Michael Cohen is a liar and convicted criminal. After his testimony Monday, the consensus is that he is also a compelling witness, one able to connect the dots and explain how his lying was a requirement of the job – of working for the defendant, Donald Trump – in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy at the heart of the former president’s hush money case.
In first two weeks of the trial, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office worked to build up Cohen’s credibility before he ever took to the stand, introducing jurors to a host of people, from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to a pair of Trump Organization accountants, who could bolster the prosecution’s (and Cohen’s) key claim: that the former president’s onetime fixer paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 election and was reimbursed for this payment by the Republican nominee.
