Trump attorney leans on Cohen’s desire for revenge in cross-examination – live – The Guardian US
Entire hush-money trial likely to succeed or fail on whether jurors believe Michael Cohen’s testimony
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche also gets Michael Cohen to admit he has a track record of blaming other people for his problems. Blanche asks:
You’ve blamed … your bank, your accountant, you blamed federal prosecutors, the judge, President Trump?”
“Yes sir,” Cohen replies.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche also asked Michael Cohen whether he expressed his disappointment to Darrell Scott, a pastor and former member of Trump’s Diversity Coalition, over Trump not bringing him into the administration.
“Not into the administration, I knew the role I wanted,” said Cohen. He went on to add:
I may have expressed frustration.
Blanche also asked Cohen why he wanted Scott to advocate to Trump on his behalf, despite Cohen’s testimony that he spoke to Trump almost daily during the campaign trail.
In response, Cohen said:
It’s always good to have somebody else advocate.
As Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about his time in the White House, Donald Trump appears to stare at Cohen intently.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche questioned Michael Cohen about his text messages with his daughter in which they discussed a potential White House chief of staff role for Cohen.
“And you said, ‘He’s pushing like a madman,’” Blanche quoted Cohen’s text in which Cohen referred to Reince Priebus’s attempts at securing the position – which he ultimately did.
Blanche went on to ask Cohen whether he told his daughter that he was disappointed that Priebus was ultimately chosen for the role. “That I wasn’t considered, yes sir,” said Cohen.
Blanche went on to ask Cohen whether he was disappointed or “embarrassed” with being left only with the role of personal attorney to the US president after “all the work” he has done for Trump.
“That’s not accurate,” Cohen said.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen about wanting to work at the White House as well as his desire to be considered for chief of staff.
Cohen said:
I would have liked to have been considered for ego purpose.
Judge Juan Merchan has announced that there will be no court next Wednesday as usual, after earlier floating the idea of holding it then to make up for several upcoming off days.
Some jurors had indicated they can’t work that day, “so that’s off the table”, Merchan said, AP reported.
Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench after a short morning break.
Court is back in session.
The court is taking a short break.
The Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz posted a photo of himself standing outside the Manhattan courtroom this morning in support of Donald Trump.
“Standing back and standing by, Mr President,” Gaetz wrote on X, a reference to when Trump told the far-right group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate.
Standing back and standing by, Mr. President. pic.twitter.com/gGPeTLtWmv
During the debate, the former president declined to condemn white supremacists and violent rightwing groups, instead urging: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.”
The Proud Boys immediately celebrated the president’s comment in posts on social media. One Proud Boys group added the phrase “Stand Back, Stand By” to their logo. Another post was a message to Trump: “Standing down and standing by sir.”
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche strikes at another instance of Michael Cohen changing his story and lying under oath.
Blanche asks Cohen to reconcile two statements before Congress in February 2019: at first, he testified he would never accept a pardon or asked for one; in a subsequent deposition, he said he had directed his lawyer to explore the possibility of a pardon.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche also gets Michael Cohen to admit he has a track record of blaming other people for his problems. Blanche asks:
You’ve blamed … your bank, your accountant, you blamed federal prosecutors, the judge, President Trump?”
“Yes sir,” Cohen replies.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche gets Michael Cohen to concede that he’s lied for various reasons – not just out of loyalty to Trump.
“The reason you lied to a federal judge was because stakes affected you personally?” Blanche asks of his guilty plea before Judge Pauley in 2018 on federal tax evasion charges.
“Yes,” Cohen replies.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is gaining some momentum with Michael Cohen and doubling down on the suggestion he’s a serial liar: Cohen told Judge Pauley in 2018 that he did not feel induced to plead guilty, but is now saying he felt cornered.
Cohen told that court he accepted responsibility, and then called the case “corrupt” outside the courthouse.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche now moves to Michael Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018 for federal tax evasion and false statements prosecuted by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York.
Blanche reads from Cohen’s book Revenge, in which Cohen suggested he did not feel like he engaged in tax fraud, and only pleaded guilty to protect his family.
Blanche seems to be suggesting that Cohen wants revenge, and wants Trump to go through what he had to go through.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche gets into details about Michael Cohen’s previous lies under oath.
When Cohen testified to Congress, he lied about the number of times he spoke to Donald Trump about the Trump Moscow project and when the project was stopped.
Blanche is trying to suggest Cohen lied with ease about crucial facts, even as Cohen protests that he did so out of loyalty to Trump.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is engaging in a new line of questioning to show Michael Cohen is motivated to see Donald Trump convicted in the case.
Playing clips from Cohen’s podcast “Mea Culpa”, where Cohen said “thinking about Trump in Otisville prison makes me giddy with joy”, Blanche gets Cohen to concede that he believed the evidence he gave to the district attorney’s office played a large role in the indictment.