CNN
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No person has something good to say about Michael Cohen.
Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer is predicted to take the stand Monday as the important thing witness within the Manhattan district legal professional’s case in opposition to the former president, ready to offer testimony connecting to Trump the $130,000 hush cash fee Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels earlier than the 2016 election.
Via three weeks of testimony, jurors have already heard loads about Cohen by quite a few witnesses, who’ve painted an unflattering portrait of an aggressive, impulsive and unlikeable legal professional.
David Pecker, former head of Nationwide Enquirer mother or father firm American Media Inc., stated Cohen was “liable to exaggeration.” Former Trump aide Hope Hicks stated Cohen appreciated to name himself a “fixer” – a job she stated was potential solely as a result of “he first broke it.” And Daniels’ former legal professional Keith Davidson stated he solely labored with Cohen as a result of he was a “jerk” whom Daniels’ then-manager Gina Rodriguez – together with everybody else – didn’t need to take care of.
Stand up to hurry on Trump’s prison trial
“Gina referred to as me as much as inform me that: ‘Some jerk referred to as me and was very, very aggressive and threatened to sue me. And I, um, would really like you, Keith, to name this jerk again,’” Davidson testified within the third week of the trial.
“I hate to ask it this manner, however who was that jerk?” requested Assistant District Legal professional Joshua Steinglass.
“It was Michael Cohen,” Davidson responded.
Now Cohen is the witness whom prosecutors are counting on to ship testimony that may assist them show Trump falsified enterprise information when he allegedly reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 to Daniels to maintain her from going public a few previous encounter forward of the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not responsible and denied the affair.
Cohen is the one witness who will testify about Trump’s alleged involvement in each the choice to pay Daniels and the plan to reimburse Cohen for advancing the cash. Cohen will doubtless function the narrator for the prosecution and take the jury from the preliminary assembly during which Pecker, Cohen and Trump allegedly agreed to purchase destructive tales that would damage Trump’s presidential run to the fee made to Daniels simply days earlier than Election Day to an Oval Workplace assembly in February 2017, simply weeks after Trump was sworn in.
Prosecutors allege that in the course of the February assembly, Trump and Cohen agreed how Cohen can be paid again. That association, prosecutors say, included a false story that Cohen was working below a retainer settlement. The paperwork, from the invoices and common ledger entries to the checks signed by Trump, make up the 34 prison prices within the case.
Prosecutors have waited to name Cohen till the top of their case, after introducing telephone information, emails, textual content messages and financial institution information that they hope bolster his credibility with the jury. They haven’t tried to cover from the jury that he and different witnesses have loads of issues.
“We’re going to be very up-front about the truth that a number of of the witnesses on this case have what you made may take into account to be some baggage,” Steinglass instructed a panel of potential jurors throughout jury choice.
The testimony will pit Trump in opposition to Cohen, who as soon as stated he would take a bullet for the previous president. They final noticed one another when Cohen testified in Trump’s New York civil fraud trial final fall. Cohen’s testimony was temporary, however the showdown was tense.
This week the stakes are larger, with a possible prison conviction and potential jail sentence on the road for Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
It brings to a detailed an extended journey for Cohen, who remains to be aggrieved that he served three years in prison and residential confinement after pleading responsible to federal marketing campaign finance prices associated to the payoff, amongst different crimes.
Cohen met with prosecutors greater than a dozen occasions and testified earlier than the grand jury within the hush cash trial. He has immunity on state prices for his position within the alleged conspiracy.
He will even face blistering cross-examination by Trump legal professional Todd Blanche. The previous president’s attorneys are anticipated to hammer at Cohen’s credibility, together with digging into his previous, and counsel to the jury that Trump had no concept what deal Cohen struck or the way it was recorded on the books of his firm.
“Even earlier than he takes the stand, Cohen has been attacked and undermined by the prosecution’s personal witnesses. On one hand, he may very well be broken items earlier than he takes the stand. However he additionally may profit from low expectations if the jury finds him to be higher than marketed,” stated Elie Honig, a CNN senior authorized analyst and former state and federal prosecutor.
After jail sentence, Cohen launched books and podcast attacking Trump
The fees filed in opposition to Trump date to occasions that transpired in the course of the 2016 election. However in some ways, the case in opposition to Trump stems from his former fixer’s decision to plead guilty in 2018 in federal court docket to 2 counts of constructing illegal marketing campaign contributions in violation of federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. He implicated Trump instantly within the scheme and admitted that he orchestrated to pay Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
Cohen additionally pleaded responsible to tax prices and to mendacity to Congress about Trump’s enterprise enterprise to construct a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen was sentenced to a few years in jail, which he served behind bars and below home arrest.
Cohen’s plea prompted the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace to launch the investigation surrounding the hush cash funds that led to Trump’s indictment final yr.
Cohen turned devoted to antagonizing Trump. He revealed two books, “Disloyal” in 2020 and “Revenge” in 2022, and launched a podcast, “Mea Culpa” – all of which spent loads of time bashing Trump and cheering on his prosecution.
On social media, Cohen continued to assault Trump within the weeks main as much as the trial, and even after it started. The social media jabs reached the purpose that Choose Juan Merchan instructed prosecutors Friday to offer Cohen a message “from the bench” that he ought to cease talking concerning the case. (Merchan has stated he can not legally gag a witness.)
Trump has typically punched proper again in interviews and on social media, together with in a number of cases that violated the decide’s gag order on the previous president barring dialogue of witnesses within the case.
Starting with the primary witness within the case, Pecker, jurors have heard criticisms from witness after witness of Cohen forward of his personal anticipated testimony.
Pecker, who met with Cohen and Trump at a key Trump Tower assembly in 2015, was requested by Trump legal professional Emil Bove whether or not Cohen was “liable to exaggeration.”
“Sure,” Pecker stated.
Bove then requested Pecker whether or not he couldn’t belief all the things Cohen stated. The decide sustained an objection to the query, telling Trump’s legal professional in a sidebar dialogue that it was not the best place to “impeach” Cohen’s credibility.
Extra witnesses would hold doing so anyway.
Cohen’s former banker, Gary Farro, then testified that he was particularly given Cohen’s account as a result of he may very well be agency with people who “could also be a bit of difficult.” Farro stated it was truthful to name Cohen an “aggressive man.”
“Something he did want, he referred to as me, and it was all the time one thing that was pressing,” the banker stated.
Arguably probably the most destructive evaluation of Cohen got here from Davidson, who negotiated the hush cash take care of Cohen on Daniels’ behalf in 2016. Davidson described a 2011 dialog a few weblog submit on Daniels and Trump on thedirty.com, the place Cohen unleashed a “barrage of insults and insinuations and allegations.”
“I don’t suppose he was accusing us of something. He was simply screaming,” Davidson stated.
Daniels’ former legal professional went on to clarify how he ended up concerned within the hush cash deal, when Daniels’ supervisor requested him to assist finalize the deal for a nondisclosure settlement.
Requested why he bought concerned, Davidson stated: “The ethical of the story was: Nobody needed to speak to Cohen.”
Davidson recalled below questioning from Steinglass that after Trump was elected in 2016, he bought a name in December from a “very despondent and saddened” Cohen.
“He stated one thing to the impact of: ‘Jesus Christ. Are you able to f**ing consider I’m not going to Washington? After all the things I’ve executed for that f**ing man. I can’t consider I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that man’s a** so many occasions, you don’t even know.’”
Others who didn’t work together with Cohen as a lot as Davidson didn’t have significantly better issues to say. Jeff McConney, the previous Trump Group controller, was requested what Cohen’s place was on the firm.
“He stated he was a lawyer,” McConney responded.
“Did he work within the authorized division?” requested prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.
“I assume so,” McConney stated derisively.
And Hicks, who labored at the Trump Group earlier than turning into a key aide on the 2016 marketing campaign, described to jurors how Cohen – Trump’s fixer – was liable to inflate his affect on the marketing campaign.
“There have been occasions the place Mr. Cohen did issues that you just felt weren’t useful to what you have been making an attempt to perform, proper?” Bove requested Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign press secretary.
“Sure,” Hicks responded. “I used to say that he appreciated to name himself ‘a fixer’ or ‘Mr. Repair It,’ and it was solely as a result of he first broke it that he was in a position to come and repair it.”