NEW YORK, United States: Donald Trump’s former fixer and star prosecution witness in the ex-president’s criminal trial testified Monday that he lied and bullied to help his former boss cover up “disastrous” revelations about a meeting with a porn actress.
Michael Cohen, once Trump’s attack dog, testified against him calmly and without emotion, occasionally glancing at Trump, who sat slumped in a chair at the defendant’s desk.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to pay Cohen $130,000 for a hush-hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, when her claims about a sexual encounter with Trump could have destroyed his campaign.
“I spoke to Mr Trump and we expressed to him that I was going to front the money for it, for which he was appreciative,” Cohen said of a conversation he and Trump’s finance chief Allen Weisselberg had with the tycoon.
“Good, good” Trump said according to Cohen.
“He stated to me, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get the money back’,” he told the court.
Cohen is critical of the prosecution’s case, but his credibility will be tested. He spent 13 months in prison and another year and a half under house arrest after pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress and committing financial crimes.
In the first weeks of the trial, jurors in New York heard from witnesses that Cohen was a difficult figure who cajoled others into getting his way, while the defence portrayed him as a pathological liar and convicted felon.
Cohen has long admitted to arranging the $130,000 payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter — which Cohen described as “disastrous” and “terrible for the campaign.”
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he lied and bullied people while working as Trump’s personal lawyer.
“Yes… It was what was needed in order to accomplish the task,” Cohen told the jury, as Trump looked on. The trial is underway less than six months before the election in which Trump hopes to retake the White House.
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Cohen recalled saying to Trump: “We need to take care of it and (Trump) said ‘absolutely, take care of it, do it.'”
“‘This is a disaster… women will hate me’,” Cohen recalled Trump said in response to the situation.
“‘Just get past the election because if I win it has no relevance, I’ll be the president, and if I lose, I don’t really care’,” Cohen claimed Trump had said.
Trump, 77, has denied having sex with Daniels.
Trump, who is on trial while campaigning to avenge his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, could still run in November’s election and take the presidential oath if convicted and even jailed.
Eric, the Trump’s son, who was joined in court by Sen. J.D. Vance, a contender for Trump’s vice-presidential pick, tweeted that he had “never seen anything more rehearsed” than Michael Cohen’s testimony.
In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to sway the 2020 election results.
After leaving the White House, he was also charged in Florida with mishandling classified documents, but that case was put on hold indefinitely.
