Michael Cohen testified Monday that Donald Trump ordered porn star Stormy Daniels to pay money before the 2016 election to hush up a sex scandal. The jury’s decision on whether to believe the convicted felon came during key testimony from the prosecution.
“He said, ‘Of course.’ Do it.” Cohen, 57, said Daniels had interviewed her about an alleged secret meeting with the real estate mogul in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006. He recalled President Trump telling him after he found out.
The salt-and-pepper-haired disbarred lawyer, who spoke slowly and clearly and wore a dark blue suit and pink tie, told Manhattan Supreme Court that hush money payments to Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal were He testified that it was done on Trump’s orders.
“What I was doing was what I was doing at the direction of Mr. Trump and for Mr. Trump’s benefit,” she told Mr. McDougal, who had been in a relationship with Mr. Trump for a year, in the summer of 2016. He testified about his role in the $10,000 payment. While he was married to his wife Melania.
“Everything had to be approved by Mr. Trump,” he testified, adding that he had informed Mr. Trump about Mr. Daniels’ payments in advance “because I wanted my money back.”
Trump’s 2016 campaign ended after Cohen agreed to pay Daniels $130,000 for “exclusive” rights to his article, Cohen told jurors. He claimed that the company tried to force Mr. Daniel into submission by delaying payments until the end of the month.
But when Ms. Daniels and her lawyer threatened to break the contract and publish the story elsewhere, Ms. Cohen, in a panic, contacted her boss again and said that President Trump had ordered Ms. Daniels to be paid. testified.
“Just do it,” Cohen recalled his boss telling him.
It remains to be seen whether jurors buy Cohen’s version of events, but the defense will argue during cross-examination later this week that Cohen has previously admitted lying to Congress on a twice-convicted felon. This is because he is likely to point out that he is a vocal critic of President Trump.
Mr. Cohen also testified Monday that he lied about describing the shell company he set up to transfer funds to Mr. Daniels’ lawyer.
“I don’t know if they would have opened it if it had said, ‘To pay a non-disclosure agreement to an adult film star,'” he joked.
Just 20 feet away in a packed courtroom in Lower Manhattan, the 77-year-old President Trump sat hunched over in his defense chair.
Trump kept his eyes closed for nearly an hour during Cohen’s testimony, and his eyes remained closed even as he shook his head several times.
But just before Mr. Cohen heard his voice on Mr. Trump’s secret recording discussing the $150,000 reward for McDougal, he perked up.
The tape in question was first released in 2018. Such recordings are not illegal in New York because the state requires only one party to the communication to “consent” to the tape.
“So what do we have to pay for this? Fifty-tenths?” about three minutes of the Sept. 6, 2016 conversation played in court by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger. President Trump’s remarks can be heard on the tape.
Cohen’s former fixer said the recording was meant to assure David Pecker, then publisher of the National Enquirer, that Trump would reimburse McDougal for paying him. Mr. Trump laughed and shook his head at Mr. Cohen, but Mr. Cohen did not.
Mr. Cohen also testified that Mr. Trump personally approved the company’s plan to pay Mr. Daniel a total of $420,000 in compensation during a meeting shortly before he arrived at the White House. The amount covered hush money paid over a year, his $50,000 for technology services, his $60,000 bonus, and additional money to cover taxes.
Yes,” Cohen testified, referring to Trump. “He approved it.”
Trump then turned to Cohen and said, “This is going to be one hell of a ride in Washington, D.C.,” Cohen testified.
Cohen previously testified that Trump told him it would be a “disaster” if Daniels’ story about cheating on his wife Melania became public.
According to Cohen, Trump admitted that “women are going to hate me.”
“You may think this is cool, but it’s going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Trump added, according to Cohen.
The 2024 Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegedly falsely recording compensation to Cohen for legal fees in Trump Organization records.
Mr. Cohen, who is scheduled to take the stand again on Tuesday, testified separately against his former boss in Mr. Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, where the former president’s lawyer was convicted of campaign finance charges that served a prison sentence. It took aim at Mr. Cohen’s status as a convicted felon. Daniels’ guilty plea to a fee-related crime.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018, but was released under home confinement just over a year later in May 2020 to reduce the spread of the coronavirus within the prison.
The former Trump supporter also testified Monday about the fun times he had working for the real estate mogul, calling his more than 10 years as Trump’s personal lawyer “amazing.”
But Cohen was asked, “Did you lie for him?”
“I did it,” he said from the stands. “It was necessary to accomplish the mission.”
“Did you bully people for him?” the prosecutor asked.
“All I wanted was to make my boss happy,” Cohen replied.
Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory
