Closing summary
Donald Trump’s former fixer turned star prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, took the stand on Monday and is expected to return tomorrow to continue to be questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.
Cohen said he first met Trump through the former president’s son, Donald Jr, and that the former president asked him to fix an issue with the board at Trump World Tower. Eventually Cohen would work as Trump’s special counsel for 10 years, making approximately $525,000, adding: “I would only answer to him.”
Manhattan prosecutor Susan Hoffinger worked to establish that Trump and Cohen had a direct connection and that Cohen was effectively Trump’s right-hand man. “It was whatever concerned him, whatever he wanted,” Cohen said.
Hoffinger also tried to convey that Trump was well aware of workings at the office – undermining a potential defense argument that he was distracted when he signed the checks.
Cohen testified about a meeting with the American Media Inc publisher David Pecker in summer 2015, shortly after Trump announced his presidential candidacy, in which prosecutors say Pecker, Cohen and Trump hatched a catch-and-kill plan to bury negative press about the then candidate.
Cohen said he learned that in fall 2015, he’d heard that a former Trump Tower doorman said Trump had a “love child” and Cohen wanted Trump’s direction on what he wanted done. “He told me to make sure that the story doesn’t get out – you handle it.” Cohen said he worked with Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer, and Pecker, and that Cohen would pass updates “immediately” to Trump. Asked if Trump was grateful, Cohen said: “Absolutely.”
Cohen said he was present in 2016 when Trump had a conversation with Pecker, during which Pecker said: “It’s going to cost him $150,000 to control the story, to which Mr Trump replied, ‘No problem, I’ll take care of it.’”
Cohen said that in 2016, he learned an agreement had been reached with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, for $150,000. Trump’s reaction to hearing that an agreement had been done was: “Fantastic! Great job!” Pecker then wanted to know “when he should anticipate receiving, being paid back the $150,000”, Cohen said.
Cohen testified that Trump told him to bury Stormy Daniels’s story weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”. Cohen finalized the $130,000 payments to Daniels and immediately went to Trump to inform him the deal was done, he testified. “Would you have made that payment to Stormy Daniels without getting a sign-off from Mr Trump?” Hoffinger asked Cohen. “No, because everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off. And on top of that, I wanted the money back,” he said.
Cohen said Trump urged him to delay sending payment to Daniels’s lawyer Keith Davidson until after the election, and that he had used the Yom Kippur holiday as an excuse to delay the payment. Cohen said he resisted paying out of his own pocket but eventually relented after Trump promised him, “You’ll get the money back.”
Cohen said Trump was angry at the possibility that Daniels might come forward surfaced shortly after the “Access Hollywood” tape release in which Trump bragged about groping women “by the pussy” without their consent. “This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”
Cohen said he asked Trump how Daniels’ story might impact his marriage with his wife, Melania. He said Trump told him, “Don’t worry,” adding: “How long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long.” Cohen said he concluded that “this was all about the campaign.”
Updated
Donald Trump, speaking to reporters after court adjourned, name dropped around a dozen so-called “legal experts” who agreed with him that his criminal trial is a “threat to democracy’.
Among those he mentioned included JD Vance, an Ohio Republican senator who is on the list of Trump’s potential running mates, and Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird. Both Bird and Vance attended the trial today in a show of support for Trump.
