The Perils of Michael Cohen as a Prosecution Witness in the NY Hush Money Trial

[Webster]

(The Guardian) How Michael Cohen could present as a conflicted witness
The case against Donald Trump is likely to succeed or fail on whether jurors believe Michael Cohen’s account, or lean toward the defense claims presented in opening arguments that he is an “admitted liar” with an “obsession to get President Trump”.

The former president’s lawyers have argued that Cohen perjured himself again when he testified at Trump’s civil fraud trial last year. They claim that Cohen has made a living from antagonizing his former (and only) client. He appeared last week in a live TikTok wearing a shirt featuring a figure resembling Trump with his hands cuffed, behind bars.

In his opening statement, Trump attorney Todd Blanche told jurors: He has a goal, an obsession with getting Trump, and you’re going to hear that.

The bitter enmity between Trump, who once praised Cohen as a “fine person with a wonderful family” and predicted he would never “flip”, and his former lawyer is obvious. Both men have been warned by Judge Juan Merchan to stop making public comments about the other.

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Michael Cohen is core to the case against Donald Trump, as he is accused of shuttling $130,000 to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election – in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump 10 years earlier.

Prosecutors contend that Trump’s repayment of Cohen in 2017 was criminal because he listed the reimbursements as legal expenses in financial documents. Cohen’s testimony will be crucial to establish that Trump knew that the repayment scheme would be logged in the Trump Organization’s books as “legal expense”, and that the false entries were in violation of election law.

Through her questioning, the Manhattan prosecutor Susan Hoffinger worked to establish that Trump and Cohen had a direct connection and that even from the outset, Cohen’s performing legal work was not his only duty – that he was effectively Trump’s right-hand man. “It was whatever concerned him, whatever he wanted,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s testimony comes in the wake of a particularly hard trial week for Trump. Daniels testified for nearly two days about her alleged liaison with Trump following a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Cohen admits he wants to see Trump convicted
After a lot of wiggling, Michael Cohen admits on the stand that he wants to see Donald Trump convicted in this case.

-Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks: You also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa, your desire that President Trump get convicted in this case, correct?
-“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen said. “Yes, probably.”

-Blanche asks: Do you have any doubt? Cohen says no. Blanche asks: So why did you specifically say yes probably.
-Cohen said he wasn’t sure if he used those exact words.

-Blanche keeps prodding him on this. “I would like to see accountability … I’m just asking you yes or no, do you want to see President Trump get convicted” in this case, Blanche presses.
-Cohen replies: “Sure.”