Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s “star witness,” is expected to take the stand on Monday in former President Donald Trump’s business records trial in Manhattan.
Cohen was Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who is expected to testify about his role in alleged crime Trump is being accused of — falsifying business records to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Specifically, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is accusing Trump of classifying payments to adult actress Stormy Daniels through Cohen as “legal” expenses, when he argues they should have been classified as “campaign” expenses and that the “crime” is that Trump knowingly did this to hide an illegal “conspiracy” to win the election. (Legal scholar Jonathan Turley and others have argued there is no crime in the case.) Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Stormy Daniels attends the 2024 Adult Video News Awards at Resorts World Las Vegas on January 27, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada (Ethan Miller/Getty Images).
Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payments and to lying to Congress, is considered Bragg’s “most important witness” in the case, according to the Associated Press. In advance of his testimony, he has been taunting Trump on social media.
On Monday, the New York Post reported that Cohen is shopping his own reality show. He is also reportedly considering a run for Congress. Despite Trump being gagged from attacking Cohen, Cohen has been free to attack Trump, recently calling him “VonShitzinPants.”
Turley joked in a recent article, “Who would have thought that District Attorney Alvin Bragg calling a porn star to the stand would be the moral high ground for key witnesses? Next could be a disbarred, convicted perjurer who is still seeking to make money off the case.”
New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a news conference at Supreme Court after the exoneration proceeding of Steven Lopez, Monday, July 25, 2022, in New York (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP).
Former House Judiciary Committee counsel Michael Conway wrote in MSNBC.com, “A self-acknowledged liar, perjurer and convicted felon, prosecutors need to convince all 12 jurors that Cohen is telling the truth this time. If not, the prosecution’s case could fail.”
He added that Cohen’s “damaging baggage is staggering.”
He wrote:
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court to tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, and illegal campaign contributions. In the Department of Justice’s press release, then-Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami stated that Cohen “chose to break the law, repeatedly over many years and in a variety of ways.
Defense lawyers have “teed up a bruising cross-examination” of Cohen, the AP reported, telling jurors that Cohen is an “admitted liar” with an “obsession to get President Trump.”
Cohen’s testimony, however, signals that the trial is entering its final stretch and expected to wrap up as early as the end of the week.
Last week, the prosecution’s other “star witness,” Daniels, took the stand. According to reports from inside the courtroom, juror seemed unmoved or uncomfortable by her testimony.
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