Donald Trump‘s lawyers began their process to undercut the former president’s onetime attorney Michael Cohen at the New York hush money trial on Tuesday, slicing deep into his credibility in a meticulous process.
The fiery cross-examination on Day 17 of the trial got underway after Cohen had been questioned in the morning by prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. It began with a venomous interrogation by Trump attorney Todd Blanche, who at one point was accused by Judge Juan Merchan of making the line of questioning about himself.
Cohen is a key figure in the trial because he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign. The money was intended to prevent her from going public with her alleged sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf event at Lake Tahoe in 2006.
At issue is whether Trump’s reimbursements amounted to a legitimate payment for legal services, as Trump argues, or whether they were misclassified, as prosecutors allege.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the sexual encounter alleged by Daniels.
Tensions flared when Blanche’s cross-examination began
“Why are you making this about yourself?” Merchan asked during a sidebar after Blanche confronted Cohen about an April 23 TikTok post in which he referred to the attorney as a “crying little s***.”
“I have a right to show this witness’s bias, and he has expressed bias about the lawyers just because of who he represents,” Blanche responded, according to the courtroom transcript.
Blanche continued throughout the afternoon attempting to undercut all of Cohen’s credibility, pointing to when the witness once behaved like a superfan of Trump, juxtaposing it with his current desire to see Trump convicted and drawing attention to the anti-Trump merchandise Cohen now sells.
At one point, Blanche questioned Cohen on whether he was “motivated by fame.”
“No sir, I don’t think that’s fair to say,” Cohen said, contending, “I’m motivated by many things.”
Cohen, a convicted felon with a history of perjury, has long been expected to have his veracity put to the test. But the prosecution’s best use of his testimony so far has been to hear his testimony about the 11 checks he received that prosecutors say were falsified.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to several crimes, including tax evasion, lying to a bank, and lying to Congress. One of his crimes involved taking out a loan under false pretenses to pay porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s defense still has another shot at undercutting Cohen. The former attorney will return to the stand when the trial reconvenes on Thursday, and the defense will begin bringing their own witnesses to the stand when it resumes on Monday.
Kevin McMunigal, a former Assistant U.S. attorney for California, told the Washington Examiner that the prosecution may try to undermine Cohen as the primary witness because it has “all these other witnesses testify about the hush money scheme,” pointing to the past 15 days of testimony at the trial.
“There’s lots of other witnesses, and so I think Blanche is going to extend this for as long as he can to make it not just to undermine Cohen’s credibility but to make Cohen look like he’s the main witness” for the prosecution, McMunigal added.
Cohen testifies Trump knew more about the hush money deal
Prosecutors are seeking to prove two underlying allegations against Trump: that the money he paid to Cohen was misclassified in the subsequent checks paid to the ex-attorney and that the payment to Daniels was made for electoral reasons rather than saving Trump from personal embarrassment.
From Cohen’s perspective, Trump showed an awareness during an early 2017 Oval Office meeting to the terms of the reimbursement, discussing with Cohen some of his then-imminent payment.
Cohen called Trump, telling him to “deal with Allen,” referring to Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.
While Cohen testified repeatedly that the money Trump paid him was not for legal fees and that they had no retainer agreement at the time, the ex-attorney has not alleged Trump explicitly told him to falsify records, only that Trump allegedly knew his checks would serve to mask the hush money payment.
McMunigal said prosecutors in white-collar criminal cases often use “circumstantial evidence” to help jurors draw an “inference” about what a defendant may or may not have known.
“Like the [Trump] assistant who testified that she sent checks to Trump all the time — and the excerpts of a book where he says he manages every detail and says on top of things — they’re all just different ways of showing that it’s highly likely that he had knowledge” of the alleged scheme, McMunigal added.
Questions linger over Trump’s own testimony
Big questions remain over whether Trump will decide to take the witness stand to testify in his own case, which would be a historic marker in an already historic case, the first of the criminal kind against a former president.
At one point after the court was adjourned on Tuesday, Merchan asked Blanche whether there was any indication as to whether Trump would testify.
“No,” Blanche responded.
McMunigal said it could be a risky move for Trump to take the stand at this point, noting the array of past court cases the prosecution can raise during cross-examination and the volatility of putting Trump on the stand.
“So it might be that they call other witnesses who are less volatile,” McMunigal said of the defense, noting his attorneys could save Trump as their last resort “if they put him on.”
Trump fails to undo the gag order
In many ways, Blanche’s approach to grilling Cohen for extrajudicial statements outside of the courtroom was a protest against Trump’s gripes that he is the only person in the case who has been gagged from speaking about certain matters.
Trump, who complains constantly about the order that bars him from attacking witnesses, court officials, and the judge’s family, among others, lost his latest challenge to lift the gag order in the case.
A state appeals court on Tuesday found that Merchan “properly weighed” Trump’s free speech rights “against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases.”
Trump is facing $10,000 in fines after he was twice found in contempt for violating the gag order a total of 10 times. Trump is also challenging the fees he has already incurred during this trial.
The former president exited the courtroom in more cheery spirits on Tuesday, perhaps thanks to the massive support he received from allies, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who appeared behind him inside the chilly criminal courthouse in the morning.
“Voters are getting it,” Trump said Tuesday evening. “I think we’re exposing this scam for what it is.”
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Trump once again relied on the words of others to undermine the case, reading off quotes from printed articles that gave his defense favorable attention.
“I am not allowed to talk about big portions of my case,” Trump said, continuing his complaints about the order despite losing his bid to lift it.
