Trump trial live updates: Michael Cohen returns for more grilling from defense in hush money trial – NBC News
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Judge Merchan discussed scheduling, telling both sides that it’s not ideal to have a big gap between summations and the jury charge.
Blanche said he intends to finish his cross of Cohen before the morning break Monday, and there is a possibility both sides will be done with the presentation of evidence on Monday.
But Blanche left open the possibility of both Trump and a mystery witness until the next day; he told them to be prepared to sum up Tuesday.
Judge Merchan has excused the jurors for the day.
Cohen is scheduled to return to the stand Monday for further testimony.
Court is out of session on Friday so that Trump can attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.
The defense team entered into evidence a statement from Cohen regarding a Federal Election Commission complaint, and Trump lawyer Todd Blanche highlighted the last paragraph.
“Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump,” the paragraph read.
Cohen apparently recorded calls with reporters in 2018 in which he pitched them on that statement.
Robert Costello told NBC News that he is available to testify.
He said that while testifying is always a possibility, he so far has not been asked to take the stand.
Costello said that if needed, he is prepared with his contemporaneous notes from the time.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asked Cohen to confirm that the former president had never signed the nondisclosure agreement.
“That’s correct,” Cohen said.
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche asked Cohen if he lacked a retainer agreement with Trump and his family members at the time he was working for the Trump Organization.
Cohen agreed it was not necessary when he worked for Trump’s company, and Blanche elicited that Cohen’s failure to execute a retainer agreement with Trump in 2017 was nothing out of the ordinary.
During cross-examination, Cohen told the jury that ABC offered cash for Stormy Daniels’ story.
Keith Davidson, Daniels’ former lawyer, testified earlier in the trial that ABC had offered the adult film star a spot on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars.”
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche is walking Cohen through an instance when he was in a meeting with Trump to discuss using financing or cash for shutting down the Karen McDougal story — and recording the conversation — but abruptly answered a phone call in the middle of it.
Cohen testified that he is not completely sure what the call was for, but said he believes Capital One bank was calling him because of an identity theft issue. Cohen said that’s why he believes he answered the phone while in the middle of recording his meeting with Trump.
Reporting from Manhattan criminal court
Blanche is trying to imply that when Trump talked on that recording about paying cash, he didn’t mean actual dollar bills but that he was distinguishing between paying his own money and financing.
Cohen is resisting that characterization while acknowledging that he frequently told the world that Trump paid “all cash” for real estate.
Speaking about the story that came out about the detail with McDougal, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asked, “President Trump, at least initially, did not think it would hurt him, correct?”
“Initially, yes,” Cohen said.
Cohen confirmed that one of the things Trump was worried about with that story was his wife and children.
Blanche appears to be trying to undercut the prosecution’s argument that Trump’s team orchestrated the hush money payments to influence the 2016 presidential election. Blanche has already gotten Cohen to confirm under oath that Trump was worried about the Karen McDougal story getting out in part because of his wife and children.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters today that Trump’s criminal trial “doesn’t make sense.”
When asked whether he believes Trump should be convicted in any case, Manchin responded that “there are two really solid cases: Jan. 6 and Georgia.”
“Everything else doesn’t really make sense,” he added as a reporter directly asked about the hush money case in New York.
Blanche is asking Cohen to testify about his ties to news reporters who covered Trump’s campaigns and presidency, including Maggie Haberman of The New York Times and Katy Tur of MSNBC.
Cohen confirmed under oath that he communicated with reporters over the phone and via text, and he would occasionally record phone calls with members of the press, including former CNN chief Jeff Zucker.
He said he sometimes gave scoops to Haberman, who has covered Trump extensively for years and wrote a biography of him.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche turned his questions to what Cohen would do when journalists reached out to him regarding stories about Trump.
Cohen responded by explaining that journalists would often tell him what their story focused on and their deadline, which Cohen would then take to Trump to discuss in order to craft a response.
Blanche asked Cohen if he always spoke to Trump before giving responses to reporters, to which Cohen answered that he made it his practice to check with Trump for two reasons.
“One, it would cause him to blow up at me, and two, it would probably be the end of my job,” Cohen said.
Earlier this morning, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger raised an issue with Judge Merchan saying that on Tuesday, some of the defense guests filed into the courtroom in the middle of direct examination with their security detail.
“And I noticed that some of his guests are already here today with their security detail,” Hoffinger said, according to the released transcript. “But we would just ask that they not be allowed to file in, in the middle of Mr. Blanche’s cross-examination.”
Merchan said, “I would advise that that not happen.”
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said, “Your Honor, I have less than zero control over what is happening on anything or anyone that’s behind me when I am crossing a witness.”
Some of the guests Trump has had included members of Congress such as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who had a security detail. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who also has a detail, attended the trial the other day, too.
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