A New York judge has allowed Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels to testify in former President Trump’s hush money trial, over the president’s objections.
On Monday, Judge Juan M. Marchan issued two separate rulings based on a series of motions from the prosecution and defense regarding whether to exclude certain testimony and evidence from Mr. Trump’s future trial. I put it down. The trial was scheduled to begin next Monday, but was postponed until mid-April after new evidence came to light.
Marchan’s decision prompted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to call adult film actress Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougall to the stand and testify against Cohen and Trump about their extramarital affair with Trump. will be able to testify about claims that he arranged payments to keep quiet about the alleged relationship. . But McDougall cannot testify about the underlying details of the reported affair unless prosecutors show how it is related.
The judge also plans to allow Cohen to testify, rejecting defense arguments that he is a known liar who is likely to commit perjury on the stand.
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Michael Cohen allegedly arranged payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougall to keep them quiet about their relationships with former President Trump. (AP Photo/Stephen Jeremiah, File)
“This court does not accept any article, statute, or statute from this jurisdiction or any other court that supports the defendant’s rationale that prosecution witnesses should be kept from the witness stand because their credibility has previously been questioned.” , I could find no precedent,” the judge wrote.
The case stems from Mr. Bragg’s investigation into allegations that Mr. Trump paid hush money during the 2016 election.
Mr. Cohen paid Mr. Daniels $130,000, and the publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer paid Mr. McDougal $150,000 to suppress claims that he had an affair with Mr. Trump years ago. arranged to pay. Mr. Trump’s company then reimbursed Mr. Cohen and recorded the payments as legal costs, prosecutors said.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate seeking to take back the White House, pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His lawyers argue that the payments to Mr. Cohen were legitimate legal fees and not part of a cover-up. President Trump has denied any allegations of sexual contact.
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Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 by Michael Cohen. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that former President Trump falsified his business records to reimburse Cohen for that payment and another $150,000 to Karen McDougall. (Philip Farawan/Getty Images)
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations related to alleged hush-money payments and other unrelated crimes. He was jailed for about a year and then released to home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York declined to indict Trump in connection with the payments to Daniels and McDougal.
The Federal Election Commission also abandoned its investigation into the issue in 2021.
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Former President Trump addresses the crowd at a campaign rally in Summerville, South Carolina, on September 25, 2023. President Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying his business records and denied his relationships with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Marchan also ruled Monday that the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s private parts without their consent will not be shown at trial.
The judge said prosecutors may question witnesses about the 2005 video, which was unearthed in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. However, he added, “The tape itself does not need to be introduced into evidence or played for the jury.”
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Prosecutors allege that Daniels was made to pay to keep negative press out of the press in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” footage and various sexual assault allegations against Trump. Trump’s lawyers argued that the video “contains inflammatory and prejudicial evidence regarding documents and accounting practices that are beyond the scope of this trial.”
In other rulings, Mercan found that Trump tried to unfairly influence the 2016 election or that the National Inquirer suppressed negative coverage of Trump in a “catch-and-kill” strategy. The prosecutor refused the defense’s request to refrain from making that argument.
Fox News’ Grace Taggart and Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
