Michael Cohen, former attorney for Donald Trump, arrives to the New York Courthouse on March 13, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Michael Cohen, who spent years working as the personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, is set to testify Monday against the former president in what could be the most critical moment of Trump’s New York criminal hush money trial.
Once slavishly devoted to Trump, Cohen is now his avowed enemy. Cohen will tell jurors about how he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election, in exchange for her silence about a one-night stand she had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump’s reimbursement of Cohen for that payoff while he was serving in the White House is the basis for the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against the ex-president.
The Trump Organization reported the Daniels-related reimbursements to Cohen as legal expenses. But D.A. Alvin Bragg alleges that this constituted a crime, falsification of business records, committed by Trump to hide the fact that the hush money had protected his then-wobbling presidential candidate at a key moment.
Trump, who denies having sex with Daniels, says the felony charges are bogus. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee calls them an effort by a Democratic prosecutor to damage his chances to win the upcoming election against President Joe Biden.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen (C) arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court for the trial of former US President Donald Trump for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs in New York City, on May 13, 2024.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Cohen, who in the past has said he had a “blind loyalty” to Trump while working for him, is expected to testify in Manhattan Supreme Court for several days.
On Monday, he will be questioned by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger, who has been preparing him for his turn on the witness stand for the past year, NBC News reported.
In addition to the payment to Daniels, Cohen was closely involved in the arrangement of another hush money payment, to Playboy model Karen McDougal, by the publisher of The National Enquirer in 2016 in exchange for her story of an affair with Trump.
After Hoffinger finishes her first round of questioning, Trump’s defense lawyer Todd Blanche will cross-examine Cohen.
Blanche is expected to hammer away at Cohen’s self-admitted history of lying — often in the service of Trump — and his federal criminal guilty plea to tax crimes and campaign finance violations in connection with the Stormy Daniels hush money payment.
“He’s a convicted felon. And he also is a convicted perjurer. He is an admitted liar,” Blanche said in his opening statement about Cohen at the start of the trial.
On Friday, Blanche asked Judge Juan Merchan to slap a gag order on Cohen, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump. The former president himself is subject to a gag order about witnesses in the case.
Merchan did not agree to gag Cohen, but he did tell Bragg’s prosecution team to let Cohen know that the judge wanted him to stop making public statements about Trump, or anything else in the case.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.