Closing summary
Michael Cohen has concluded his testimony for the week, and will return to the stand when court resumes on Monday morning.
Here’s a recap of what happened today:
Cohen returned to the stand for the third day. Donald Trump was joined in court by his son Eric Trump and Republican congressional allies including Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Bob Good, chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
Gaetz posted a photo of himself standing behind Trump in court, with the words: “Standing back, and standing by, Mr. President.” The phrase echoed one that Trump used for the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys in a 2020 presidential debate.
The defense, led by the Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, resumed attacking Cohen’s credibility in an effort to undermine the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness
Cohen was forced to concede that he had previously lied to protect Trump because it affected the stakes for him personally, and that he lied to the federal judge when he was prosecuted for tax evasion and false statements.
These admissions could prove problematic for the prosecutors, as they portray Cohen as an unreliable narrator who lied with ease and abandon to achieve whatever aim he was pursuing in that moment.
Blanche suggested Cohen’s latest objective was to see Trump go to jail, seeding the possibility that he might have also lied about the extent of Trump’s involvement in the hush-money scheme with Stormy Daniels.
Blanche played clips from Cohen’s podcast Mea Culpa, including when Cohen said “thinking about Trump in Otisville prison makes me giddy with joy”. He also got Cohen to concede that he believed he played a large role in the indictment being brought against Trump – and bragged about it.
The defense dug into Cohen’s previous lies under oath and how he seemingly lied about details big and small. When Cohen testified to Congress in 2017 about a Trump real-estate deal in Moscow, Blanche elicited, Cohen lied about how many times he spoke to Trump about the deal.
Blanche also directly accused Cohen of lying in his trial testimony. Cohen testified earlier in the week that when he called Trump’s then bodyguard, Keith Schiller, on 24 October 2016, it was to apprise Trump that he was moving forward with paying hush money to Daniels. Blanche suggested Cohen phoned Schiller primarily about a series of prank calls from a 14-year-old, arguing that he could not have had enough time in a one-minute, 30-second call to tell Trump about the Daniels deal.
Cohen acknowledged telling Mark Pomerantz, who previously led the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Trump, that he felt Daniels and her then lawyer, Keith Davidson, were extorting Trump in seeking a $130,000 payment for her silence on an alleged sexual encounter.
There will be no court on Friday so that Trump can attend the high school graduation of his youngest son, Barron.
It is unclear whether Trump will testify next week, when the defense will have the opportunity to present its case. Before the trial, Trump said he would testify, but Blanche has since said Trump has yet to decide whether to do so.
Updated
No decision yet on whether Trump will testify
Judge Juan Merchan instructs both sides to be prepared for summations on Tuesday.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche says he expects to be done with cross-examination of Michael Cohen by Monday morning break. The prosecution says re-direct will take about an hour.
It is unclear whether Donald Trump will testify.
Updated
The jury has left the courtroom.
Michael Cohen has left the witness stand, and will be back for more cross-examination when court resumes on Monday at 9.30am ET.
Updated
Cohen testifies he believed Stormy Daniels was extorting Trump
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche gets an interesting concession from Michael Cohen about the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, having him confirm that Cohen told the district attorney’s office once that he thought Daniels was extorting Trump for her story.
One of the defense claims has been that Trump was actually a victim in the hush-money scheme because Daniels and her lawyer dangled the story over his head and tried to extort him.
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Cohen testifies that Stormy Daniels contract 'completely legal'
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is starting to try to dismantle the core charge leveled by the prosecution that Trump falsified business records, mislabelling the hush-money reimbursement as legal expenses.
Blanche has Cohen affirm that technically speaking, Stormy Daniels entered into a legal contract for Cohen to buy the rights to her story.
“This was a completely legal binding contract?” Blanche asks. “Correct,” Cohen responds.
In doing so, Blanche is trying to suggest it was valid for the Trump Organization to label the payments as legal expenses, because legal work was performed.
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Trump attorney begins questioning about Stormy Daniels contract
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about ABC News’ interest in the Stormy Daniels story.
Cohen confirms that he learned from Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels at the time, that ABC’s John Santucci was interested in buying the Daniels story.
Cohen says he was “shocked” because Santucci “used to come to the office quite a bit.” Cohen said:
I was a little shocked that John Santucci actually did it, meaning he had spent quite of bit of time following the Trump campaign and then he denied that he was involved.
Updated
Michael Cohen is back on the witness stand to be cross-examined by the defense.
The court is taking a short afternoon break.
Trump attorney questions how Cohen can remember specific Trump call
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche pulls Michael Cohen up on his testimony from earlier in the week that he remembered how big of a deal the Access Hollywood tape was for the Trump campaign, because he remembered the phone call that came in when he was in London.
But Blanche, in an effort to cast doubt on that testimony, notes that Cohen has probably had 50 or 60,000 phone calls since that day.
Blanche asks how Cohen could have had a “specific recollection” of that call, as he said he did, given it was so long ago.
Cohen responds that it stood out “because it was significant” but with the caveat that he relied on other documents to refresh his memory.
An unconvinced Blanche asks again whether Cohen has a specific recollection of that call – and Cohen demurs.
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Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche pressed Michael Cohen about his relationship with journalists over the years, including the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. The jury is shown messages between Haberman and Cohen.
Blanche gets Cohen to admit that he would record reporters without their knowledge. Blanche asks:
Did you tell people you were recording them?
“No,” Cohen replied.
Updated
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen if he has ever recorded anyone else surreptitiously other than reporters.
Cohen says he recorded the former CNN president Jeff Zucker at one event and Donald Trump at another event.
Updated
Michael Cohen is back on the stand. Trump attorney Todd Blanche has resumed cross examination.
Donald Trump is back in the courtroom after a lunch break.
No cameras are allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom during the trial, but a sketch artist has captured this morning’s proceedings.
Michael Cohen admits to prior lies under cross-examination
Donald Trump’s lawyer resumed attacking the credibility of Michael Cohen on Thursday, forcing him to concede that he had previously lied to protect Trump because it affected the stakes for him personally, and that he lied to the federal judge when he was prosecuted for tax evasion and false statements.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche played clips from Cohen’s podcast Mea Culpa, including where Cohen said “thinking about Trump in Otisville prison makes me giddy with joy”. He also got Cohen to concede that he believed he played a large role in the indictment being brought against Trump – and bragged about it.
The defense later got into Cohen’s previous lies under oath and how he seemingly lied about details big and small. When Cohen testified to Congress in 2017 about a Trump real estate deal in Moscow, Blanche elicited, Cohen lied about how many times he spoke to Trump about the deal.
And although Cohen told William Pauley, a US district court judge, in 2018 that he had not been induced to plead guilty to federal tax evasion and false statements charges, Blanche elicited, Cohen later said he felt he was cornered into pleading guilty so that his wife wouldn’t also be charged.
“The reason you lied to a federal judge was because stakes affected you personally?” Blanche asked. “Yes,” Cohen replied, affirming that he told lies not just to protect Trump, as Cohen has claimed, but for his personal benefit, when it suited him.
In an apparent effort to undercut Cohen’s testimony on direct examination that Trump was responsible and involved in the effort to cover up the hush-money to Daniels, Blanche elicited from Cohen that he had a track record of trying to shift blame for his own actions on other people.
“You’ve blamed … Your bank? Your accountant? You blamed federal prosecutors? The judge? President Trump?” Blanche asked. “Yes sir,” replied Cohen to each of the questions.
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Fox News’s Michelle Arezou Ross reports that the New York artist Scott LoBaido pulled up outside the Manhattan courthouse and released dozens of pink balloons in the shape of male genitalia with the faces of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who has brought this hush-money case against Donald Trump, the judge Juan Merchan, and Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Trump in the election interference case.
LoBaido was arrested earlier this year for throwing pizza over the gates of New York city hall in protest of a proposed ban on coal.
Someone just pulled up to the Donald Trump hush money trial outside Manhattan Criminal Court in a UHaul and released dozens of pink balloons in the shape of male genitalia with the faces of DA Alvin Bragg, Judge Juan Merchan, and Special Counsel Jack Smith on them. pic.twitter.com/cnXrxEYLXU
— Michelle Arezou Ross (@MRossNews) May 16, 2024
It was Scott LoBaido, the same man who threw pizza at City Hall for the coal-oven fire crackdown.
— Michelle Arezou Ross (@MRossNews) May 16, 2024
Told me he did it in support of Trump saying, “I’m an artist, so what do I do? Return the humiliation favor by humiliating these d*cks.” pic.twitter.com/5p4KBPt5wW
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The court has been dismissed for a lunch break and will resume at 2.15pm ET.
After the break, Michael Cohen will return to the stand to be cross-examined by the defense.
Updated
Trump lawyer casts doubt on Cohen's testimony about October 2016 call to Trump
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about a call on 24 October 2016.
Cohen testified that he had called to speak to Donald Trump to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it”.
Asked what his recollection of that call was, Cohen said:
We talked about the matter, and it was resolved.
Blanche asks Cohen directly now whether he lied in his testimony on Tuesday that he called Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller and spoke to Trump on the call about the Daniels matter.
Blanche suggests, based on texts at the time, that Cohen primarily called Schiller to complain about being prank-called by a 14-year-old – and would not have had enough time in a 1 minute, 36-second call to also apprise Trump of the deal.
Updated
It has been over three hours of cross-examination and Michael Cohen has largely maintained his composure on the stand.
Trump’s former fixer has at times looked sunken and confused but for the most part has remained calm and even-toned, answering many of Blanche’s questions with “Yes, sir” and “No, sir”.
Updated
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche brings up the fact that Michael Cohen used a Google AI tool last November to assist his lawyer in applying for early termination for his supervised release.
The AI tool produced three fake cases, which Cohen admits he passed on to his lawyer, who then used them in the letter for early termination. Blanche asks:
The three cases you gave to your attorney weren’t real cases, correct?
“That’s correct,” Cohen replies. Blanche asks:
And you knew that your lawyer would use in support of your application?
“Yes,” Cohen says. Blanche appears to have included this example to portray Cohen as a rogue operator who also created more problems than he solved.
The parallel for the jury could be that in the hush-money scheme, Cohen concocted a repayment plan for the hush money of his own accord, trying to be too clever by half and causing problems for everyone else.
Updated
Trump attorney Todd Blanche also asks Michael Cohen whether he expressed his disappointment to Darrell Scott, a pastor and former member of Trump’s Diversity Coalition, over Trump not bringing him into the administration.
“Not into the administration, I knew the role I wanted,” said Cohen. He adds:
I may have expressed frustration.
Blanche also asks Cohen why he wanted Scott to advocate to Trump on his behalf, despite Cohen’s testimony that he spoke to Trump almost daily during the campaign trail.
In response, Cohen says:
It’s always good to have somebody else advocate.
Updated
As Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about his time in the White House, Donald Trump appears to stare at Cohen intently.
Updated
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche questions Michael Cohen about his text messages with his daughter in which they discussed a potential White House chief of staff role for Cohen.
“And you said, ‘He’s pushing like a madman,’” Blanche quotes Cohen’s text in which Cohen referred to Reince Priebus’s attempts at securing the position – which he ultimately did.
Blanche goes on to ask Cohen whether he told his daughter that he was disappointed that Priebus was ultimately chosen for the role. “That I wasn’t considered, yes sir,” says Cohen.
Blanche asks Cohen whether he was disappointed or “embarrassed” with being left only with the role of personal attorney to the US president after “all the work” he had done for Trump.
“That’s not accurate,” Cohen says.
Updated
Cohen says he wanted to work at the White House 'for ego purpose'
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen about wanting to work at the White House as well as his desire to be considered for chief of staff.
Cohen said:
I would have liked to have been considered for ego purpose.
Updated
Judge Juan Merchan has announced that there will be no court next Wednesday as usual, after earlier floating the idea of holding it then to make up for several upcoming off days.
Some jurors had indicated they can’t work that day, “so that’s off the table”, Merchan said, AP reported.
Updated
Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench after a short morning break.
Court is back in session.
The court is taking a short break.
Matt Gaetz references Trump's infamous Proud Boys comment
The Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz posted a photo of himself standing outside the Manhattan courtroom this morning in support of Donald Trump.
“Standing back and standing by, Mr President,” Gaetz wrote on X, a reference to when Trump told the far-right group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate.
Standing back and standing by, Mr. President. pic.twitter.com/gGPeTLtWmv
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) May 16, 2024
During the debate, the former president declined to condemn white supremacists and violent rightwing groups, instead urging: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.”
The Proud Boys immediately celebrated the president’s comment in posts on social media. One Proud Boys group added the phrase “Stand Back, Stand By” to their logo. Another post was a message to Trump: “Standing down and standing by sir.”
Updated
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche strikes at another instance of Michael Cohen changing his story and lying under oath.
Blanche asks Cohen to reconcile two statements before Congress in February 2019: at first, he testified he would never accept a pardon or asked for one; in a subsequent deposition, he said he had directed his lawyer to explore the possibility of a pardon.
Updated
Trump attorney gets Cohen to admit habit of shifting blame
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche also gets Michael Cohen to admit he has a track record of blaming other people for his problems. Blanche asks:
You’ve blamed ... your bank, your accountant, you blamed federal prosecutors, the judge, President Trump?”
“Yes sir,” Cohen replies.
Updated
Cohen admits he lied to federal judge not just out of loyalty for Trump
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche gets Michael Cohen to concede that he’s lied for various reasons – not just out of loyalty to Trump.
“The reason you lied to a federal judge was because stakes affected you personally?” Blanche asks of his guilty plea before Judge Pauley in 2018 on federal tax evasion charges.
“Yes,” Cohen replies.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is gaining some momentum with Michael Cohen and doubling down on the suggestion he’s a serial liar: Cohen told Judge Pauley in 2018 that he did not feel induced to plead guilty, but is now saying he felt cornered.
Cohen told that court he accepted responsibility, and then called the case “corrupt” outside the courthouse.
Updated
Trump attorney leans on Cohen's desire for revenge
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche now moves to Michael Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018 for federal tax evasion and false statements prosecuted by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York.
Blanche reads from Cohen’s book Revenge, in which Cohen suggested he did not feel like he engaged in tax fraud, and only pleaded guilty to protect his family.
Blanche seems to be suggesting that Cohen wants revenge, and wants Trump to go through what he had to go through.
Updated
Trump lawyer highlights Michael Cohen's previous lies under oath
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche gets into details about Michael Cohen’s previous lies under oath.
When Cohen testified to Congress, he lied about the number of times he spoke to Donald Trump about the Trump Moscow project and when the project was stopped.
Blanche is trying to suggest Cohen lied with ease about crucial facts, even as Cohen protests that he did so out of loyalty to Trump.
Updated
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is engaging in a new line of questioning to show Michael Cohen is motivated to see Donald Trump convicted in the case.
Playing clips from Cohen’s podcast “Mea Culpa”, where Cohen said “thinking about Trump in Otisville prison makes me giddy with joy”, Blanche gets Cohen to concede that he believed the evidence he gave to the district attorney’s office played a large role in the indictment.
Updated
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is now making a different attempt to get Michael Cohen’s texts with the former Manhattan district attorney detective Jeremy Rosenberg into evidence, reading out a summary of some of the texts.
Rosenberg, who was reportedly suspended for his interactions with Cohen, was complimenting Cohen on some of his CNN and MSNBC appearances the day Donald Trump was indicted on 30 March 2023.
But Blanche’s attempts are thwarted again as Judge Juan Merchan sustains objections to bring the texts into evidence in this way.
Updated
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about Jeremy Rosenberg, a former detective with the district attorney’s office who was reportedly suspended for his interactions with Cohen.
Updated
Not an auspicious start for Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche in resuming cross-examination of Michael Cohen.
Blanche tried to get Cohen’s texts with a Manhattan district attorney detective, Jeremy Rosenberg, entered into evidence, but Judge Juan Merchan sustained the prosecution’s objection.
Blanche now has to recalibrate.
Updated
Judge Juan Merchan addressed the jury, saying:
First I’d like to apologize for keeping you waiting … but we had to take care of some business.
He went on to talk about scheduling, saying:
If possible, it may be necessary for us to work next Wednesday.
Cohen returns to the witness stand
Michael Cohen has entered the courtroom and is back on the stand for cross-examination by the defense.
Updated
Donald Trump appears to be closing his eyes, as the lawyers and judge have a long sidebar.
Eric Trump, Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz – seated right behind Donald Trump – appear to be engaged in a pretty dynamic conversation, at times smiling, laughing and whispering into each other’s ears.
Donald Trump entered the courtroom on Thursday flanked by one of his largest entourages of the trial, including the Republican Florida representatives Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna, Bob Good of Virginia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, per pool.
Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization, was also present. Trump’s defense team said earlier this week that they had decided no longer to call Garten as a witness.
Eric Trump and Boris Epshteyn, who have been regularly attending the trial, are also here.
Updated
Before we get started today, Judge Juan Merchan is huddling with Manhattan district attorney prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers to discuss scheduling.
It’s unclear exactly what’s being discussed but with Michael Cohen being the prosecution’s final witness, the moment he is done, we could go either to the defense’s case in chief or straight to closing statements.
Donald Trump addressed the media before heading inside the courtroom this morning, where he complained that “it looks like Fort Knox” outside and claiming that there are “they don’t allow people to come”.
Trump, flanked by his attorney Todd Blanche, repeated his allegations that this case is “election interference” by “very dishonest people”.
Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and the court is in session.
Trump enters courtroom
Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for day 18 of his criminal trial.
With him today are his lawyers plus:
Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican representative
Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican congresswoman
Eric Trump
Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide
Updated
Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are walking into the courtroom.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, was pictured earlier leaving his New York apartment on his way to Manhattan criminal court.
Cohen is expected to return to the witness stand today to face more cross-examination from the former president’s lawyers who have attacked his credibility and attempted to paint him as motivated by money and publicity.
The husband of Stormy Daniels has said there is a “good chance” that the couple will leave the US if Donald Trump is acquitted in his criminal trial over paying hush-money payments to the adult film star.
“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,” Barrett Blade told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday.
If he is found guilty, then she’s still got to deal with all the hate. I feel like she’s the reason that he’s guilty from all his followers, so I don’t see it as a win-win situation either way.
Stormy Daniels’ husband speaks exclusively to OutFront and says there’s a “good chance we’ll probably vacate this country” if Trump is found not guilty pic.twitter.com/818liNwpq5
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) May 15, 2024
Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse.
Court is scheduled to begin at 9.30am ET and end at 4pm today.
Who is Michael Cohen?
Michael Cohen is Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer who was for more than a decade his Mr Fix-It, but is now the prosecution’s star witness as it builds its case that the former president sought to conceal hush-money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
Cohen served as Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney and self-described “attack dog with a law license”. But the relationship soured after Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 and did not offer Cohen a role in his administration.
Cohen, a native of Long Island, began practicing law as a personal injury lawyer in 1992 and joined the Trump Organization in 2006. He’d told Trump he’d read his book The Art of the Deal twice and soon became a close confidant.
In a 2018 profile, it was noted that Cohen performed a role much like that of Roy Cohn, the notorious New York political and legal fixer who had worked for Trump and his father. Cohen’s duties led him into fixing situations of a sensitive nature, including setting up “catch-and-kill” arrangements with David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, which has circuitously led to today’s court confrontation.
Michael Cohen testified on Tuesday that he submitted phoney invoices for legal services to cover up what were, in fact, reimbursements for a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels on his then boss’s behalf.
He repeatedly identified Donald Trump as the driver of the Daniels payoff scheme – and said that he did it to protect Trump from losing the election. Cohen said he got the money to Daniels “to ensure that the story would not come out, would not affect Mr Trump’s chances of becoming president of the United States”.
“At whose direction, and on whose behalf, did you commit that crime?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked him. Cohen replied:
On behalf of Mr Trump.
Michael Cohen, testifying on Monday, talked about how controlling media narratives about Donald Trump was among his key duties: he described helping catch and kill negative press that could have tanked his then boss’s chances in the 2016 election.
This came to include fronting $130,000 of his own money to pay off the adult film actor Stormy Daniels – who, weeks before election day, had been trying to peddle a story that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006. This came just shortly after a Washington Post story of a hot mic recording in which Trump boasted that he could grab women “by the pussy” without consent.
Cohen described Trump as “really angry” when he learned that Daniels’s story was in effect up for grabs. He recalled Trump saying:
I thought you had this under control. I thought you took care of this.
Cohen said Trump told him to “just take care of it”, adding that “This was a disaster, a fucking disaster.” Cohen said Trump wanted him to take care of the Daniels matter, but also told him to “push it out as long as you can, past the election, because if I win, I’ll be president, and if I lose, I won’t really care.”
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Cohen said. “This was all about the campaign.”
Michael Cohen testimony continues as star witness in Trump's hush-money case
Good morning. Michael Cohen, once one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants and enforcers, will return to the stand this morning to be cross-examined by the former president’s lawyers in his historic criminal trial.
Cohen, the star witness in the case against Trump, testified earlier this week that his former boss instructed him just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison, demanding that he “just take care of it”. Cohen is core to the case against Trump, because prosecutors allege that the former president cast reimbursement for a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels as legal expenses for Cohen, constituting falsification of business records.
The entire case is likely to succeed or fail on whether jurors believe Cohen’s account, or the defense claims that he is an “admitted liar” motivated by publicity and attention.
We’re at the courthouse again today. Stay with us.
Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
The key takeaways from Daniels’ testimony last week.
The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?
From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
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