Trump back in court as Michael Cohen due to give final day of testimony – live – The Guardian US
Trump back in court as Michael Cohen’s likely last day of questioning gets under way
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche is offering an alternative explanation for the jury about why the repayment to Michael Cohen was “grossed up” – doubled for tax purposes.
Cohen was paid a bonus of $150k in 2015, but only got a $50k bonus in 2016. Blanche argues Cohen used the repayment scheme to get himself the bonus money he thought he was owed.
The logic appears to go like this: Cohen paid the IT company RedFinch $20k during the 2016 campaign. But Cohen told Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg that he needed to be paid back $50k. That meant Cohen stole $30k from the Trump Org.
As the payment was “grossed up”, Cohen actually made $60k. “So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asks. “Yes sir,” Cohen concedes.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now showing Michael Cohen emails between him and attorney Bob Costello from May 2018, not long after the FBI raided Cohen’s hotel room where he was staying.
Bob, as I have stated in the past, when the right time comes, and not is not the right time, we will advance our conversations regarding this issue. Here are too many hands right now all with varying view points and ideas. I asked you to reach out to Stephen Ryan if there was something to communicate as I can only listen to one person at a time.
Blanche asked: “Would it surprised you to learn that you actually communicated on the phone either you calling Mr Costello or Mr Costello calling you, 75 times?” Cohen said that “seems excessive, but possible.”
Would it surprise you to learn that there were multiple calls that lasted more than a half hour? Cohen says: “No, sir.”
“That you spoke over nine hours over the course of a few months with Mr Costello, would that surprise you?” Blanche asked. Cohen said no.
Recall: Cohen testified last week that Costello was a defense attorney with whom he was afraid of working because of his close proximity to Rudy Giuliani. Cohen said that he feared if he told Costello anything, it would get back to Giuliani and thus, Trump.
Michael Cohen is being grilled on his conversations with reporters in early 2018 – some of which he recorded – where he claimed that Donald Trump knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking about the Stormy Daniels story starting to leak in 2018.
Michael Cohen concedes that he told multiple people that Donald Trump knew nothing about the hush money payment.
Michael Cohen reveals that he was paid some $4m in 2017 for consulting services to several clients, among them AT&T.
“And they paid you $50,000 a month?” Correct. For one year.
Cohen said he “advised them on the issue that was taking place where they wanted to acquire, I believe it was Time Warner.”
He had about 20 communications with AT&T. “And they paid you $600,000?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said. “And there was nothing wrong with that?” Cohen said he didn’t think so.
Blanche’s line of questioning is manifold. Blanche is trying to hammer down that getting paid hundreds of thousands for doing little legal work was normal – hence his reference to the consultants.
Cohen said that Trump introduced the CEO of AT&T to him, which is how the company became his client.
Blanche, through questioning, reveals that Cohen didn’t immediately disclose to Trump that he had six consulting clients and with the telecom giant. “He was frustrated that you had signed a deal with AT&T, correct?” Cohen said yes.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen: “You also did a fair amount of legal work in 2017?”
Cohen says he did legal work for the first lady, Melania Trump. “There was an issue with Madame Tussauds,” Cohen said he read over the agreement with the wax museum in relation to Melania’s likeness.
“Again, that’s legal work you were performing for the first lady?” Yes.
“Did you do that as part of your job?” Yes, sir, Cohen said.
So part of your job wasn’t just doing legal work but helping Mr Trump and his family with an array of issues? Cohen said, “That’s what I did, yes.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s line of questioning now is doubling down on the defense’s strategy that Michael Cohen was, in fact, providing legal services for him during the period when prosecutors say he was not.
This involved working with another Trump attorney on a case, subpoenas, and doing battle with potential defamation issues.
“In May of 2017, a special counsel was appointed by the name of Robert Mueller … what if any impact did that have on the attorney-client relationship?” Blanche asked. “It did not.”
“Were you happy, sad, or indifferent, that Mr Kasowitz had been appointed Mr Trump’s personal attorney for that?”
Cohen says: Probably happy. Why? He says because he had a good relationship with him.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now pointing to a January 2017 email in which Michael Cohen announces his resignation from the Trump Organization to his colleagues there. Blanche says:
Here, you again tell everybody at the Trump Organization that you’re starting a new job to be President Trump’s personal attorney?
Cohen says: Correct.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche points to early 2017, when Michael Cohen was becoming Donald Trump’s personal attorney/attorney to the president of the United States.
“You told everybody that that was happening, correct?” Blanche said of when Cohen’s gig came to fruition. Cohen says:
Not everybody but I certainly was proud of the role and I announced it.
“You told TMZ?” Blanche asks. Cohen says: Yes, sir.
“You also told the New York Times?” Yes, sir.
“You actually gave them a little scoop on it?” Yes, sir.
“You went on TV, you actually told about it?” Cohen says: I did.
“You told him you’d have the same role you already had?” Cohen answered in the affirmative.
“Do we have any understanding why Don Jr and Eric would approve your payment as opposed to President Trump?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks.
Michael Cohen says:
Because they were trustees of the Trust.
Recall: Cohen initially got paid out of the Trust, not from Trump directly.
The first two checks for the first three months were signed by Trust representatives. Cohen said, “either Eric or Don, in association with Allen Weisselberg”.
Blanche is now pointing to Cohen’s email signature in 2017. “It always said personal attorney to President Trump?” Cohen conceded, “Yes, sir.”
Blanche is noting how Cohen had always had something like this on his email when he was at the Trump Organization, firming up that Cohen was acting as a lawyer for Trump.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now showing Michael Cohen emails from Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to him from January 2017.
The email exchange has a subject line about a refinancing agreement with an apartment in a Trump building. One line in the email exchange said:
Thank you, you never stopped on for a bro hug. Anyway please prepare the agreement … so we can pay you monthly.
The point that Blanche seems to be making is that Cohen was doing legal services for Donald Trump and that the lack of a written retainer agreement was entirely normal, pointing to how Cohen didn’t have one before.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche is offering an alternative explanation for the jury about why the repayment to Michael Cohen was “grossed up” – doubled for tax purposes.
Cohen was paid a bonus of $150k in 2015, but only got a $50k bonus in 2016. Blanche argues Cohen used the repayment scheme to get himself the bonus money he thought he was owed.
The logic appears to go like this: Cohen paid the IT company RedFinch $20k during the 2016 campaign. But Cohen told Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg that he needed to be paid back $50k. That meant Cohen stole $30k from the Trump Org.
As the payment was “grossed up”, Cohen actually made $60k. “So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asks. “Yes sir,” Cohen concedes.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking about Michael Cohen’s repayment to Red Finch, a company which, he testified, Donald Trump had stiffed.
Part of the $420,000 in payments Cohen received was $50,000 for services to the company. Cohen said he repaid $20,000 owed to Red Finch in cash.
“You had what, a duffle bag of cash?” Blanche asked. No, it was a small bag, Cohen said, describing it as a brown paper bag.
“So you stole from the Trump Organization, right?” Blanche said. “Yes, sir,” Cohen said.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen whether he remembers Donald Trump’s plan to sit down with George Stephanopoulos, the former White House communications director, on the 26th with his whole family.
Did he recall that the Old Post Office building in Washington DC was opening that day? No, Cohen said.
“On those two phone calls, you just talked about the Stormy Daniels, that’s it?” Cohen said, “because they were important to me.”
“So, was fixing Tiffany Trump’s situation important to you?” Cohen replied:
It was important that I take care of it, but it was not personally important to me.
“But would that have been something you’d update her father about when you spoke to him in the morning?” Cohen says no.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about his testimony that he had two phone calls with Donald Trump the morning he made the payment to Stormy Daniels’s lawyer.
Blanche pointed to Cohen’s testimony that he wanted to speak with Trump about the Daniels’ matter during those calls because he was going to make the payment and “wanted his blessing”.
Cohen said, “Yes, sir.”