Today in Trump’s Hush Money Trial: Michael Cohen Faces Brutal Cross-Examination
The former president’s attorneys will do all they can to show jurors that they can’t trust the prosecution’s star witness.
Michael M. Santiago/AFP via Getty Images
The lawyers defending Donald Trump in his hush money trial will look to turn up the heat on Michael Cohen Thursday as the former president’s onetime attorney and personal fixer returns to the witness stand for what is likely to be a day of brutal cross-examination aiming to undermine his credibility.
Cohen, who once said he’d take a bullet for his old boss, has already given hours of testimony earlier this week shooting down Trump’s denials in the case, alleging that Trump directed him to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels to stop her from speaking about claims of an affair in order to protect his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from the alleged attempt to hide reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Trump also denies ever having sex with the adult film star.
Cohen’s testimony is crucial for the prosecution’s case because of his central role in the scheme to shut down damaging stories and his knowledge of Trump’s alleged involvement. He told jurors that Trump had promised to reimburse him for the hush money and claimed that the former president was kept informed at every step of the payment to Daniels.
The defense team—which has suggested that Trump was seeking to protect his family and personal reputation, not his campaign, from potentially harmful stories—took their first crack at Cohen with cross-examination on Tuesday. They have tried to establish that Cohen is an untrustworthy, proven liar who is now on a personal vendetta against his former boss.
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The combative questioning Tuesday got off to an aggressive start, with Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asking if it was true that Cohen had called Blanche a “crying little shit” on TikTok. “Sounds like something I would—” Cohen started saying in response before a prosecutor objected.
The two hours of grilling—likely a preview for the full day of cross-examination expected Thursday—also saw Blanche seeking to show that Cohen had financially profited from trashing Trump and that he remained fixated on exacting revenge against him.
Prosecutors say they will rest once Cohen’s time on the stand is up, potentially making him the final witness in the trial. The defense can then begin its case—Blanche told Judge Juan Merchan that they might call a single expert witness, but said no determination had yet been made as to whether Trump himself will take the stand.
If he does decide to testify, it certainly won’t happen Friday. The Manhattan trial will be off for the day in order to allow Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida.
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