Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
After the break, prosecutors are arguing that #Blanche, early in his questioning, asked questions that seemed to suggest that #Trump's #indictment was still sealed on March 30. The indictment was unsealed that evening, after NYT broke the news. The unsealing allowed the DA’s office to confirm that the news was true.
Prosecutors ask Justice #Merchan to explain this sequence to the jury. Merchan agrees that the jury should be advised.
#Trump is paying close attention, as clips play of #MichaelCohen describing how much he hates Trump & wants him to rot in prison.
Prosecution used earlier witnesses to introduce Michael Cohen to the jury as an outsized personality. + Cohen has not been shy on the stand about his hatred of Trump. These clips, while entertaining, might not come as a huge shock to the jury.
#Blanche continues questioning #MichaelCohen about his relationships w/ reporters over the years naming Maggie Haberman of The NYT & Katy Tur of MSNBC.
Cohen confirmed that he communicated w/ reporters over the phone & via text, & he would occasionally record phone calls w/ members of the press w/o their knowledge, including former CNN chief Jeff Zucker.
(reminder NY is a one party consent state)
Jurors will have to determine when — if ever — #MichaelCohen began telling the truth. #Blanche is demonstrating that Cohen told lies, big & small, over a long period of time & for various reasons.
At the same time, prosecutors have & will demonstrate in re-direct & closing arguments that #Trump has told lies, big & small, about a number of people & issues in this & other cases.
Defense: You asked Schiller who to speak to on harassing texts & he says call me, then you call him back at 8:02 for a minute thirty... then you text him the number of the 14-yr-old... You said the Oct 24th call was not w/ #KeithSchiller …. “That was a lie."
Blanche suggests that Cohen was not reporting the #HushMoney payment to #Trump but reporting that he was being pranked by a teenager. (Seriously?)
#MichaelCohen adds that it was his routine to advise #Trump about these matters, because if the resulting story was not to his liking, “it would cause him to blow up at me” & “it would probably be the end of my job.”
#Blanche is trying to get Cohen to say that while working for Trump, he gave statements to reporters w/o checking in w/his boss. Cohen is refusing to concede this, & says that he would always talk to Trump about every story.
None of the texts were definitive, but there were a lot of them, & they clearly show that #MichaelCohen was at least interested in the idea. When #ReincePriebus was finally named chief of staff, Cohen told his daughter he was disappointed, Blanche shows. Cohen admits here that he was disappointed.
Defense is showing Cohen was again rejected, this time for a job, & is seeking payback. It also shows he lied under oath.
#Blanche seems to have gained some traction here, & notes that #MichaelCohen had said he wanted to be chief of staff. “That was for my ego, yes,” Cohen admitted. But now Cohen is reiterating that he wanted to be Trump's personal attorney.
Cohen, is 5 hours into his cross-examination, & is remaining calm, even as Blanche implies there was a series of slights & humiliations that Cohen suffered after #Trump’s election in 2016.
#Blanche admitted into evidence #MichaelCohen’s texts w/ a 14-yr-old harasser, which occurred on 24 Oct, 2016 until roughly 7:24PM, when Cohen wrote: “Please have your parent or guardian contact me before secret service reaches out them.”
Blanche is now driving home that Cohen threatened to turn the Secret Service on a prank caller who said they were 14 yrs old.
#Blanche plays a 2nd clip of #MichaelCohen from his podcast, in which he says he hopes “that this man ends up in prison,” & “revenge is a dish best served cold,” & “you better believe I want this man to go down & rot inside for what he did to me & my family.”
Blanche asks Cohen if he believes his podcasts & media interviews played a role in #Trump's #indictment. “I took some credit, yes,” he says.
#Blanche starts a long series of questions about whether #MichaelCohen received harassing phone calls from a 14-yr-old prankster in Oct 2016. [WTF?] He seems to be suggesting an alt reason for Cohen's call to #KeithSchiller, #Trump’s bodyguard.
Cohen had testified he made that call to inform Trump of the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels. Blanche is suggesting to jurors that Cohen lied about the call's purpose.
#Blanche is trying to establish the idea for the jury that #MichaelCohen was a rogue agent who did things w/o consulting w/ #Trump -- which defense says is what happened w/the #HushMoney payment.
Blanche notes that Cohen often frustrated campaign ofcls w/statements he made to the press during the 2016 campaign. Cohen parries that by saying Trump had told them that Cohen reported to him.
#Merchan decides that #Blanche can do it in his own questioning. But prosecutors, Matthew #Colangelo & Joshua #Steinglass, argue that it it should come from Merchan because the questions were so misleading.
Merchan tells prosecutors that they can draft a version of an order that the judge himself would give if Blanche’s corrections end up being insufficient.
There’s laughing when Justice #Merchan shoots down Todd #Blanche, #Trump's lawyer. Blanche asked for a sidebar & got a dismissive “no” from Merchan.
We’ve had 10 objections in <20 mins.
Defense plays a recording of #MichaelCohen celebrating Trump's indictment on his podcast. His voice is loud & enthusiastic to the point of seeming off-putting.
#Blanche is showing #MichaelCohen’s lack of remorse. Cohen has talked publicly about wanting to right the wrongs he committed while working for #Trump. Blanche is getting him to say he doesn’t think he should have been charged.
Blanche asks Cohen about blaming a lot of people for the conduct for which he was convicted. Cohen freely acknowledges he has.
#MichaelCohen seems deflated after hearing that clip. Blanche asks if that was the first time that he had said he wanted #Trump to feel what Cohen himself had felt when he was prosecuted. Cohen says that he had expressed that sentiment before.
Reportedly Cohen’s voice sounded truly odd in the podcast clip. Giddy, high-pitched, & speaking so fast that it sounded as if the tape had been artificially sped up.
#Blanche tries to connect #MichaelCohen having lied in his federal sentencing, when the outcome affected him personally, to his testimony here. “Do you have any doubt in your mind that the outcome of this trial affects you personally?” Blanche asks.
Throughout his cross-examination, Cohen has remained calm. He appeared mildly frustrated once but just shook his head after he answered one of Blanche’s questions.
#MichaelCohen says that he learned that #Trump was indicted before the #indictment was unsealed in the courtroom, when NYT broke that news in 2023. He says Rosenberg alerted him to that article.
Blanche’s point here seems to be that Rosenberg, the investigator, did something inappropriate, alerting Cohen to the fact that the indictment had been handed up. But NYT broke that news widely before the indictment was unsealed.
#Blanche is now going over the financial transactions that allowed #MichaelCohen to pay #HushMoney to #StormyDaniels, perhaps the closest he's gotten to the subject matter of the case.
He notes that Cohen hid those transactions from his wife, apparently seeking to call into question whether Cohen was really as concerned about his family - & his wife — as he suggested when explaining his federal guilty plea.
#Blanche asked #MichaelCohen about a number of different events, including an exchange of public statements w/ Michael #Avenatti, one of #StormyDaniels's lawyers, & conversations w/his wife. He ended by asking Cohen if he had deleted his communications w/his wife around that time, & Cohen seemed genuinely stumped. Then Blanche asks if Cohen, around this time, had taken to deleting his texts more generally.
The long sidebar may have been about scheduling issues. The judge just told the jurors that, if they are OK w/it, court may be in session next Wed, despite the fact that the trial is usually off on Wednesdays.
This suggests prosecutors & defense were quibbling over the calendar.
The defense sought to delay the trial many times before it started, & #Trump has complained that it was going too fast.
After #MichaelCohen is off the stand, the defense will have an opportunity to present its own case, calling witnesses & questioning them to try to seed reasonable doubt within the jury. Prosecutors can then put on additional #witnesses to rebut expert witness testimony.
Though from what #Trump’s attys have said, it sounds like they aren’t going to bother calling any witnesses or putting on a #defense — I guess they don’t have one.
The defense is trying to suggest that #MichaelCohen has a history of manipulating the types of phone records that prosecutors have used here to bolster their case.
Blanche seizes on another lie: Cohen had testified years ago that he had never asked for a pardon, but testifies here today - as he did in a deposition - that he did, in fact, direct his lawyers to explore the possibility of a pardon.