It’s crunch time in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.
On Monday, his ex-attorney and fixer Michael Cohen is expected to testify in what may prove to be a defining moment for the historic first criminal case against a former U.S. president. The erstwhile Trump loyalist now turns star witness against him after the prosecution spent the first weeks of the case laying the groundwork for Cohen’s highly anticipated appearance.
Cohen is absolutely key for the prosecution because he was the man who paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016, allegedly to stop her from speaking out about a one-night stand she’d had with Trump a decade earlier. Prosecutors say the Trump Organization then falsely recorded reimbursements to Cohen as legal fees as part of an effort to obscure the real purpose of the payments.
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Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and has denied ever having sex with Daniels. Last week, she testified in sometimes graphic detail about her alleged tryst with Trump after a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
Daniels also faced a grueling cross-examination from Trump’s defense team, who sought to portray her as a liar and an extortionist. Cohen—who has previously pleaded guilty to charges related to his part in the hush-money scheme and admitted to lying to Congress about a project to build to a Trump Tower in Moscow—is likely to face a similar grilling from Trump’s attorneys.
They have already described him as an “admitted liar” during opening statements and will surely seek to further undermine his credibility on the stand.
The defense team has used the first weeks of the trial to argue that Trump sought to protect his personal reputation and family—rather than his 2016 presidential campaign—from potentially embarrassing stories. Prosecutors, on the other hand, have claimed that Cohen made the payment to Daniels on Trump’s orders with the intention of unlawfully influencing the election.
Their reliance on Cohen does pose risks, however.
During opening statements, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche made Cohen out to be motivated by a desire for revenge for being denied a role in Trump’s presidential administration, further alleging that the former fixer has become unhealthily obsessed with his former ally.
“He has talked extensively about his desire to see President Trump go to prison,” Blanche said of Cohen. “He has talked extensively about his desire to see President Trump’s family go to prison. He has talked extensively about President Trump getting convicted in this case.”
Even last week, Blanche complained to Judge Juan Merchan about public statements Cohen has made about the proceedings and a social media video Wednesday in which Cohen wore a T-shirt showing the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee behind bars.
Blanche contrasted the situation with Trump’s gag order, which is supposed to deter the former president from intimidating witnesses, jurors, and others connected to the case (Trump has so far been fined $10,000 for violating the order and threatened with jail time if the breaches continue).
Merchan on Friday encouraged prosecutors to urge Cohen not to make any further public comments about the case or Trump. He will, nevertheless, be able to have his say from the stand.
