michael cohen returned to the witness stand in a New York courtroom for a third day of questioning by Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday, in what could be the final day of testimony in the first criminal trial of a former president.
One possibility that could prolong the trial would be trumpin OKing the stand in your own defense. Trump said before the trial began that he would “absolutely“testify. He has softened that position since then, and his attorney Todd Blanche told the judge when they were last in court on Thursday that he still didn’t know whether Trump would take a stand. The court was not in session on Friday on Monday, so Trump could visit his son’s house high school graduation.
At the start of court on Monday, the judge announced that closing arguments, which he had tentatively scheduled to begin on Tuesday, would be pushed back a week because of the holiday. They are now tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 28th.
Trump appeared visibly upbeat and cheerful on Monday morning as two rows of prominent allies sat behind him in the courtroom.
Blanche began her questioning of Cohen by focusing on the time Cohen paid the adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to buy your silence on Trump’s behalf. Cohen spoke to Trump twice on Oct. 26, 2016, the day Cohen transferred money to the account he was using to pay Daniels.
Blanche suggested that there were other issues going on at the time that consumed Cohen’s attention. Cohen acknowledged that he was also busy trying to close a $7 million deal involving taxi medallions and an extortion threat involving Trump’s daughter, Tiffany.
Following live updates from the test
Blanche questioned Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, throughout Thursday and part of Tuesday, pressing him about inconsistencies in some of his past statements about Trump and his admitted falsehoods on Trump’s behalf over the years.
“That’s it a lie!” Blanche barked at Cohen at one point after he challenged him about his account of speaking to Trump on the phone about Daniels on October 24, 2016.
Cohen had previously testified that he had contacted Trump through Keith Schiller, his bodyguard, at 8:02 p.m. to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and its resolution.”
Blanche confronted Cohen with a text message he sent to Schiller at 7:48 a.m., saying, “Who can I talk to about calls to my cell and office, idiot forgot to block one of them.” Schiller responded with a message saying “call me” at 8:02 a.m., which Cohen did immediately.
Blanche noted that the call lasted 96 seconds and that at 8:04 p.m., Cohen texted Schiller the phone number of a 14-year-old boy who he complained was prank calling him. Blanche suggested that the real purpose of the conversation was to talk about the teenager.
“In fact, you were talking to Mr. Schiller about the fact that you were receiving harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old boy, correct?” Blanche asked.
“Part of it was the 14-year-old, but I know Keith was with Mr. Trump at the time and there was more to it than potentially just that. That’s what I remember based on the documents I’ve reviewed,” Cohen responded, adding that he believed who “was telling the truth” about the moment.
“We are not asking for your belief. This jury doesn’t want to hear what you think happened,” Blanche retorted.
Cohen, 57, is a key witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump and the only one to directly link Trump to the alleged business records falsification scheme.
Cohen paid Daniels the $130,000 in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement that prevented her from speaking about her claim to have had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, after meeting at a celebrity golf tournament. Trump denies his claim.
Cohen said Trump authorized the deal and assured him he would pay him back.
Prosecutors say Trump did this in a series of payments falsely recorded as legal expenses in an attempt to hide their true motive. He was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records and pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors made it clear to jurors in their direct examination that Cohen had a history of lying publicly and took statements about his 2018 case. guilty pleas to several criminal charges, including some related to paying Daniels and another of lying to Congress. Cohen said he lied to protect his then-boss, Trump.
Cohen began testifying last week, and by the end of the day Thursday, he had been on the witness stand for more than 14 hours.
Blanche estimated Thursday that there were still two hours of questions left for Cohen, who prosecutors said was their last witness. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is then expected to ask her questions about the redirected exam, which will likely be followed by more questions from Blanche.
It’s unclear how many witnesses Trump’s lawyers will call, if any. Blanche suggested that she could call former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith to testify about election laws, but he also said no. He also said he could call other witnesses, whom he did not identify in the public hearing. He said the witnesses’ testimony would be brief if they testified.
Prosecutors said if the defense ends up calling Smith, they could name a witness to rebut his testimony. Their expert would also be brief, they said.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
