NEW YORK: Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer, testified before jurors on Tuesday about a secret arrangement to pay Cohen hush money for Stormy Daniels through reimbursements in the 2017 Oval Office meeting.
Cohen, the star government witness in Trump’s criminal trial in New York, admitted that he also lied several times including under oath but stressed out that it was all because of his loyalty to trump as this sought to neutralize an expected defense attack on him.
On Monday, Cohen explained how Trump ordered him just before the November 2016 election to give $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels; “Just do it,” he recalled Trump saying. The purpose was for her to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with him back in 2006.
Trump is accused of paying Cohen $130,000 payment in October 2016 which is considered as the heart problem of his historical trial now into its fifth week.
Trump who is 77 years old and Republican presidential candidate for 2024 has pleaded not guilty and denied ever having sex with Daniels. He feels that this case may be politically motivated since it may be aimed at sabotaging his campaign against Joe Biden who defeated him during the last American Presidential Elections held in 2020.
Prosecutors have said that Trump repaid Cohen after the elections by preparing false records which indicated they were fees paid for legal services. Those faked payments are behind the thirty-four falsifying business records charges levelled against Mr Trump.
While testifying on Tuesday, Cohen described an Oval Office meeting he had with President Donald J.Trump (DJT) whereby DJT informed him that soon he will start getting first monthly installments worth a bonus package of which part would be reimbursement concerning Daniels payment.
Over time, Susan Hoffinger led Cohen through a number invoices and checks signed by costello himself claiming these were billed fees paid to him by trump for legal assistance.
“Did you have a retainer agreement?” Hoffinger asked.
“No, ma’am,” he replied.
Cohen himself admitted during his testimony that he lied to congress on multiple occasions in the course of investigations on Trump’s Russia connections and finally pleaded guilty to perjury. He also told jurors he repeatedly lied about paying Daniels while at the same time telling reporters that Trump had no knowledge of the matter.
Cohen’s home was raided by FBI agents in 2018 when the Justice Department began investigating the payment to Daniels. The former attorney said he was in panic and called Trump as soon as possible.
“I said, ‘I’m scared’, I called him and I said, what do I do?”, Cohen recalled. “He told me: ‘Don’t worry, I’m president of the United States there is nothing here; everything is going to be okay just stay tough you are going to be okay,’” Cohen stated regarding his conversation with Trump which remains a last direct communication between them.
Instead, according to Cohen who testified before Congress early last year, Robert Costello who worked for Giuliani acting as an intermediary between him and President Donald J. Trump (DJT). Emails shown to jurors where Costello forwarded Gulliani assurance that he was being loved and has friend with high places were among evidences used against Cohen.
While all this was happening, Trump defended himself on Twitter claiming that Cohen would never “flip” over for investigators. In fact it amounted to “pressure campaign” aimed at keeping Mr Cohen within good books confirmed him later during cross-examinations.
However, after having a talk with his family members, he decided differently. “It was time for me to listen my own people- my daughter my wife my son- because they needed me loyal,” concluded Cohen.
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to federal crimes, including those centered on the Daniels payment, and stated that Trump – who wasn’t charged – instructed him to make the payment.
This sordid past will certainly invite a brutal examination from Trump’s lawyers, who have already labeled him a liar and an ex-convict unworthy of trust.
“A complete fiasco”
Mike Johnson, US House Speaker joined Trump one day after several Republican lawmakers had attended his trial in support of him; he later criticized the case outside the court.
The latest attempt by Trump’s mid-level appeals court to lift a gag order he challenged as being inconsistent with his right to freedom of speech was denied on Tuesday while Cohen testified.
The prohibition order imposed by Justice Juan Merchan during the ongoing trial bars Trump from publicly commenting about jurors, witnesses or families of the judge and prosecutors if they are intended to obstruct justice.
Cohen said on Monday that it was not one but multiple payments authorized by President Donald J. Trump so as not to have any sex scandal rock his campaign for presidency.
“I needed Mr. Trump’s signature on anything,” Cohen added.
In 2015, according to Cohen, he reached an agreement in secret with Trump and tabloid publisher David Pecker which meant assisting with his campaign for presidency.
That deal also included $150k paid by Pecker’s company to former Playboy model Karen McDougal for rights to her story about her year-long affair with Mr. Trump, said Cohen. The president also denies this relationship ever happened.
Like the Daniels transaction this deal was only aimed at buying up all rights to these stories prior their burial known as “catch and kill,” according Pecker
Cohen said he found out in October 2016 that Daniels had been shopping her story around tabloids; at that moment though, the audiotapes were released where Donald boasted about pressing female genitals which threw Trump campaign into crisis mode.
He said to me, ‘This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me,’” Cohen told jurors that Trump said.
Cohen testified that Trump was worried only about how Daniels’ story would affect his chances of becoming president and not on the welfare of his wife and children as claimed by his legal team. This distinction is crucial in the prosecutor’s case.
Under New York law, making false entries in business records becomes a felony if it was done with the purpose of hiding another crime. According to prosecutors in Mr. Trump’s case, the payment was effectively an undisclosed contribution to his campaign, which is illegal under both federal and state statutes.
Trump has three other criminal cases presently pending against him in Manhattan but they have all been mired in adjournments thus rendering this trial less important than those others he faces.
The other three cases allege that he attempted reversing his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandled classified intelligence upon leaving office; Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
