NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday began questioning prosecutors’ star witness in his hush-money trial, portraying former lawyer Michael Cohen as a media-obsessed liar determined to see the former president behind bars.
Cohen came under intense questioning by attorney Todd Blanche after providing crucial testimony that directly linked the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to the hush money scheme at the heart of the case.
Trump’s former fixer will return to the witness stand Thursday for more cross-examination before prosecutors rest their case over a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Trump denies having sex with the women and denies wrongdoing in the case.
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s proceedings:
Prosecutors confronted Cohen’s history of falsehoods head-on in an effort to get ahead of an issue that Trump lawyers are using to attack the now-disbarred lawyer’s credibility. Prosecutors also sought to portray Cohen as a committed Trump loyalist whose crimes were committed on behalf of the former president.
Under questioning by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Cohen admitted to lying to Congress during an investigation into possible ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, admitting under to have lied more about the number of times he spoke to Trump about a real estate project in Moscow.
Hoffinger also asked Cohen about concerns that he lied on the witness stand during the former president’s civil fraud trial last year. In that trial, Cohen insisted he had not committed tax evasion and said he lied to the judge who accepted his guilty plea in 2018.
Cohen told Hoffinger that he did not dispute the facts of his guilty plea, but that he believed he should not have been charged with a crime “as a first-time offender who always paid his taxes when due.”
Cohen also told jurors that he had repeatedly lied for Trump, including after Cohen paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump just before the 2016 election.
When asked by Hoffinger why he would do that, Cohen said: “Out of loyalty and to protect him.”
Cohen described to jurors how his life and relationship with Trump were turned upside down after the FBI raided his office, apartment and hotel room in 2018. That would lead to Cohen pleading guilty to federal charges and implicating Trump in the hush money scheme. Trump has never been charged with any crime related to that federal investigation.
When asked by the prosecutor how he felt at the time, Cohen said: “How do you describe your life being turned upside down? Worried. Despondent. Angry.”
Initially, Cohen said he felt comforted because Trump, who was in the White House at the time, assured him not to worry. Trump’s lawyers also continued to pay his legal fees and he remained part of a joint defense deal with Trump and his lawyers, he testified.
But his family eventually convinced him to turn against Trump, Cohen said.
“My family, my wife, my daughter and my son all said to me, ‘Why do you maintain this loyalty? What are you doing? We are supposed to be your first loyalty,” Cohen told jurors.
After Cohen’s guilty plea, Trump hit him on Twitter, writing: “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly advise you not to use Michael Cohen’s services!”
Trump’s team opened their cross-examination by pressing Cohen about critical comments and vulgar social media posts he has made about the former president since the start of the trial. Tuesday’s defense questions did not address the facts at the heart of the case but were intended to portray Cohen as a Trump-fixated loyalist who, egged on by his ex-boss, is now on a mission is to gain fame and revenge.
“Is it fair to say you’re motivated by fame?” Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, asked Cohen.
“No sir, I don’t think that’s fair to say,” Cohen responded. He later added – in response to a question about whether he was motivated by publicity – that he is “motivated by a lot of things.”
Blanche asked Cohen to listen on headphones to an October 2020 podcast episode in which the former lawyer said Trump should be in handcuffs and that “people won’t be satisfied until this man is in a cell.”
Cohen told Blanche he didn’t remember saying that, but added, “I wouldn’t let it pass me by.”
Blanche also pressed Cohen on whether he wanted to see Trump convicted in the case. Cohen initially hedged, saying, “I would like to see accountability. It’s not for me. It is up to the jury and this court.”
But when Cohen was asked again, he replied: “Sure.”
As jurors heard testimony from Cohen, Trump suffered another legal blow when an appeals court upheld a gag order limiting what he can say about the case.
Trump had challenged the gag order, which bars the former president from publicly commenting on jurors, witnesses and others involved in the case, including the judge’s family and prosecutors other than District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The appeals court ruled that Judge Juan M. Merchan “properly determined” that Trump’s public statements “posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses.”
Trump challenged restrictions on his ability to comment about Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department official who is part of the prosecution team, and the daughter of Merchan, the head of a political consulting firm who has worked for Trump’s rival Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the gag order is an unconstitutional restriction on the presumptive Republican nominee’s free speech rights as he campaigns for president and fights criminal charges. The judge fined Trump for repeatedly violating the gag order and warned the former president that future violations could send him to prison.
Limited by what he can say publicly about the case, Trump is joined in the courthouse by a growing entourage of Republican supporters who echo his complaints about the prosecution. US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson became the latest to do so on Tuesday, describing the justice system as “corrupt” and the case against Trump as a “sham”.
It was a striking moment that underscored Trump’s political power, even as he faces criminal charges.
In remarks to reporters outside the courthouse, Johnson lambasted Cohen as a man who has “problems with the truth” and is “clearly on a mission for personal revenge.” Johnson portrayed Trump as the victim of a politically motivated justice system and said the case is “not about justice.”
“People are losing confidence in this country right now, they’re losing confidence in our justice system,” Johnson said. “I came here again today only to support President Trump because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and a citizen who is deeply concerned about this,” he said.
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Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin in New York and Colleen Long and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed.
