On the docket: Prank calls, lies and audio tape
Thursday’s trial, like much of this week, was all about Michael Cohen – and attempts by former president Donald Trump’s lawyers to make him out to be a big fat liar.
Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, spent all day on the witness stand being grilled by Trump attorney Todd Blanche, who played him clips from Cohen’s own podcast attacking Trump, forced him to admit to numerous previous lies – including some that were for his own benefit, not Trump’s – and undercut some of his earlier testimony.
Cohen is the lynchpin witness of the case, as the only person who testified that he had direct knowledge that Trump ordered staff to falsify business records in order to pay Cohen back $130,000 in hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
But Cohen is also a convicted perjurer with an ax to grind – a characterization Blanche spent a lot of time fleshing out to undercut the reliability of his testimony.
Here are the biggest moments from Thursday’s testimony:
Did Cohen talk to Trump about Daniels – or complain about prank calls?
Blanche poked holes in Cohen’s testimony that he’d talked to Trump on a 24 October 2016 call he placed to Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller. Cohen had testified that he had called Schiller, who was usually at Trump’s side and who put Cohen on the phone with Trump to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it”.
“That’s a lie,” Blanche yelled at Cohen, pointing to a text where Cohen sent Schiller the number of a 14-year-old who kept prank-calling him. Cohen admitted that complaining about the prank calls was part of the conversation but insisted he also talked to Trump about Daniels during the 96-second phone call. Whether or not the jury believes him could be a major factor in this case’s result.
Legitimate legal expenses?
Blanche tried to undercut the core charge leveled by the prosecution: that Trump falsified business records by mislabeling the money he sent Cohen as legal expenses. Blanche asked Cohen if the contract he got Daniels to sign was “a completely legal binding contract”, which Cohen affirmed. That could convince jurors that Cohen’s repayment was a legitimate legal expense, blowing apart the charges against Trump.
No gig for Cohen
Blanche sought to paint Cohen as a jilted ex-employee. He asked about Cohen getting another Trump campaign surrogate to advocate for him for a high-up White House job. Cohen insisted he had just wanted to be Trump’s personal attorney, but admitted “it would have been nice to have been invited” to Washington with the Trump crew.
‘Giddy with joy’
Blanche played multiple clips of Cohen’s podcast where Cohen attacked Trump, including one where he said the idea of Trump going to prison made him “giddy with joy”.
A lying liar
Cohen was forced to admit he had lied under oath in previous situations, both in court and to Congress. Cohen admitted he’d falsified the number of times he’d talked to Trump about a real estate deal in Moscow during 2017 testimony to Congress, and Blanche got him to admit that he’d lied to a federal judge about accepting responsibility in a 2018 plea deal in order to keep his wife out of legal jeopardy. “The reason you lied to a federal judge was because stakes affected you personally?” Blanche asked. “Yes,” Cohen responded.
What’s next
Cohen will return to the witness stand on Monday morning. Trump’s team also said that they may call a campaign finance expert as a witness for the defense.
Assuming Trump decides not to testify – a very, very unlikely situation – the trial could wrap up early next week. Judge Juan Merchan told attorneys to be ready to deliver their closing statements as soon as Tuesday.
