Judge Arthur Engoron said Michael Cohen’s testimony in former President Trump’s New York civil fraud trial was “credible” despite the perjury charge.
“Michael Cohen was a material witness on behalf of the plaintiffs, but he was not the material witness that the defendants tried to portray him to be,” Engoron said in his 92-page verdict, charging him with conspiracy. ordered President Trump to pay more than $355 million. Changing the value of a company to obtain tax and insurance benefits.
“His testimony was significantly compromised by his pleading guilty to perjury and by what appeared to be inconsistencies in his statements at trial,” he continued. “However, upon careful analysis, Donald Trump testified that while he did not explicitly instruct them to reverse engineer the financial statements, he indirectly ordered them to do so through the ‘voice of the mob.'”
Mr. Engoron continued, “Although the animosity between the witness and the defendant was evident and provided Cohen with an incentive to lie, the court found that Cohen’s relaxed manner of testifying, the general plausibility of his statements, and , most importantly how his testimony was supported by other trial evidence.”
Engoron said he doesn’t think pleading guilty to perjury means a person will never tell the truth, although he argued that “an intolerant fact-finder” might have thought differently. , adding, “Michael Cohen told the truth.”
Friday’s ruling came just weeks after closing arguments in the case concluded a months-long trial during which President Trump filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump Organization, including the former president and his adult sons. He frequently criticized public officials and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. , Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
The $355 million judgment is about $16 million less than the attorney general sought, but it would prevent Trump and others from conducting business in New York for three years.
Cohen called Friday’s ruling “fair and just” in an interview with MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez.
“I think this sentence was fair and just. I think Judge Engoron says it all in this 90-plus page judgment — especially on page 41, the fact that I told the truth. ” and claimed that Trump and his team wanted to “discredit me.” Avoid this ruling.
“I actually thought the amount would be higher, and I thought it should have been,” Cohen added. “However, I defer to Judge Engoron’s decision.”
Asked what he thought of Engoron’s comments, Trump’s former lawyer said the two pages highlighting Engoron’s credibility were important to him. Mr. Cohen later delved into the details of his 2018 perjury scandal, in which he lied to Congress about the Russia probe, calling it “stupid” to do such a thing on behalf of his former boss. Ta.
Cohen, who President Trump called James’s “star witness” in the case, testified late last year, saying the former president “talked like a mob boss” and told him what to do “without telling him specifically. “I can teach you,” he said. Following his own comments, President Trump accused the former fixer of rehashing comments from years ago and claimed the incident was “rigged.”
On Friday, President Trump slammed Engoron and James, referring to the 2024 presidential campaign and reiterating his belief that the incident was political.
“If I hadn’t run, none of this would have happened. None of these lawsuits would have happened,” Trump said, adding that Trump also has 91 lawsuits filed in four separate lawsuits. He is charged with a serious crime. “I would have had a great life.”
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