Prosecutors rest hush money case against Donald Trump as Michael Cohen wraps testimony
NEW YORK — More than five years after they began investigating Donald Trump and a month after the hush money trial began, Manhattan prosecutors rested their case against the former president Monday afternoon, moments after former fixer Michael Cohen wrapped up his testimony after four days on the stand.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger ended redirect at 3 p.m. sharp after playing the recording of Cohen on the phone to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson in October 2017, when he said, “Nobody’s thinking about Michael,” and that he cared about Trump.
“I can’t even tell you how many times [Trump] said to me, ‘you know, I hate the fact that we did it,’” Cohen said in the recording.
“I was referring to the payment to Keith Davidson that I made on behalf of Mr. Trump for the Stormy Daniels matter,” Cohen said as explanation.
The prosecutor’s last few questions centered on the impact turning on Trump had on Cohen’s life.
“My entire life has been turned upside down as a direct result,” he said, including losing his law license, businesses, and being subjected to personal attacks as well as on his family.
A few jurors were seen smiling at each other when the prosecution announced they were finished presenting their case.
Blanche briefly re-questioned Cohen, asking him if it was Trump’s fault that his life turned south.
Trump likely won’t testify
An attorney for Donald Trump all but confirmed the former president would not take the stand in his defense at his hush money trial after estimating his team will likely wrap up their case on Monday.
Todd Blanche, opposing a request by prosecutors to enter a photograph in evidence, complained about the delay it would cause — saying his team had one witness in the building and would otherwise be ready to rest by the end of the day.
If he elected to address the jury, Trump would undoubtedly spend several days on the witness stand. Blanche’s revelation came after Trump’s sometimes lawyer and legal affairs spokeswoman told Fox News over the lunch break that he would testify.
The two sides resolved the dispute over the photo showing Trump with his former bodyguard, Keith Schiller, in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 24, 2016, after weighing flying in a CSPAN archivist from Indiana. Both parties agreed to a stipulation that would allow Cohen to bring the photo into evidence. Prosecutors say the photo will establish Trump was with Schiller the day Cohen said he told him by phone that the Daniels deal was resolved.
Prosecutors begin redirect questioning
Starting redirect around noon, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger immediately brought up the 2017 email the defense highlighted as evidence of a retainer agreement. Under her questioning, Cohen said he’d never sent then-CFO Allen Weisselberg a retainer agreement.
“Because there was no legal work I was to be paid for,” Cohen said, reiterating that the $35,000 monthly checks were unrelated to a retainer, and that he was never paid for the small amount of legal work he did for Trump in 2017 and 2018.
Cohen said he lied about how much he was owed for paying Red Finch, the company that ran a rigged poll for the Trump campaign, because he was trying to get his money back after he felt he was stiffed by his employer on a bonus in December 2016.
“I was angered because of the reduction in the bonus, and so I just felt it was almost like self help,” Cohen said. Moments later he acknowledged to the prosecutor that what he did was wrong.
Cohen’s “financial interest”
Toward the end of his cross examination, Blanche asked Cohen if he had a “financial interest” in Trump’s potential conviction.
“I talk about it on my podcasts. I talk about it on TikTok,” Cohen responded. “And they make money and that’s how I was viewing your question. Whether Mr. Trump is ultimately determined innocent or guilty is not going to affect whether I speak about it or not.”
Trump had his arm slung on the back of his chair and was looking in Cohen’s direction.
“It’s better if he’s not because it gives me more to talk about in the future,” Cohen said a beat later, of the former president’s possible conviction.
Blanche again got Cohen to say that he would lie out of loyalty.
“Your testimony remains the same that you gave last Tuesday — that notwithstanding everything you’ve said over the years, you have a specific recollection of having conversations on the phone with then-candidate Trump about the Stormy Daniels matter?” Blanche asked.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen replied, adding that there was “no doubt” in his mind.
And with that, Cohen’s three days of cross-examination by the defense came to a close.
Trump lawyer challenges Cohen on retainer
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche pulled up a 2017 email where then-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg asked Cohen to “please prepare the agreement” for a monthly payment, suggesting this disputed Cohen’s previous testimony that there was no retainer agreement with Trump or the Trump Org.
Cohen has testified that the $35,000 monthly checks he received were reimbursements for the payment he made to buy porn star Stormy Daniels’ silence on an alleged tryst with Trump, not for his work as personal attorney to the president, which he said actually encompassed about 10 hours of labor for the whole year. He has said the invoices he billed the company for a “retainer” were fraudulent.
Blanche also went over Cohen’s other legal work for Trump, including helping wife Melania Trump with an issue relating to her wax statue at Madame Tussauds’ museum in Manhattan.
He grilled Cohen about millions of dollars he made in 2017 on lucrative consulting gigs for companies including AT&T and Columbus Nova — appearing to be comparing them to Cohen’s job role for the then-president.
Cohen acknowledged that some of them required little work and said that Trump didn’t have detailed knowledge of the deals.
Merchan sustained an objection from the prosecution when Blanche described the consulting agreements as retainer agreements.
Blanche’s tough questions about the Red Finch expense and Cohen’s consulting work petered out after 11 a.m., when he pulled up his emails with Bob Costello, the New York defense attorney and Rudy Giuliani associate who sought to represent him after the FBI raids — dangling a back channel to the White House.
Blanche, who’s sought to portray Cohen as being driven by money, fame, and hatred of Trump, later zeroed in on how much money Cohen had made between pleading guilty to breaking federal campaign finance laws and publishing his first book. Cohen estimated around $4 million.
Cohen says he stole from Trump Org.
Blanche resumed his questioning Monday morning by digging into Cohen’s credibility, eliciting testimony that he had paid $20,000 to a tech company that had done online polls for the Trump campaign, but requested reimbursement for $50,000 — pocketing the difference.
“So you stole from the Trump Organization, right?”
“Yes sir,” Cohen replied.
Blanche asked if it was accurate that he deceived longtime Trump Org. finance chief Allen Weisselberg about this in the same January 2017 meeting where he says they discussed covering up his reimbursement for paying Daniels. Cohen said yes.
“And you told multiple prosecutors in the DA’s office that story?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you ever have to plead guilty to larceny?”
“No, sir.”
Cohen said he never paid back the extra money he took.
Blanche also established through questions to Cohen that the then-fixer was communicating with David Pecker in October 2016 about issues unrelated to hush money, which Cohen said he had.
The presumed GOP nominee for president walked into court holding a stack of printed-out news articles at around 8:40 a.m. flanked by his biggest entourage yet, including a cavalcade of sitting Republicans, his son, Eric Trump, and famed defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Bernie Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner and Chuck Zito, former president of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels.
State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan began the day’s proceedings early, telling both sides that closing arguments will likely occur next week due to the upcoming holiday weekend.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to his alleged reimbursement to Cohen for issuing a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels 11 days out from the 2016 election.
Prosecutors allege the reimbursement was falsely logged in the books as payment for legal fees to mask an underlying conspiracy to influence Trump’s chances of winning the election.
Cohen, during three days on the stand last week, described being Trump’s right-hand man for a decade after his 2007 hiring, telling jurors he threatened, lied, and bullied to complete tasks and make the boss happy.
He said the payoff to Daniels was executed as part of a task he was assigned at an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting attended by him, Trump, and former tabloid publisher David Pecker, which included boosting positive stories about Trump in the National Enquirer, hitjobs on his opponents, and identifying and negative rumors that could come to light to be bought and buried.
On cross-examination, defense lawyer Todd Blanche has attempted to discredit Cohen — who’s admitted to lying to Congress — in the eyes of the jury.
Cohen is expected to be the prosecution’s final witness in the case.
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