Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen has spent this week testifying against his ex-employer’s hush money trial in Manhattan, during which he made several surprising allegations.
Cohen was formerly a Trump loyalist but has since become an incisive critic, saying he wants the former president to “go down and rot inside for what he did to me” during an October 2023 edition of his podcast that was played in court on Thursday. In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after confessing to several crimes, including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, which he said were conducted “for the benefit” of Trump.
Cohen testified that Trump directed him to pay porn star actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet before the 2016 election about a supposed 2006 sexual encounter. He testified that Trump approved a plan to fudge records to cover up the deal.
“He’s the only person for the prosecution who can connect those dots and weave all that evidence together,” says Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor.
Trump’s defense lawyers spent much of the week working to discredit Cohen. In his cross-examination, lawyer Todd Blanche portrayed Cohen as untrustworthy, emphasizing his history of lying and his frequent anti-Trump tirades on social media. He reminded Cohen that he recently called Trump a “dictator douchebag” who belongs in a cage.
“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen replied. Blanche also suggested Cohen had a financial interest in Trump’s demise, pointing to t-shirts and coffee mugs he was selling that said, “Send Trump to the big house, not the White House.”
Trump’s attorneys handed on a secret recording Cohen took of Trump shortly before the 2016 election, which he later showed to the National Enquirer. “He surreptitiously recorded Donald Trump in a phone call as blackmail,” the source says. “That’s his client at the time. Completely unethical.”
In court, Cohen recalled discussions with Trump about ensuring Daniels’ silence after the infamous Access Hollywood tape emerged of Trump bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. “Just do it,” Cohen says Trump told him. He also claimed that Trump was worried more about his electoral prospects than his home life. In Cohen’s testimony, Trump said: “Women will hate me. Guys may think it’s cool, but this will be a disaster for the campaign.”
To some former prosecutors, Cohen’s testimony delivered the goods necessary to convict Trump, who faces 34 felony charges. “He provided the testimony the prosecution needed on direct examination,” says Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney. Mariotti agrees: “Those conversations are key to establishing vital parts of the prosecution’s case.”
However, though, a 12-member jury will determine Trump’s fate. If only one of them concludes that the prosecution failed to prove its case, Trump could walk away.
