CNN
—
Michael Cohen was involved in his former boss Donald Trump’s hush-money scheme to pay Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election, donating $130,000 at Trump’s direction and making repayments. He said it was promised.
Mr. Cohen’s testimony was based on prosecutors’ allegation that Mr. Trump violated the law by falsifying business records to reimburse Mr. Cohen and to conceal hush money payments that Mr. Cohen allegedly made at Mr. Trump’s direction. It is connected to the claim. Mr. Trump has maintained his innocence and denied having any relationship with Mr. Daniels.
Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump largely avoided eye contact during Monday’s testimony. Cohen looked directly at prosecutor Susan Hoffinger throughout most of his testimony, occasionally glancing around the room or in the direction of the jury. Mr. Trump spent a lot of time during Mr. Cohen’s questions, closing his eyes and flipping through stacks of news articles.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers are expected to have the opportunity to question Mr. Cohen on Tuesday. President Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, appears to be trying to undermine Cohen’s credibility with jurors during cross-examination by portraying him as a guilty perjurer who repeatedly changed his story.
Here are the highlights from the 16th day of the Trump hush money trial:
Throughout nearly five hours of testimony Monday, Cohen told jurors that former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who worked on Trump’s behalf to kill negative coverage during the 2016 campaign, He explained how he collaborated with How did he inform Trump about the hush-money negotiations between Daniels and Keith Davidson, the lawyer for former Playboy model Karen McDougal? and how Trump authorized and was aware that Cohen would be fraudulently reimbursed for payments to Daniels for legal services in 2017.
Mr. Cohen has served as the glue holding together other witnesses the jury has heard so far, including Mr. Pecker, Mr. Davidson, Dylan Howard and Hope, who are said to have been involved in hush-money payments. He has been connected to Hicks and others through text messages, emails and phone calls.
Cohen described conversations with Trump during the Daniels’ hush-money negotiations, which prosecutors corroborated with Cohen’s phone records showing when the two spoke. He also linked the payments to the Trump campaign.
“I had to get this done,” Cohen said on the stand. “This would be catastrophic for the campaign.”
After Mr. Cohen and Mr. Davidson agreed to a $130,000 settlement on October 11, 2016, Mr. Cohen said that Mr. Trump had tried to delay the process until after the election and that he had no way to raise the money. He claimed that it would take 10 days for the firm to pay the settlement. Closed on Yom Kippur.
Mr. Hoffinger asked Mr. Cohen why he did that.
“Because it doesn’t matter after the election,” Cohen said.
“According to the WHO?” Hoffinger asked.
“Mr. Trump,” Cohen said.
Mr. Daniels grew tired of the delays and Mr. Davidson temporarily canceled the settlement agreement before renewing it at the end of October.
Cohen said he had two phone calls with Trump the morning before he sent the money, in which he told Trump he intended to open an LLC account to send the money to Daniels.
01:39 – Source: CNN
Hear Trump’s reaction to Michael Cohen’s answer about Melania Trump.
“I wanted him to approve of what I was doing again because I need his approval for all of this,” Cohen said.
Hoffinger asked whether Cohen would have gone to the bank without Trump’s approval.
“No,” Mr. Cohen said. “I needed Mr. Trump’s approval for everything. Plus, I wanted my money back.”
Cohen said Essential Consultants LLC is used for real estate consulting and explained how he lied on bank statements, lies that led to federal indictments in 2018.
Asked whether the bank would have opened the account if he had been honest, Cohen said: “I don’t think it would have opened it.”
Mr. Trump is charged with falsifying 34 business records, including 11 invoices, 12 slips, and 11 checks, which prosecutors say are based on the hush money Cohen paid to Daniels. The amount comes from the monthly repayments received in 2017.
On Monday, jurors for the first time heard evidence directly linking Trump to these payments through Cohen.
Mr Cohen told how he was furious when his annual Christmas bonus was cut by two-thirds in December 2016.
He said he immediately went to see Allen Weisselberg, then-President Trump’s chief financial officer, and “told him in colorful terms that I was really upset and angry.” This makes no sense at all. ”
“I was extremely angry myself,” Cohen said. “I said quite a few curse words.”
After the new year, Cohen said he went to Weisselberg to seek repayment of the $130,000. He says Weisselberg told him, “Let’s give it a try.”
The jury was then shown Cohen’s First Republic Bank statement with Weisselberg’s handwriting detailing the $130,000 settlement and how he would repay the $420,000 to Cohen.
Cohen testified that he witnessed Weisselberg write on the document, and also told jurors that Weisselberg was paid in monthly installments as income, not as reimbursement, and therefore owed taxes. He said his money would be “grossed up” to account for.
Importantly, Cohen said that after the meeting, he and Weisselberg went to President Trump’s office to discuss the matter. Cohen said he was given the title of personal attorney to the president during the same period, but was not paid for that title.
Mr. Hoffinger asked whether he was being compensated for future legal services.
“That’s what it was designed to be,” Cohen said.
“What was that, actually?” asked Mr. Hoffinger.
“Please give me my money back,” Cohen said.
Cohen, who said he was willing to shoot for Trump at the height of their relationship, spoke out Monday about everything he did to protect his former boss. I testified.
It was always in the name of protecting Trump, as Cohen said about the media coverage of his killings and the non-disclosure agreement he signed before the 2016 election.
Regarding the settlement agreement with Daniels, Cohen said he maintained control of documents revealing the identities of “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson” to protect Trump.
He testified that he used Essential Consultants LLC to facilitate payments to Daniels “to protect and insulate him from the transaction.”
Mr. Hoffinger asked Mr. Cohen if he ever bullied others. Mr. Cohen acknowledged doing so.
“All I had in mind was carrying out the mission of making him happy,” Cohen said of Trump.
Cohen also testified that it was “fair” to say he was once Trump’s “fixer,” telling jurors he lied on Trump’s behalf, including to his own wife. He said that it happened sometimes.
Mr. Cohen decided to prepay $130,000 from Mr. Daniels’ personal home equity line of credit because his wife would have noticed that a large sum of money was missing from Mr. Daniels’ joint personal bank account. he said.
Cohen described Trump, whom he often referred to as “the boss,” as a micromanager who insisted on being kept informed of the progress of every situation, including more sensitive examples like non-disclosure agreements with McDougal and Daniels. Painted.
Mr. Cohen also acknowledged that he kept Mr. Trump informed because he wanted to take credit for dealing with Mr. Trump’s problems, such as negotiating bills and suppressing negative media coverage.
Cohen said he wants President Trump to always know that the situation was handled and “take credit for mission accomplished.”
Unlike his typical public persona, jurors saw Cohen as calm, giving slow, measured answers to direct questioning.
Cohen rarely looked at President Trump, who was seated at the defense table, and focused mainly on the prosecutor’s questioning.
And Trump spent much of the day with his eyes closed, except to review some documents and pass some notes to his lawyers. The former president looked up at Cohen several times, but there was no apparent moment of eye contact.
There were several occasions when Cohen’s comments appeared to be disapproval of Trump, such as when he mentioned Trump’s wife, Melania.
Mr. Cohen claimed that Mr. Trump was not concerned about his wife’s feelings when the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was released before the election, but this testimony was contradicted by Mr. Trump’s former aide Mr. Hicks and Mr. Hicks. It was contrary to what Madeline Westerhout had told jurors.
He testified as follows. It’s not long. ‘He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was what the campaign was all about. ”
At one point, Trump seemed to have heard enough of Cohen’s dedicated employee and pursed his lips when Cohen testified that he used a shell company to pay Daniels to protect Trump. He shook his head with a smile.
When Cohen admitted he was disappointed he wasn’t chosen to be Trump’s chief of staff when he took office, Trump shook his head with a sarcastic smile.
During the four-week trial, Mr. Trump has made it a point to rally supporters in the courtroom, both on the streets outside the Manhattan courthouse and within the confines of Judge Juan Machan’s courtroom, and the support could not be better. He complained.
Last week, President Trump’s son Eric Trump. his campaign senior adviser, Susie Wiles; Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and others all appeared in the gallery behind the former president.
On Monday, President Trump welcomed the largest number of Republicans to his inner circle to date, including his vice presidential nominee.
Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama appeared in court, along with Trump-friendly New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island, Alabama and Iowa. The Attorney General was also present.
They joined President Trump for the high-profile Cohen testimony, sitting in the gallery behind the former president in the dock. Eric Trump and attorney Alina Haba also attended to support Trump.
Republican politicians stood behind Trump as he held a new press conference before entering the courtroom Monday morning. And after the morning’s first break, they went outside to give their testimony on camera and denounce the lawsuit they had just witnessed.
This story has been updated with additional details.
