Former President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a lack of transparency in the New York hush money case ahead of Monday’s hearing.
Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday and said that despite his former boss filing a request and “providing all the documents,” he had not responded to requests for documents related to the case. He said he was “very angry” over the continued “absolute silence”. Suddenly, a document appears.
“I want to know what’s going on. I want to know what’s going on at the SDNY, which is a problem, and I want to know what’s going on at the Department of Justice.” He saidreferring to the district court.
“What’s going on? These documents belong to the public and should have been released on FOIA because I’ll tell you what they show,” Cohen continued. “This will show that Donald Trump, through his willing and collusive and hype attorney general, has weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice and unconstitutionally reinstated the U.S. Constitution.”
The trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, but was postponed for several weeks after new relevant documents came to light. This will be Trump’s first criminal trial, and he could be on a jury soon.
Instead, Judge Juan Melchan scheduled a hearing for Monday to address last-minute evidence submitted by Trump’s lawyers. His lawyers asked for at least 90 days to review more than 100,000 pages of records submitted by federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors estimate that only 270 documents related to Mr. Cohen’s federal criminal case have not been disclosed.
Earlier this week, Marchan ruled on more than a dozen requests between the two countries to exclude various pieces of evidence in the case against Trump. The ruling will allow Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels to testify at trial, despite President Trump’s objections.
The ruling also includes Daniels, who claimed she received hush money from Cohen to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. The actress claimed in her recent documentary that she only accepted the money because she feared for her life.
Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to repaying hush money he paid Cohen to Daniels before the 2016 election. . The former president has maintained his innocence.
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