A Recap of Michael Cohen’s Testimony in Donald Trump Hush-Money Trial – The New York Times
Trump Hush-Money Trial
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Mr. Cohen, Donald J. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, spent four days on the stand in Mr. Trump’s criminal trial. He was the last witness called by prosecutors.
Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer for Donald J. Trump and the star witness in his criminal trial, ended four days of bruising, intense and revealing testimony on Monday as the case against Mr. Trump neared an end.
Both the prosecution and the defense appeared to score points during his testimony. Prosecutors had Mr. Cohen confirm essential evidence and events involving Mr. Trump, notably that he sought to suppress information damaging to the presidential campaign of his then boss. Mr. Trump’s lawyers repeatedly portrayed Mr. Cohen as a serial liar and a thief bent on taking him down in the first criminal trial of a former president.
Here are the key moments and testimony from Mr. Cohen on the stand:
On his first day on the stand, Mr. Cohen told jurors that Mr. Trump was involved in the hush-money deal to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who considered going public before the 2016 election with her account of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, a story that Mr. Trump denies.
Mr. Cohen testified that before the election, Mr. Trump directed him to pay off Mr. Daniels, who received $130,000 from Mr. Cohen, and also approved a reimbursement plan for Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump, he testified, conveyed a general instruction to him: “Just take care of it.”
The hush-money deal to Ms. Daniels and Mr. Trump’s reimbursement to Mr. Cohen are at the heart of the 34 felony charges of falsifying business records against Mr. Trump. There is one count for each record involved in the reimbursement of Mr. Cohen: 11 checks, 11 invoices and 12 entries in the former president’s ledger.
Under questioning from prosecutors, Mr. Cohen gave his account of two crucial meetings with Mr. Trump about the records. The first was in January 2017, where he said Mr. Trump approved of a plan to falsify them. The second occurred the following month, in the Oval Office, where Mr. Trump again confirmed his knowledge of the plan, and told Mr. Cohen that he would soon start receiving checks.
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