Trump hush money trial: Michael Cohen returns to face cross-examination

NEW YORK (AP) — that of Donald Trump Fixer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen awaits a bruising round of questioning Tuesday from the former president’s lawyers after testimony linked their celebrity client to every aspect of a hush money scheme which prosecutors say was intended to suppress stories that threatened his 2016 campaign.

Trump, the first former U.S. president to face trial, was joined in the Manhattan courtroom by an entourage that included House Speaker Mike Johnson, who claimed the case was politically motivated by Democrats. It was a remarkable moment in American politics when the second successor to the presidency used the powerful pulpit of his office to attack the American justice system and sought to turn his political party against the rule of law by declaring the trial illegitimate.

Trump was also joined by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills and his former GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy. Burgum and Donalds are considered potential vice presidential contenders.

“I have a lot of surrogates, and they’re very talkative,” Trump said outside the courtroom as they stood in the background.

Their presence Tuesday as Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, returns to the stand was a not-so-subtle show of support intended not only for Trump but also for voters tuning in from home and jurors deciding the fate of Trump.

On Monday, Cohen delivered concrete testimony that got to the heart of the problem. trial of former president.

“Everything required Mr. Trump’s approval,” Cohen said.

He placed Trump at the center of the hush money scheme, saying he promised to repay the money the lawyer paid for the payments and was constantly aware of behind-the-scenes efforts to bury the stories which were feared as detrimental to the campaign.

“We have to prevent this from being made public,” Cohen said, quoting Trump, in reference to Porn actor Stormy Daniels’ account of a sexual relationship with Trump a decade earlier. The candidate at the time was particularly worried about the impact of this story on his position with voters.

A similar episode occurred when Cohen alerted Trump that a Playboy model was alleging that she and Trump had an extramarital affair. “Make sure this doesn’t get made public,” was Cohen’s message to Trump, the lawyer said. Wife, Karen McDougal, received $150,000 in a settlement reached after Trump received a “complete and total update on everything that happened.”

“What I was doing, I was doing at the direction and for the benefit of Mr. Trump,” Cohen testified.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied both sexual encounters.

Cohen is by far the prosecution’s most important witness, and while his testimony lacked the electricity that defined Daniels’ turn on the stand, it nonetheless tied Trump directly to the payments and helped illuminate some of the most important evidence. more dry such as text messages and phone logs that jurors had already seen.

Testimony from a witness with such intimate knowledge of Trump’s activities could increase the legal case against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee if jurors find it credible enough. But the fact that prosecutors are relying on a witness with such a checkered past… Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the payments — also carries considerable risk with a jury and could be a political boon for Trump, as he raises money for his legal troubles and presents the case as the product of a tainted criminal justice system.

The men, once so close that Cohen boasted he would “take a bullet” for Trump, had no visible interaction inside the courtroom. The calm atmosphere was in stark contrast to their last courtroom confrontation in October, when Trump walked out of the courtroom after his lawyer finished questioning Cohen during his civil fraud trial.

This time, Trump sat at the defense table, eyes closed, for long stretches of testimony as Cohen recounted his decade-long career as a senior executive at the Trump Organization, doing work that , by his own admission, sometimes involved lying and intimidating others on behalf of his boss. in the name of.

Trump’s lawyers will have the opportunity to begin questioning Cohen as early as Tuesday, where they are expected to attack his credibility: He was disbarred, went to prison and separately pleaded guilty to lying on behalf of Trump about a Moscow real estate project – and presented him as a vindictive, agenda-driven witness. The defense told jurors during opening statements that he was an “admitted liar” with an “obsession with President Trump.”

Prosecutors aim to mitigate those attacks by acknowledging Cohen’s past crimes to jurors and relying on other witnesses whose stories they hope will support his testimony.

Jurors had already heard about the tabloid industry’s practice of “catch-and-kill,” in which the rights to a story are purchased so they can later be canceled. But Cohen’s testimony is crucial to prosecutors because of his direct communication with the then-candidate about embarrassing stories he worked to suppress.

Cohen is also important because reimbursements he received from a secret $130,000 payment to Daniels, which prosecutors say was intended to buy his silence before the election, form the basis of 34 counts accusing Trump of falsifying business records. Prosecutors say the reimbursements were falsely recorded as legal fees to conceal the true purpose of the payments.

To establish that Trump had intimate knowledge of these payments, Cohen told jurors under questioning that Trump had promised to repay him. The two men even spoke with Allen Weisselberg, former CFO of the Trump Organizationhow reimbursements would be paid in the form of legal services on monthly installments, Cohen testified.

He said Trump even sought to delay finalizing the deal with Daniels until after Election Day so he wouldn’t have to pay her.

“Because,” Cohen said, “after the election, it wouldn’t matter” to Trump.

Cohen also gave jurors a privileged account of his negotiations with David Pecker, then publisher of the National Enquirer, which was such a close ally of Trump that Pecker told Cohen his publication maintained a “locked file drawer or drawer” where Trump-related files were kept. This effort has become even more urgent following the Disclosure in October 2016 of an “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump was heard boasting about sexually assaulting women.

Daniels’ payment was finalized several weeks after that revelation, but Monday’s testimony also focused on a deal reached earlier this fall with McDougal.

To establish that the deals were made with Trump’s approval, prosecutors obtained testimony from Cohen intended to show Trump as a hands-on manager. Acting on Trump’s behalf, Cohen said, he sometimes lied and intimidated others, including journalists.

“When he confided something to you, he would say: “Keep me informed”. Let me know what happens,” Cohen said. He said this was especially true “if there was an issue that concerned him.”

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Long reported in Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.