Christian Smith
NEW YORK — Former President Trump’s defense lawyers went straight for the jugular on Tuesday, seeking to demolish the credibility and character of key witness Michael Cohen, who was subjected to long-awaited cross-examination following some of the most damning testimony against Trump yet. to be presented at trial.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, wasted no time in accusing Cohen of his own words in an attempt to illustrate to the jury the kind of disrespect Trump and his team suffered from the former fixer.
“You went on TikTok and called me a crybaby, didn’t you?” Blanche asked Cohen on the witness stand moments after the interrogation began.
“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen replied begrudgingly before letting out a sigh.
Blanche attacked Cohen for the rest of the afternoon, using similar public statements against him, targeting the witness’ prolific social media posts and non-stop media appearances to portray him as getting rich by blaming Trump for a secret cash payment intended to maintain a secret case allegation.
In court, Blanche also got Cohen to admit what he hoped would be the ultimate goal of a trial that has now stretched into its fifth week.
“Do you want President Trump convicted in this case?” Blanche asked.
“Of course,” Cohen responded, after repeatedly refusing to give a straight answer.
Prosecutors’ objections came moments after Blanche began interrogating Cohen.
Although the “crazy little” exchange was expunged from the record, jurors heard Cohen loud and clear, some cracking smiles after maintaining a stoic demeanor during previous testimony.
Blanche then painted Cohen as someone who made money by turning his back on Trump.
Blanche picked up a “Mea Culpa Podcast Tee” — sold by the liberal news site MeidasTouch and named after Cohen’s own show — that depicts the former president in an orange jumpsuit, wrists restrained by handcuffs, in a prison cell. A social media post from Cohen is attached to the sales page, which celebrates “the fall of Mango Mussolini.”
Cohen at one point admitted that he made $3 million from two books he wrote about his time working for Trump.
Cohen, in turn, said he could not remember his various posts or refused to give direct answers to Blanche, who was frustrated to note that Cohen remembered conversations from years ago when responding to prosecutors.
That testimony, in which Cohen was under direct questioning for a day and a half, provided some of Trump’s strongest implications than those provided by any other witnesses to testify thus far.
Top stories from The Hill
Trump’s former fixer testified that he made the $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to ensure that her story of an alleged affair with Trump remained secret and “would not affect Mr. He also said that If Trump hadn’t been running for president, he wouldn’t have paid Daniels.
That could help bolster the state’s theory about the case — that the falsified records to hide the payment to Daniels and keep the alleged affair secret were an attempt to influence the 2016 election. At one point, Cohen said Trump only wanted the story to remain secret until after November of that year – and that Trump didn’t care if news of the hush money came out after the election, whether he won or not.
Cohen testified similarly in the settlement with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, telling jurors that he helped coordinate her silence to ensure the “possibility of Mr. Trump being successful in the election.”
“Under whose guidance and in whose name did you do this?” asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.
“Under the direction of Donald J. Trump,” Cohen said.
Cohen spoke to the biggest conspiracy that prosecutors aim to convince the jury of – that Trump silenced unflattering stories about himself to pave his way to the White House in 2016.
Cohen undermined Trump’s central defense when he admitted the invoices were fake shortly before Blanche’s interrogation.
Cohen confirmed that each of the 11 invoices he presented to Trump, which support 11 of the charges the former president faces, were false records. He also testified that he received $35,000 from Trump every month despite doing “minimal” work for his then-boss — undermining the defense narrative that those checks, from which 11 other Trump allegations emerge, were a withholding. Cool.
At the end of the first day’s questioning, Blanche attempted to paint Cohen as a hypocrite, noting that Trump’s former personal lawyer called Trump a good man who cares deeply about the country, even saying he would take a bullet for Trump.
“I was deeply involved in the cult of Donald Trump,” Cohen said of the comments.
The trial resumes Thursday with a new interrogation of Cohen – by Blanche.
Lauren Sforza contributed.
Updated at 6:25 p.m.
