WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s former fixer took the stand in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday and told a jury that Trump was well aware of a scheme to conceal a repayment of money to silence porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, told the jury that he used a home equity loan to pay Daniels’ lawyer $130,000, trusting the promise of Trump – then the Republican presidential candidate – that it would be repaid.
The criminal trial, the former president’s first, focuses on Trump’s restitution to Cohen and whether Trump illegally hid the hidden money as routine legal expenses, a crime in New York.
Trump faces 34 charges for each of his alleged falsified business entries related to repaying a debt to Cohen – 11 invoices, 11 checks and 12 ledger entries.
Cohen has already served time for several federal crimes, including campaign finance violations in connection with hush money deals with women who accused Trump of having affairs. In August 2019, he was sentenced to three years, but did not serve the entire sentence.
Cohen’s loyalty to Trump faded as the then-president distanced himself. The former fixer is now an outspoken Trump critic, has published the books “Disloyal” and “Revenge” and produces the podcast “Mea Culpa.”
Cohen was called as a witness just days after Daniels, an adult film actress and director, described in terrifying detail her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, at the heart of the payments in question.
GOP senators show moral support
Journalists in court reported that Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in 2024, slept at times during Monday’s trial and shook his head in response to some of Cohen’s testimony.
New York does not allow recording in the courtroom, but does allow public recording transcriptions proceedings.
Trump was accompanied by US Republican Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and J.D. Vance of Ohio, considered to be on Trump’s shortlist. Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York also joined senators and spoke to the media outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott appeared in the courtroom last week.
Before Monday’s meeting, Trump made remarks to the press, and was followed by, among others: Tuberville and Vance.
Trump defended his payments to Cohen and blamed the allegations on the Biden administration, despite the indictment coming from New York state.
“Legal costs are legal costs. This is highlighted in the book’s quote “legal fees,” Trump told reporters, making quotes in the air with his hands.
“This is all coming from Biden in the White House, by the way,” he added.
He’s worried about the “Access Hollywood” tape.
Cohen testified that in the weeks before the November election he wanted to protect Trump from further voter alienation: According to reporters in court.
If the “Access Hollywood” tape about Trump’s alleged extramarital affair with Daniels became known to the public soon after it was released, it would be “disastrous,” Cohen said.
A recording published by The Washington Post just a month before the 2016 presidential election shows Trump bragging to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that his fame allowed him to grab women’s genitals.
The tape caused confusion in the Trump camp as Election Day approached, former Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks testified on May 3.
According to journalists who witnessed the testimony, prosecutors showed phone records, text messages and emails relating to Cohen’s frantic attempts to suppress reports of Trump’s alleged trysts with Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Cohen testified for several hours about communications with David Pecker, former editor of the National Enquirer; Keith Davidson, Daniels and McDougal’s lawyer; and Hicks all took the stand in the previous weeks of the trial.
Phone records show that on October 28, 2016, at 11:48 a.m., Cohen conducted a five-minute telephone conversation between Cohen and Trump, during which Cohen told the jury that he had assured Trump that “the matter is now completely under control.” and closed,” according to reporters in court. The phone call took place the same day Cohen signed the deal with Daniels and Davidson.
The jury also heard documentation of a bank transfer from Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants, to Davidson, intended to “pay Stormy Daniels to honor her non-disclosure agreement and obtain the story and her life rights,” Cohen said: according to reporters from courthouse.
“Legal services provided”
Late in the afternoon, Cohen began testifying that Trump had direct knowledge of the reimbursement plan. The plan was developed with the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who is currently in prison for crimes related to Trump’s civil fraud lawsuit, which wrapped in February in New York.
Jurors saw Weisselberg’s handwritten notes detailing a plan to get Cohen’s money back. It was the second time the jury saw the notes, Jeffrey McConney, longtime controller of the Trump Organization, testified on May 6.
Just before the trial began, Cohen testified that he and Weisselberg went to Trump’s 26th-floor office while Trump was president-elect and got his approval for a repayment plan, according to reporters in court. Cohen said Weisselberg instructed him to submit a series of invoices within 12 months and described them as “legal services rendered.”
Cohen’s direct examination by prosecutors is expected to resume on Tuesday.
Weisselberg is serving time on Rikers Island after pleading guilty to perjury during Trump’s civil fraud trial. Trump’s former CFO had already spent three months at Rikers for tax fraud crimes in the same case.
