In the first four weeks of former President Trump’s trial, his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was called an “idiot,” “an idiot,” and difficult to work with — to the point that some actively sought to avoid him.
But when Cohen takes the stand on Monday — considered a star witness for the Manhattan district attorney’s office — he will be tasked with convincing the jury trying the former president’s first criminal case that he is also something else: a witness. reliable.
It will not be an easy task.
Cohen made the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to remain silent about his alleged affair in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, funneling his own money through a shell company he set up for that sole purpose.
He also played a role in coordinating two other so-called “catch and kill” deals, where people with unflattering stories about Trump were paid by a tabloid friendly to the then-2016 presidential candidate to keep their stories secret.
Cohen is expected to directly connect the former president to the 34 allegedly falsified records he is accused of, taking a step that current and former employees of the former president who testified did not take. He is expected to begin his testimony on Monday, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The Trump team is likely to do everything in its power to paint Cohen as a liar. Although the district attorney’s office was frank with jurors that Cohen has “baggage,” they insisted that documents corroborate his account. Lanny Davis, her former legal counsel, maintains the same, although she declined to comment on the trial evidence, noting that she respects the judge’s order.
“It’s about the documents; It’s not about Michael,” Davis told The Hill. “The documents corroborate it.”
This war for his credibility has been ongoing since the start of the trial.
Jurors viewed Cohen’s messages, heard recordings of his phone calls and learned of his criminal record, with the witness’ name appearing repeatedly throughout the full testimony.
And for some of the 18 New Yorkers serving as jurors and alternates, Cohen’s reputation precedes him. One of the judges said during the selection process that he follows Cohen on the social platform X.
Cohen and Trump were first introduced by the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in 2006, around the time Trump’s alleged affairs with Daniels and another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, occurred.
He quickly became one of Trump’s most loyal aides, earning the nickname “pit bull” from the then-business mogul. Asked about the brand in a 2011 interview with ABC News, Cohen described his duties as doing “everything in my power” to solve problems for Trump’s benefit.
“If you do something wrong, I will come to you, grab you by the neck, and I won’t let you go until I’m done,” he said.
The evidence and testimony presented at trial so far has supported this interpretation of the work.
Text messages between Daniels’ lawyer, his manager and a top editor at the National Enquirer — the tabloid that helped crack down on Trump’s bad press — detailed Cohen’s incessant phone calls that often involved derogatory exchanges.
“He was highly excitable, the kind of guy who catches fire. He had a lot of things going on,” testified Keith Davidson, Daniels’ attorney at the time of the hush-money agreement. “I would often talk on the phone with him, he would take another call, talk with both ears.”
David Pecker, then editor of the Enquirer, testified that when he refused to pay the adult film actress at Cohen’s request—after he had already shouldered the cost of two other hush agreements that benefited Trump—Cohen angrily relayed that “the boss ”, or Trump, “would be furious”.
And documents filed by Cohen’s former banker, Gary Farro, showed that the Trump dealmaker created a shell company to funnel his own money to Daniels. Trump’s repayment of those funds — and the way he allegedly misclassified them to hide it — are at the heart of the district attorney’s case.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance and other charges and was sentenced to three years in prison. At his sentencing, he told the judge he repeatedly felt it was his “duty” to hide Trump’s “dirty deeds.”
A year later, in testimony before Congress in 2019, Cohen called himself “ashamed” that he had participated in “concealing Mr. Trump’s wrongdoings instead of listening to my own conscience.”
At that hearing — where Republican lawmakers attacked Cohen’s credibility, carrying a sign that read “liar, liar with pants on fire” — the refund checks that now form the basis for some of Trump’s accusations were shown to the world for the first time. .
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Davis told The Hill.
Since his conviction, he and Trump have been at odds.
Cohen wrote a book titled “Revenge,” started a podcast called “Mea Culpa,” which means “through my fault” in Latin, and has regularly criticized Trump in appearances on cable news.
Both sued each other; one of those cases almost went to civil trial last summer before a last-minute settlement. And Cohen has already testified against Trump once in his recent civil fraud trial, which carried a penalty of nearly half a billion dollars.
And in classic Trump fashion, they threw around a lot of nicknames. Cohen recently called Trump “Von ShitzInPants,” while Trump called Cohen “despicable,” along with insults that run the gamut. Some of the former president’s attacks on Cohen were considered violations of the gag order.
Cohen wouldn’t be the first witness in Trump’s trial to admit he can’t stand Trump.
When Daniels took the stand last week, she clearly answered “yes” when asked if she “hates” the former president.
The jury — which largely maintained a serious demeanor, taking notes and following witnesses’ testimony — seemed less captivated by Daniels’ testimony than other witnesses. Even as she cracked jokes, most of the jurors kept a straight face.
When Cohen takes the stand, expect him to say more of the same. Testifying at Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, he agreed that he harbors “significant animosity” toward the former president.
“Actually, do you often go on social media, declaring all your animosity?” Trump lawyer Alina Habba asked at the time.
“Not all my animosity,” Cohen retorted, as laughter echoed through the gallery. He later admitted that he built his new career by publicly attacking Trump.
If Cohen’s testimony at the fraud trial was any indication, Trump’s lawyers can be expected to attack his credibility with the same vehemence as they did when he testified during Trump’s civil fraud trial last year. The former president and his lawyers have long alleged that Cohen is a “liar” and an unreliable witness, claiming that the now-disbarred lawyer went rogue and entered into the settlement of his own volition.
But now, the stakes are higher as Cohen takes the stand in the first time his former boss faces criminal charges.
“The minute he screams and loses his temper and gets angry – which he has every right to do, God only knows, after everything he’s been through – he knows and I know that he loses and they win, after all these years,” Davis said. . “So he knows what he has to do.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
