NEW YORK — Former President Trump’s chief defense attorney delivered another punch to Michael Cohen on Monday, accusing the Trump Organization of ex-fixer allegedly receiving repayments for hush money that was at the center of Trump’s criminal case. He was made to admit that he had committed the theft.
“Did you steal from the Trump Organization?” Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, asked on the third and final day of cross-examination.
Cohen answered, “Yes,” without objecting to Blanche’s composition.
Before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump; I’m denying it.
Mr. Cohen, touted as the Manhattan prosecutor’s star witness, testified as perhaps the most incriminating witness in Mr. Trump’s first criminal case, more than any other witness on the former president’s 34 charges of falsifying business records. involved.
Each count corresponds to a document allegedly created when Cohen paid a total of $420,000 in 12 monthly installments after Cohen repaid Daniels. Mr. Trump has maintained his innocence.
Prosecutors say the total amount included multiple parts. $130,000 in reimbursements for payments to Mr. Daniels, $50,000 in reimbursements for payments to tech company Red Finch to boost President Trump’s poll numbers, and “gross” for “tax purposes.” So he doubled that subtotal and added an additional $60,000. Cohen’s year-end bonus.
Blanche pressed Cohen about why he only paid Red Finch $20,000, even though he was seeking even more reimbursement from the Trump Organization.
During re-examination, prosecutors returned to the Redfinch refund, asking Cohen why he asked for a larger refund than he paid the company.
Mr Cohen described the two-thirds cut in his annual bonus as “very upsetting”.
“I felt like I was helping myself because I was upset that my bonus was cut,” Cohen said.
The former Trump fixer’s testimony, now in its second week, spans from his early work at the Trump Organization to his eventual guilty plea in 2018 on federal campaign finance and other charges.
Mr. Cohen directly linked Mr. Trump to at least 22 of the documents he is accused of falsifying, saying that 11 invoices he submitted to Mr. Trump were false records and that the monthly payments he received in 2017 were false. He testified that the $35,000 check arrived despite the then-president’s “minimal” work commitments. -boss.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers maintain that the records in the matter, marked as legal fees, are true. They also keep former presidents away from document production.
Cohen’s line of questioning about stealing was one of the few hard punches during Cohen’s cross-examination. Last week, Ms. Blanche infuriated Mr. Cohen by suggesting that he was lying about an important phone call she claimed to have had with Mr. Trump about a hush-money deal.
Mr. Cohen also admitted that he helped orchestrate two other hush-money deals paid for by friendly tabloid executives. The confession confirmed the state’s larger theory about the incident, that Trump was trying to silence negative stories about him in order to pave his way to the White House in 2016.
To prove that Trump is guilty of the felonies he faces, prosecutors will need to prove his efforts to suppress bad publicity in violation of federal and state election laws.
Cohen is expected to be the district attorney’s last witness before the prosecution adjourns. That would give Mr. Trump’s lawyers the opportunity to file their own case in defense of the former president, but they are not required to do so, and it is not clear whether they will do so.
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