#Trump has a huge posse today, including #KashPatel; #GerryKassar, a #conservative party leader in NY; #BernieKerik, fmr NYPD commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud & false statements; #AlanDershowitz, lawyer who defended Trump during his first impeachment, & #BorisEpshteyn, legal adviser who was #indicted in AZ for attempts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.
#Blanche notes that #MichaelCohen bragged to people about being Trump’s personal atty, & that some of the work he did for #Trump was actual legal work.
That was the first time Blanche came anywhere close to the actual case — the 34 falsified business documents — but of course he moved on.
Blanche tries several times to illustrate that Cohen did legal work for the Trump family in 2017 e.g. #Melania Trump’s agreement w/Madame Tussauds wax museum.
#Blanche suggests the invoices that said #MichaelCohen was being reimbursed for #legal work were not false, because he did do legal work for #Trump.
Cohen has yet to lose his temper, & often responds to some of Blanche's questions w/perplexity. His go-to answer: “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.”
Blanche asks Cohen about the checks he received from Trump. Cohen says that 9 of them, each $35k, came directly from Trump,& were signed by him, testimony gotten —& documented— by prosecution.
#Blanche goes through the consulting work that #MichaelCohen was doing on the side in 2017 implying he was making money off his relationship w/ #Trump. The defense has sought to paint Cohen as an opportunist who uses Trump [the ultimate exploiter].
Cohen suggests that Trump was aware of the work he was doing.
#Blanche introduced an email #MichaelCohen sent to #RobertCostello, the lawyer who was informally advising Cohen & serving as a back channel to the #Trump legal team.
In the email, Cohen said “we will advance our conversations” about formalizing that #legal relationship, after Costello wrote to Cohen lamenting that he had “failed to communicate with me despite several text messages & emails.”
In the same email, #RobertCostello appeared to make a veiled reference to #Trump & #RudyGiuliani being concerned that #MichaelCohen was poised to #flip. Costello wrote: “We have continued our dialogue & need to bring you up to date concerning serious concerns on the part of our friends.”
Prosecutors showed Costello speaking in coded language to Cohen, telling him he had “friends in high places.”
But now #Blanche shows #MichaelCohen also using coded wording, sending an article re #Trump pushing him away in 2018 & writing “since we’re sharing this morning…they are again on a bad path.”
Blanche is implying that Cohen had some agency in all of this because he was using the back channel Costello created to send his own messages, not just to receive them. (Why wouldn’t he if he had no other way to communicate w/Trump?)
#Blanche’s questions are designed to imply #MichaelCohen had mixed motives & that he somehow benefits by cooperating w/prosecutors.
Blanche asks about the period in 2018 when Cohen was finding that some his legal fees were not being paid by the #TrumpOrganization anymore. That was a big contributor to the split between Cohen & #Trump, which Cohen has talked about publicly.
Aside: #Trump just sent out a fundraising appeal falsely claiming he “could even be thrown into PRISON FOR LIFE!” if the jury in this case returns a guilty verdict.
Total bullshit.
He actually faces a maximum of 4 years in prison, or probation.
#Blanche connects some of his lines of questioning.
He adds up the money #MichaelCohen made from consulting, his repayment for the #HushMoney payoff, & other work.
Blanche says, “we can see what” Cohen was “up to”. Prosecution objects. Sustained.
Blanche harps on money Cohen made off attacking #Trump. Arguing that Cohen was motivated not by what was right, but by money & when working for Trump was no longer lucrative, he turned against him, & made money that way.
#Blanche asks #MichaelCohen if he’s pitching a TV show. Cohen says he’s not pitching it, but that there is a show being shopped around. News of a reality show called “The Fixer” has been reported.
Cohen acknowledges the show hasn’t been picked up yet, prompting chuckles from the row of #Trump allies at the back of the room.
Jurors hear that Cohen has made about 4M since fall 2020 from podcast & books.
#MichaelCohen testifies that he is considering a third book & a run for Congress 😂 because he has some of the “best name recognition” out there. Cohen says his name recognition is “affiliated with” #Trump because of the journey he’s been on, but that it’s not “because” of Trump.
#Blanche says that Cohen’s “journey” — sneering as he uses the word — is to attack Trump.
#Blanche’s alternative narrative is about #MichaelCohen’s greed. Blanche asks Cohen if he has a financial interest in this case, & Cohen agrees he does. But when Blanche suggests that #Trump being convicted would help Cohen, Cohen clarifies that he only said it benefits him because he talks about it on his podcasts & TV appearances.
Blanche asks Cohen if he is willing to lie under oath if it affects his personal life. Cohen says he doesn’t understand the question.
#Blanche is implying that a conviction would benefit #MichaelCohen because it would provide a neat ending to his story of revenge. But Cohen’s answer is more about the anti-Trump content industry. Cohen said it would actually be “better,” from a content-generating perspective, if #Trump didn't get convicted. “It gives me more to talk about in the future,” he said.
#Blanche concludes cross-examination of #MichaelCohen w/ a whimper not a bang. He tries to remind jurors of the most dramatic moment from Thursday's cross: that Cohen may have lied on the stand when he described a conversation on Trump's bodyguard's phone in which he said he briefed #Trump about the payment to #StormyDaniels.
There was “no doubt in your mind” that that was the purpose of the call, Blanche asks. “No doubt,” Cohen replies, standing by his testimony.
#MichaelCohen addresses the #jury directly as he tells the story of hiring the tech company, RedFinch, to #rig a #poll of influential businessmen for #Trump.
Cohen says that Trump was upset about where the poll was placed, & that he didn't feel it was worth the full amount that Cohen promised the company, so Cohen ultimately paid less. We are now getting to Cohen’s admission that he stole from the #TrumpOrganization by being reimbursed more than he paid RedFinch.
After defense’s cross-examination, it’s notable how streamlined prosecution's argument is. #Hoffinger asks #MichaelCohen about his 2018 statement that he was not reimbursed for the #HushMoney by the #TrumpCampaign. Cohen says it was misleading because he was paid by #Trump himself.
After a long sidebar, the judge gives what’s called a “limiting instruction” about some of Cohen’s testimony that “the payment in question does not constitute a campaign contribution.”
#MichaelCohen testifies that #Trump approved his false 2018 statement about whether or not Cohen decided to pay #StormyDaniels of his own volition. As a bonus, Susan #Hoffinger, the prosecutor, has Cohen confirm that one of Trump’s lawyers at the time was aware of the statement & texted him to tell him that Trump was grateful for all he did.
#Hoffinger goes back to how #MichaelCohen was treated by the #Trump team. A complicating factor w/both Cohen & #StormyDaniels is they have multiple motives, & prosecutors have been telling the cleanest versions of their stories which makes it easy for the defense to pick at. However, the Trump team is essentially asking the #jury to believe everyone around Trump was acting shadily except for the shadiest of all – Trump.
#MichaelCohen has suggested several times that he committed #crimes in connection w/ the #StormyDaniels payoff. This is helpful for the prosecution, as they seek to prove to #jurors that #Trump caused the falsification of business records to conceal a 2nd #crime.
IMPORTANTLY That crime doesn’t need to have been committed by Trump — Cohen’s crimes are equally applicable.
“Are you actually on trial here in this case?” #Hoffinger asks #MichaelCohen. “No,” he says. Through her questions, Hoffinger makes an obvious point — that the defense sought to make Cohen look like a #criminal. But ultimately, the jurors aren’t here to judge Cohen’s criminality. They are here to judge #Trump.
#Hoffinger returns to what prosecutors say are #crimes. She asks if the $420k that #MichaelCohen received in 2017 — the reimbursement for the #HushMoney, additional money to cover taxes, a reimbursement for the payment to the tech company, RedFinch, & a bonus — had anything to do w/ #legal services.
Cohen: “No.”
Hoffinger emphasizes that the financial documents connected to the payments were false, because they said the payments were in exchange for legal services.
#MichaelCohen again testifies that the documents were false.
Cohen explains why he didn’t sign a retainer agreement or agree to pay #RobertCostello:
“I didn’t trust him,” he says, explaining that he thought everything he said to Costello would immediately make its way back to #Trump.
Cohen testifies that he signed a waiver in 2019 to talk to the #SDNY about Costello, & he is shown the waiver.
To an extent, the waiver corroborates #MichaelCohen’s story that he never hired #RobertCostello as a lawyer, though he did speak to him for a long time.
#Trump's lawyers, #Blanche & #Bove, are sitting on either side of him. When they want to talk to each other, they pass notes behind him or they both lean back & talk face to face, behind his back - possibly in order to not wake him up.
In response to prosecution’s photographic #evidence, #Blanche argues that the defense never said or implied that #KeithSchiller & #Trump were not together that evening.
I’m guessing #Merchan allows the evidence, defense opened introduced the idea, prosecution should be allowed to rebut.