Michael Cohen, former lawyer for Donald Trump, arrives in court in New York, March 13, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Michael Cohen testified Monday that he feared there would be a “devastating” impact on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign if porn star Stormi Daniels went public with her claim that she had sex with the billionaire real estate mogul a decade earlier.
Cohen said Trump was furious when he learned Daniels was shopping on her account again, five years after his then-personal lawyer and Cohen partner first tipped Trump off about the potential story going public.@u
“I thought you took care of that,” Trump said as Cohen testified Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court in Trump’s criminal silence trial. “I thought it was under control.” “
Then Trump said: “This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me,” testified the 57-year-old Cohen.
” “The kids will think it’s cool, but this will be a disaster for the campaign!” “Trump was furious, according to Cohen.
Cohen noted that by the time he learned that Daniels could sell her story for a night with Trump, then-Republican candidate Trump “was very mean to women.”
“And that, combined with the previous Access Hollywood tape” upset Trump, Cohen testified, referring to the infamous tape that captured Trump bragging about kissing women and grabbing their genitalia without prior consent.
Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger as former US President Donald Trump sits with his eyes closed during Trump’s criminal trial on charges he falsified business records to hide money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at the Manhattan District Court in New York. City, USA, May 13, 2024 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Earlier Monday, Cohen testified that Trump had warned him “just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women” as soon as he announced he was running for president in 2015.
Cohen also testified about secretly recording Trump during a meeting on compensation for the publisher of The National Enquirer for paying a Playboy model $150,000 to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen’s revelations came on the first day of his testimony at Trump’s criminal money laundering trial in New York, where he described efforts to protect Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign from malicious disclosures.
Once slavishly devoted to Trump, Cohen is now his avowed enemy and could be the key witness against him in the case.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about Trump.
Trump’s reimbursement to Cohen for that payment while he served in the White House is the basis of the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against the former president.
The Trump Organization reported Daniels-related compensation to Cohen as legal fees.
But prosecutor Alvin Bragg claims this was a crime — falsifying business records — committed by Trump to cover up the fact that hush money was protecting his then-wobbly presidential candidate at a critical time.
Trump, who denies having sex with Daniels, says the felony charges are false. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is calling them an attempt by the Democratic attorney general to hurt his chances of winning the upcoming election against President Joe Biden.
In addition to the payment to Daniels, Cohen was closely involved in arranging another hush money payment, to Playboy model Karen McDougal, from the publisher of the National Enquirer in 2016 in exchange for her story about the affair with Trump.
Former US President Donald Trump sits with his eyes closed as New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg watches as Michael Cohen is questioned by District Attorney Susan Hoffinger during Trump’s criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to conceal money to silence porn star Stormy Daniels. 2016, at the Manhattan State Courthouse in New York, USA, May 13, 2024 in this sketch of the courtroom.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Cohen testified that as Trump announced in 2015 that he would run for the White House, it became clear that the married real estate mogul contributed to his secret personal life.
“Did Mr Trump express concerns about negative stories about his personal life?”. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen as Trump sat at the defense table.
Cohen replied, “Yes.”
“What he said?” Hofinger asked.
Cohen responded that Trump said, “You know when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, a lot of women are going to come forward.” ”
As Cohen began testifying Monday, telling jurors about his personal and professional background, Trump listened with closed eyes, the same way he has when other witnesses in the case have taken the stand.
“During the time you were working there for Mr. Trump, how often would you say you met with him or spoke with him,” Hofiger asked Cohen.
Cohen replied: “Every day and several times a day.”
Former US President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly concealing hush money payments in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 13, 2024 in New York.
Spencer Platt | Reuters
He told the prosecutor that working for Trump for more than a decade “has been an amazing experience in many ways.”
“There have been great moments and some not-so-great moments, but for the most part, I’ve enjoyed the responsibilities I’ve been given, I’ve enjoyed my colleagues, the Trump kids,” Cohen said, as Trump’s son, Eric Trump, stared at him from the courtroom. gallery.
“It was a big family.”
Cohen later explained how he used to encrypt the Signal app to communicate with David Pecker, then-CEO of American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer, and Pecker’s lieutenant, Dylan Howard.
Cohen said he used Signal when “it was a sensitive issue that we wanted to keep private.”
He testified that in August 2015, Trump and Pecker met and “What was discussed was the power of the National Enquirer to be at the cash register of so many supermarkets and bodegas that if we could publish positive stories about Trump it would be beneficial and if we could to publish negative stories about some of the other candidates, which could be beneficial.”
Cohen said Pecker offered to alert Trump to any negative stories about Trump so he could prevent them from being published.
In June 2016, Pecker and Howard notified Cohen that Playboy model McDougal was interested in selling her account of a relationship with Trump to news outlets, Cohen testified.
Cohen said the fallout from the release of McDougal’s story could be “significant” and that he notified Trump “immediately” after hearing about it from the US media.
“She’s really beautiful,” Trump said of McDougal when Cohen told him what Packer and Howard had said.
“Okay, but he’s shopping a story,” Cohen replied, according to his testimony Monday.
Trump then asked his fixer to see that McDougal’s account was not published, Cohen testified.
Cohen then substantiated Pecker’s earlier testimony, in which he told Trump it would cost $150,000 to “verify” McDougal’s story.
“No problem, I’ll take care of it,” Trump told Pecker, according to Cohen.
But Trump did not retaliate against Pecker, which angered the publisher, Cohen testified.
During a meeting at a restaurant, Pecker told Cohen, “I need my money back,” Cohen testified.
“I said, ‘Mr. Trump said he’s going to pay you back and he’s going to pay you back,'” Cohen testified.
Cohen said he later told Trump he was concerned about a dossier the US media had on Trump.
“And one of the concerns that I had, that I expressed to Mr. Trump, was that if he [Pecker] goes, there are a number of papers related to you,” Cohen testified.
Hoffinger asked, “Was Mr. Trump worried about that?”
“Yes,” Cohen replied.
He then said he recorded a conversation with Trump in September 2016 about buying the rights to McDougal’s life story.
Cohen said he secretly taped Trump “so I could show it to David Packer and that way he would hear the conversation, that he would pay – that he would pay him back.”
“And I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr. Trump,” Cohen testified.
The recording of the conversation between Cohen and Trump was then played for the jury.
Pecker and Howard also published negative stories in the Enquirer about Trump’s opponents in the GOP primary, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and about 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“Some of the negatives I got from David or Dylan were Hillary Clinton wearing power glasses saying she had a brain injury, Ted Cruz’s photo of his father with Lee Harvey Oswald claiming he was involved in the JFK assassination, articles about Marco Rubio in the pool with several men, that he was on some kind of drug binge,” Cohen testified.
“Ami [American Media] I would send the cover and show it to Mr. Trump and he knew that David was faithful and active and did everything he said he was going to do in the August meeting and actually did it.”
Hoffinger asked Cohen if he remembered Trump’s reaction to those stories.
“This is fantastic, this is unbelievable,” Trump said, according to Cohen.
Cohen, who has previously said he had “blind faith” in Trump while working with him, is expected to testify for several days.
After Hoffinger completes her first round of questioning, Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanch, will cross-examine Cohen.
Blanche is expected to hammer Cohen’s self-admitted history of lying — often in the service of Trump — and his federal criminal conviction for tax crimes and campaign finance violations in connection with the Stormy Daniels payment.
Todd Blanch, attorney for former US President Donald Trump, sits in a courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, US, Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
“He’s a convicted felon. And he’s also a convicted perjurer. He’s an avowed liar,” Blanch said in his opening statement for Cohen as the trial began.
On Friday, Blanche asked Judge Juan Mercan to order a gag order against Cohen, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump. The former president is subject to a gag order for witnesses in the case.
Merchan did not agree to silence Cohen, but told Bragg’s prosecution team to let Cohen know 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.