Michael Cohen wavers at trial on recollection of key conversation with Donald Trump
Star prosecution witness Michael Cohen has conceded at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial that a key conversation he had recounted before might not have happened.
Star prosecution witness Michael Cohen has conceded on the stand at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial that a key conversation he earlier recounted having with the former president may not have actually happened.
Mr Trump’s one-time fixer had previously testified that he spoke to Mr Trump on the phone in October 2016 to reassure his boss that he was handling a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Mr Trump.
On Thursday, Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Mr Trump, confronted Mr Cohen with text messages that appeared to show that Mr Cohen hadn’t talked to Mr Trump but to Mr Trump’s bodyguard to discuss a teenage prank caller who was harassing Mr Cohen.
Mr Cohen, who appeared blindsided, wavered on his recollection of the phone call as Mr Blanche accused him of lying, but he insisted that he also spoke to Mr Trump during the 96-second call.
“I believe I was telling the truth,” Mr Cohen said of his earlier testimony. The back-and-forth kept some jurors spellbound and put Mr Cohen’s credibility under greater scrutiny.
Mr Cohen, who has testified over three days, previously told jurors that his ex-boss directed him to pay $US130,000 (currently $195,000) to Ms Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr Trump. He said Mr Trump directed a cover-up of the payment after he won the election.
The prosecution’s final witness, Mr Cohen is the only one who testified to having first-hand knowledge of Mr Trump’s role in the alleged cover-up of the hush-money payment. His testimony is crucial in sewing together other witness accounts that have described Mr Trump as a micromanager who was heavily involved in every aspect of his business and campaign and feared electoral damage from the Daniels story.
Lawyers for Mr Trump have portrayed Mr Cohen, a convicted liar, as an opportunist who holds a grudge and is eager to make money off his former boss. He has made millions of dollars, they said, from writing two books, hosting podcasts and doing TikTok videos about Mr Trump.
Mr Blanche spent much of Thursday morning grilling Mr Cohen over previously pleading guilty to lying to congress, making false statements to a bank and tax evasion. They also sparred over whether some of his statements to congress constituted lies.
Mr Cohen had previously told congress that he didn’t want to work in Mr Trump’s first administration. But Mr Blanche questioned Mr Cohen about conversations he had in 2016 where he expressed disappointment and frustration that he was overlooked for the role of chief of staff to Mr Trump.
“I would have liked to have been considered for ego purposes,” Mr Cohen said of the job. However, he maintained that after Mr Trump’s election, he preferred to stay in his position as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer.
Mr Cohen also spoke to congress in 2019, after his guilty pleas, where he said he had never sought a pardon from Mr Trump. He told jurors on Thursday that his lawyers later had to issue a statement to correct the record because he had in fact at one point instructed his legal team to reach out to Mr Trump about a potential pardon.
Mr Blanche on Thursday also pressed Mr Cohen on past statements he made on podcasts and in media interviews where he relished the idea of Mr Trump being indicted in the hush-money case.
“He is about to get a taste of what I went through, and I promise you, it’s not fun,” Mr Cohen, who served time in prison, said in a podcast.
Mr Cohen acknowledged he made the statement.
Mr Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegedly concealing the Daniels payment. He denies the affair. Prosecutors say that the payment was intended to ward off negative publicity during a critical moment in the 2016 election when Mr Trump was under fire over his treatment of women.
Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has denied wrongdoing and said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat whose office brought the charges, was politically driven.
As in previous days this week, Mr Trump arrived in the courtroom with an entourage of supporters, including his son Eric Trump and Republican representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.
Prosecutors have called 19 witnesses in the past four weeks. They have said they would rest their case after Mr Cohen finishes testifying, leaving Mr Trump’s legal team to decide if it will mount a defence – and for Mr Trump to say whether he will testify.
Mr Blanche has said he might call one expert witness, but whether Mr Trump will take the stand remains undecided. The former president has said in interviews in recent weeks that he wanted to testify.
Corinne Ramey contributed to this article.
The Wall Street Journal
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