NEW YORK (AP) — He once said he would get shot. donald trump.now michael coen It's the former president's biggest legal tool for prosecutors. hush money trial.
But if President Trump's fixer-turned-adversary is prepared to offer jurors this week an insider's view of the transactions at the heart of the prosecution's case, he also has Objections will be raised against the star witness who appears.
She has a troubled past with Trump, serving as his personal lawyer and problem solver until his conduct came under federal investigation. This resulted in Mr. Cohen being convicted of a felony and jailed, but by that time no charges had been brought against Mr. Trump in the White House.
Who is Cohen? He is scheduled to take the stand on Monday., can speak to the jury as someone who candidly regrets his wrongdoing and has paid the price with freedom. But jurors probably knew that the now-disbarred attorney Pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and banksbut recently claimed under oath that he admitted even some of those falsehoods were not true.
And Mr. Cohen's new persona, along with his podcasts, books and social media posts, has emerged as a relentless and sometimes harsh critic of Trump.
At the start of Trump's trial, prosecutors took pains to present Cohen as just one piece of evidence against Trump, telling jurors that they had corroboration from other witnesses, documents and recordings of the former president himself. I told them that it would be done according to the words that were given to them. But Mr. Trump and his lawyers denounced Mr. Cohen as a self-confessed lying criminal who now makes a living bashing his former boss.
“What the defense wants the jury to focus on is the fact that he's a liar with a dirty past and nasty habits,” said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense attorney and former federal and Manhattan prosecutor. talk.
“What the prosecution wants to focus on is, 'Everything he says is corroborated. You don't have to like him,'” Serafini added. “And number two, this is the guy Trump picked.”
Loyalists turned enemy
Mr. Cohen's introduction to Mr. Trump in the early 2000s was a typical New York real estate story. Mr. Cohen serves on the board of an apartment complex in Mr. Trump's building and was involved on Trump's side in the residents-versus-management dispute. The mogul quickly brought Cohen into his company.
Mr. Cohen, who declined to comment for this article, has had a varied career from practicing personal injury law to running a taxi business with his father-in-law. He ultimately served as Trump's lawyer and shark-like supporter.
He worked on some deal-closing efforts, but spent a lot of time threaten a lawsuit, blame the reporter According to , the strategy is to neutralize the possibility of damaging the boss's reputation in other ways. Congressional testimony What Cohen later gave break up with trump The rift came after the FBI searched Mr. Cohen's home and office, as well as Mr. Trump. I started distancing myself From a lawyer.
Cohen quickly testified in federal court that he helped candidate Trump campaign. National Enquirer tabloid newspaper as a type of journal It tried to flatter him, placate his opponents, and shut down shady claims about his private life by buying articles and flagging Cohen for purchases. President Trump claims the entire story was false.
These arrangements, which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office describes as a multifaceted scheme to withhold information from voters, are currently under scrutiny in Trump's hush money trial.he has pleaded not guilty He is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal reimbursement to Cohen for payments to porn performer Stormy Daniels. She claimed in 2006 that she had sexual contact with Trump, who is married to her, but the former president denies it.
Other witnesses have also testified about hush-money deals, but Mr. Cohen has been instrumental in putting together a case that centers on how Mr. Trump's company compensated Mr. Trump for his role in paying Mr. Daniels. still holds the key.
Mr. Trump's defense has argued that Mr. Cohen was paid for legal work, not for cover-up, and that there was nothing illegal about the agreement Mr. Cohen entered into with Mr. Daniels and others.
witness of history
In a criminal trial, many witnesses take the stand with information about their criminal history, their relationship with the defendant, past contradictory statements, or anything else that could affect their credibility.
Cohen has special baggage.
In his testimony, he explained his previous denials about key aspects of the hush money deal and convinced jurors that this time he was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It is necessary to do so.
He was still in the Trump campaign when the deal with Daniels was revealed. told the New York Times He wasn't paid back, but later admitted to paying it back — Just like Trump did.,before He said he didn't even know about Daniels' payment..
Then, in the process, two federal guilty pleas;Cohen admitted to tax evasion, orchestrating illegal campaign contributions in the form of hush money, and lying to Congress. His work on President Trump's real estate projects in Moscow. He also pleaded guilty to approving a home equity loan application that understated his own financial obligations.
Different types of convictions are used to question a witness' credibility, but when the crime involves fraud, “it's a gold mine for the cross-examiner,” Serafini said.
Additionally, Cohen raised new questions about his credibility. Last fall, he testified in President Trump's civil fraud trial.. During intense cross-examination, Mr. Cohen answered some questions with lawyerly “objections” or “questions and answers,” but maintained that he was not entirely guilty of tax evasion or lying on loan applications. Ultimately, he testified that he lied to a now-deceased federal judge who accepted his plea.
The fraud trial judge found Cohen's testimony reliable, noting that it was supported by other evidence.But a federal judge suggested that Cohen had perjured Either in his testimony or in his guilty plea.
Since breaking with Trump, Cohen has faced head-on the lies of his past. The title of his podcast, “Mea Culpa,” suggests remorse for his crimes, and in the preface to his 2020 memoir, he writes that some people see him as “the most unreliable narrator on the planet.” I admitted that there was.
During her 2018 sentencing, she said her “blind loyalty” to Trump made it her duty to cover up Trump's dirty deeds rather than listen to her own inner voice and moral compass. He said it made him feel that way. Outside the courtroom, he has portrayed himself as the embodiment of anti-Trump sentiment. In a social media salvo as the trial began, Cohen used a scatological nickname for Trump, telling him to “keep whining, crying and violating the gag order, you petulant defendant!” commented harshly on his own defense.
These posts could provide fodder for Mr. Trump's lawyers to paint Mr. Cohen as a witness driven by an agenda of revenge. In a nod to that vulnerability, Mr. Cohen posted two days after opening his statement that he would stop commenting on Mr. Trump until after his testimony “out of respect” to the judge and prosecutors.
But in a live TikTok last week, Cohen was seen wearing a shirt depicting a figure resembling Trump, his hands handcuffed and behind bars. Following a plea from Mr. Trump's lawyers, Judge Juan M. Marchand on Friday urged prosecutors to tell Mr. Cohen that the court wants him to say no more about the case or Mr. Trump.
For Jeremy Saland, a New York criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor, Cohen's background is not much of a hurdle for prosecutors.
“The problem with Cohen is that he doesn't close the trap,” Saland said. “He constantly attacks his own credibility.”
Saland said prosecutors need to convince Cohen to be candid, admit past wrongdoing and tone down his free-wheeling commentary, otherwise the case will become “the Michael Cohen Show.” He said that there is a possibility that the
Indeed, in his opening statement, Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche harshly criticized Cohen's “obsession” with Trump and his admission that he had lied under oath.
“You cannot rely on the words of Michael Cohen to make important decisions about President Trump,” Blanche told jurors.
But prosecutor Matthew Colangelo characterized Cohen as someone who made “mistakes” and told jurors they could still believe him.
Meanwhile, prosecutors pointed to comments Trump made about Cohen and others. charge him with multiple violations of gag order prohibiting him from commenting on witnesses, jurors, and others involved in this case. The judge is despised Mr. Trumpfined him Total $10,000 He warned that if he violated the order again, he could be sentenced to prison.
Prosecutors did not hesitate to testify about Cohen's combative personality. One banker testified that Mr. Cohen was considered a “challenging” customer who claimed everything was urgent. Mr. Daniels' former lawyer, Keith Davidson, described his first phone conversation with Mr. Cohen as a shouting “barrage of insults, innuendos and allegations.”
John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said that while these episodes may not be flattering to Cohen, bringing them out shows prosecutors that Cohen is more than just a teammate. He said it could be a way to subtly show that someone has information. .
“It's a way to try to build his trust while distancing yourself from him,” he suggested.
Anna Kominsky, a professor at New York Law School, said it would be wise for prosecutors to address Cohen's troubled past before his defense attorneys do when he takes the stand. She taught Mr. Bragg's courses before he became district attorney, but offered her comments as a legal observer and not as someone familiar with Mr. Bragg's office's strategy.
“I imagine that in closing arguments, the prosecutor will look straight at the jury and say, 'This person is not a perfect witness, but none of us are perfect witnesses,'” Kominsky said. he said.
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Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Jake Offenhertz in New York contributed to this report.
