Trump’s fate in hands of spurned fixer plotting revenge
Donald Trump’s former attorney, who once declared he would ‘take a bullet’ for the former president, now will be crucial in the proceedings against him.
Michael Cohen once admired Donald Trump so slavishly he said he would “take a bullet” for him.
When he was jailed in 2018 for fraud and violating campaign finance laws by making the payment to Stormy Daniels - the same charges Trump may face - he said: “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
Since his release and house arrest, however, Cohen, 56, has testified to Congress in 2019, saying he was “ashamed” of his association with Trump “because I know what Mr Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.” He gave evidence to prosecutors investigating the Trump Organisation and last year released a book, Revenge.
Now the former lawyer is the star witness. “I was not going to allow history to remember me as the villain,” he said. “If speaking truth to power makes me Donald’s arch-nemesis, so be it.”
Trump has denounced Cohen as a “serial liar” and discrediting him will be pivotal to the defence. Cohen has kept receipts, though. Lanny Davis, his lawyer, has said there is “substantial documentation” about the payment to Daniels and about Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who also says she had an affair with Trump.
“Karen McDougal constitutes a second crime involving illegally influencing an election through the use of hush money,” Davis said. Trump denies both affairs.
Cohen has admitted lying to Congress in the past and in recent days has played down his own conviction for tax evasion.
Davis said: “Attacking Michael Cohen’s credibility is missing the big picture. There’s lots of testimony, lots of documentation . . . If a jury says yes, he had some political motivation in making the payoff . . . that’s the verdict.”
THE TIMES
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