Democratic candidates.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the gag order is an unconstitutional restriction on the presumptive Republican nominee’s free speech rights as he campaigns for president and fights criminal charges. The judge fined Trump for repeatedly violating the gag order and warned the former president that future violations could send him to prison.
Limited by what he can say publicly about the case, Trump was joined in court by a growing entourage of Republican supporters who echo his complaints about the prosecution. US House Speaker Mike Johnson was the latest to do so on Tuesday, attacking the legal system as “corrupt” and the case against Trump as a “sham”.
It was a landmark moment, underlining Trump’s political power, even as he is tried on criminal charges.
In comments to reporters outside the courtroom, Johnson criticized Cohen as a man who has “problems with the truth” and is “clearly on a mission of personal revenge.” Painting Trump as the victim of a politically motivated legal system, Johnson said the case is “not about justice.”
“People are losing faith in this country, they are losing faith in our justice system,” Johnson said. “I came here again today alone to support President Trump because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and a citizen who is deeply concerned about this,” he said.
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Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin in New York and Colleen Long and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed.
