Donald Trump’s defense team on Thursday grilled former Trump attorney Michael Cohen about his history of telling lies and blaming others for his legal troubles, and at one point during their cross-examination played a podcast in which Cohen expressed his desire for Trump to go to prison.
Cohen took the stand for a lengthy cross examination on Thursday during his former boss’s criminal “hush-money” trial in Manhattan. Trump’s lawyers peppered him with questions about his criminal history and statements expressing support for Trump getting convicted.
The prosecution’s star witness, Cohen previously pleaded guilty to financial crimes and perjury, resulting in his disbarment. His testimony is central to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump on charges that he falsified business records of reimbursements to Cohen for paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from going public with allegations she and Trump had an extramarital affair.
Cohen testified earlier this week about falsifying invoices for the reimbursements and Trump’s alleged involvement in the plan to pay Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied Daniels’s allegations and accused Bragg of waging a political prosecution against him to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.
On Wednesday, Cohen’s former attorney Robert Costello testified before Congress and said Cohen previously admitted to having nothing on Trump when it comes to the Daniels payment.
Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, repeatedly asked Cohen about both his guilty pleas and anti-Trump commentary leading up to the criminal trial, according to multiple reports. At the end of proceedings on Thursday, Cohen recalled his past assertion that Daniels was extorting Trump and admitted the non-disclosure agreement she signed was a legally binding contract.
Blanche questioned Cohen’s social media commentary related to Trump’s indictment and the trial and played a recording of Cohen on his podcast expressing his desire for Trump to go to prison.
“I took some credit, yes,” Cohen said of Trump being indicted.
Cohen accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct while simultaneously blaming others, including the “corrupt” federal judge who sentenced him. He defended his claims that his federal tax charges were “bogus” and claimed he pleaded guilty to protect his family.
“I blame people, yes,” Cohen admitted.
When pressed under oath, Cohen said Trump wanted him to lie, without providing evidence that Trump ordered him to do so. “I worked with a joint defense agreement and we crafted the two-page document in order to stay on message — the message we all knew Mr. Trump wanted, including Mr. Trump’s attorney at the time,” Cohen asserted.
The topic of Cohen seeking a pardon from Trump was another point of contention. Cohen previously said he would never accept a pardon from Trump, even though he pushed for it privately. The defense similarly pushed Cohen on his quest to obtain a high-level position in the Trump administration for his decade of work as Trump’s fixer.
Trump’s defense team is attempting to portray Cohen as a resentful, obsessive ex-employee in addition to reminding the jury Cohen has a long history of lying to undermine his credibility.
At one point, Blanche brought up an episode when Cohen used artificial intelligence to cite fake cases when he attempted to apply for early termination of his supervised release. Cohen admitted to doing so and confirmed he was disbarred when the incident took place.
In the afternoon, Blanche pressed Cohen about a short phone call he had with Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, in October 2016, and whether Cohen was seeking to talk to Trump about the Daniels payment, as he testified to. The defense raised the possibility that Cohen called Schiller to discuss the alleged harassment he was receiving at the time, rather than the Daniels payment.
The defense shared text messages to cast doubt on Cohen’s assertions regarding the call. Cohen doubled down on his recounting of events as Blanche tried to get him to admit to lying.
In September 2016, Cohen recorded a phone call with Trump introduced by the prosecution during its direct examination.
“Just so I understand, you surreptitiously recorded your client so you could play a privileged recorded communication between you and your client with a third party?” Blanche asked.
“That’s correct,” Cohen answered.
Blanche asked Cohen about former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony at the start of the trial detailing the publication’s close relationship with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen’s testimony earlier this week overlapped with Pecker’s recollection of a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where Pecker agreed to run cover for Trump’s campaign.
“Had you ever told anybody that, before your testimony this week?” Blanche wondered.
“Not that I recall,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s relationships with media outlets and reporters also came up Thursday, and he claimed to have 95 “secret recordings” on his phone, including one with ex-CNN boss Jeff Zucker. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman is one reporter Cohen recalled having a strong relationship with.
Bragg, an elected Democrat, is prosecuting Trump on felony charges for supposedly covering up underlying crimes by falsifying the business records. The underlying campaign finance crimes at play are federal offenses not being pursued by the Justice Department.
Last week, Daniels testified and shared details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, despite its irrelevance to the criminal charges.
The prosecution has spent a significant amount of time incorporating the Daniels payment into a broader narrative of Trump conspiring to alter the 2016 election outcome by suppressing damaging information.
Republican lawmakers have made appearances at Trump’s trial throughout the week to show their support and criticize the prosecution. Judge Juan Merchan’s expansive gag order against Trump is limiting his ability to criticize the case, but it does not apply to Trump’s political allies.
The trial will resume next week.