Trump trial live: Michael Cohen testifies he did everything to ‘protect my boss’
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Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has resumed at Manhattan Criminal Court, with the defendant coming face to face with his estranged former “fixer” Michael Cohen in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom.
Cohen is the attorney who made the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels at the heart of the case in the hope of buying her silence about a sexual encounter she claims she had with Mr Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in July 2006.
When the story emerged shortly before the 2016 election, Cohen testified Mr Trump cared more about the impact on his presidential campaign than his marriage to Melania Trump.
The former president denies the affair and the 34 felony counts brought against him by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who accuses him of falsifying business records to hide the payout.
Ms Daniels herself took to the witness stand last week to deliver some highly explicit and embarrassing evidence against Mr Trump and more than held her own in response to hostile cross-examination from the defence, which worked hard to discredit her.
Alex Woodward and Kelly Rissman are covering the trial for The Independent from Manhattan Criminal Court.
‘Women will hate me. Guys will think it’s cool’: Michael Cohen testifies about Trump’s reaction to Stormy Daniels story
“I thought you had this under control. I thought you took care of this,” Cohen said from the witness stand in the former president’s hush money trial on Monday, recalling Mr Trump’s enraged reaction to news that the adult film star’s allegations had resurfaced.
“Just take care of it. There’s a lot going on at the campaign at the time. Just take care of it,” Mr Trump said, according to Cohen.
Alex Woodward and Kelly Rissman report from court:
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 22:30
Trump’s hallway remarks
Trump spoke to the cameras starting 4:29pm
In response to question on why elected we’re here today:
“To me it’s a terrible thing that’s happening to democracy in this country and we have a lot of them they want to come I say just stay back. Pass lots of laws to stop things like this. What’s going on in that courtroom is a threat to democracy and we cannot have a country where we get to prosecute your political opponents, instead of persuading voters.”
Named dropped around a dozen “legal experts” who agree with him, he said, including JD Vance, AG Brenna Bird (both were here today, and the other usual suspects, Jonathan Turley, Matt Whitaker.
“Look, they’re doing great. You know why they’re doing great? They’ve kept me here for three and a half, four weeks, instead of campaigning. Yet we still have the best poll numbers.”
“There’s no problem here. You know the FEC wrote this off. … they took a pass they said there’s no problem here.”
“It could have been brought six years ago, seven years ago, almost eight years ago. They bring it right in the middle of my presidential campaign.”
“We have a corrupt judge,” he yelling/raising his voice more than I’ve ever heard him in the hallway before. “and we have a judge who’s highly conflicted. And he’s keeping me from campaigning. He’s an appointed New York judge appointed, you know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He’s appointed. He’s a corrupt judge. And he’s a conflicted judge and he outta let us go out and campaign and get rid of this scam.”
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 22:06
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 22:00
What to expect tomorrow in court
Tomorrow: Cohen will resume under direct and Team Trump will start cross-examination (which could take a long time).
We left off with Trump approving the reimbursement plan, with Cohen testifying that Trump personally knew that the plan was not for retainers or legal expenses but to make things right by reimbursing him for the Stormy Daniels pay-off.
Tomorrow we’ll likely go through each of those invoices from 2017.
Alex Woodward13 May 2024 21:56
Watch: Former federal judge says plenty of evidence for jury to convict Trump
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 21:38
Court adjourns for the day
ADA Susan Hoffinger asks Judge Juan Merchan if now is a good time to break.
He says it is and dismisses the jury for the day.
Cohen steps down from the witness stand but direct examination will continue tomorrow.
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 21:31
Hoffinger asks Cohen whether he is aware that when attorneys represent a client and receive compensation they are required to put together a written agreement or an engagement letter.
Did he ever do that for his personal attorney position for Trump?
I knew there would be no compensation.
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 21:30
Trump, Cohen and Weisselberg met at Trump Tower, where the president-elect approved the payment plan.
Weisselberg said the payments would come monthly.
Trump told them they’re in for “one heck of a ride” in Washington.
That $420k total spread out over 12 months was not a retainer for future legal counsel, Cohen says. It was a payment plan to cover-up reimbursements, he says.
On January 17, Cohen told Gene Freidman that he would be personal counsel to Trump in DC.
He also told that to Sean Hannity on air on Fox News.
After that, in a text message on Jan 16 2017, Steve Denari congratulated him on being Trump’s “consigliere.”
Alex Woodward13 May 2024 21:23
Weisselberg and Cohen planned to “gross up” the $180k to $360k to account for taxes under the suggestion that Cohen receive the payments as income rather than reimbursements.
“I didn’t know and to be honest I didn’t even really think about it. I just wanted to get my money back.”
He thought that money was coming as one lump sum. They went to Trump’s office to talk about it, “right before Trump left for the inauguration.”
Alex Woodward13 May 2024 21:14
Weisselberg and Cohen worked out reimbursment amount
Oliver O’Connell13 May 2024 21:06
