#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 is now asking #MichaelCohen about meeting w/people ahead of his public testimony before a #House panel in 2019. He asks him about meeting w/ #DanGoldman, then a House investigator & now a congresssman in NY. Then he jumps back to Oct 2016 & #StormyDaniels.
Blanche is skipping around again. He started by speaking about 2024, then went back ~5yrs, to 2019, & is now back in 2016, right before he made the #HushMoney payment to Daniels.
Prosecutors argue Cohen was motivated solely by pleasing #Trump. Blanche is suggesting Cohen may have been motivated by his own financial interests. He suggests that one of the LLCs that Cohen said he created to help w/the hush-money may actually have been formed to address an issue Cohen was having in the taxi industry.
#Blanche is trying to confuse the timeline of the #HushMoney payment. On Fri, he questioned #MichaelCohen’s story about the events of 24 Oct, 2016. Now he’s moved on to casting doubt on Cohen’s testimony about the 2 days that followed — the 25th 26th. Cohen wired the payment to #StormyDaniels's lawyer on 27 Oct.
Blanche argues there were alternative explanations for 2 of Cohen’s calls to #Trump on 26 Oct — a possible plot to extort #TiffanyTrump.
#Blanche suggests that #MichaelCohen had said he was singlemindedly focused on the #HushMoney deal, including when he spoke to #Trump that Oct. But Blanche suggests that Cohen would have reported back to Trump about other issues, too, including dealing w/an extortion attempt against #TiffanyTrump.
Cohen sticks to his original testimony: “My recollection is that I was speaking to him about #StormyDaniels, because that was what he tasked me to take care of.”
#Blanche gets #MichaelCohen to testify about having cash “in a brown paper bag.” Then Blanche refers to someone Cohen was dealing w/as “the connect.” Both characterizations are rather seedy / illicit & similar to dog-whistles #Trump uses in his speeches.
Blanche asks Cohen about the complex reimbursements for the #HushMoney payment. Defense noted that Cohen wasn’t repaid $130k, the actual amount Cohen had given to #StormyDaniels. Blanche is digging into that.
#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 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.
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.
#MichaelCohen is asked if he responded to a post on Truth Social in which #Trump attacked Cohen & #StormyDaniels. He responds: “I’m not on Truth Social, sir.” But when asked if he responded elsewhere by calling Trump “dumbass Donald,” he agrees that he did.
#Blanche, referring to Cohen’s many instances of testifying in the past, in courts & in Congress, asks him if he swore an oath when he testified. Trump’s lawyers have accused Cohen of lying under oath.
#Blanche has yet to ask #MichaelCohen about anything in connection to the actual case that's on trial.
Trump's lawyers have focused on impeaching the credibility of the prosecution's 2 biggest witnesses, #StormyDaniels & Cohen. Though while Susan #Necheles’s cross-examination of Daniels was largely focused & had an arc, Blanche’s cross-examination of Cohen has been all over the place.
#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.
#Blanche asks #MichaelCohen if he wanted a job in the #Trump WhiteHouse. Cohen testified to the House in 2019 that he didn’t want one. But other witnesses, like #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels's fmr lawyer, testified that Cohen was interested & sad he was being left behind.
Blanche: “You really wanted to work in the White House, correct?”
Cohen:“No sir.”
Blanche says that Cohen specifically wanted to be WH chief of staff, & Cohen again denies it.
#MichaelCohen easily & calmly explains what happened. Vohen expected the lawyer to fact-check & edit before submitting the doc to court & the errors were quickly corrected. It was not intentional nor malicious.
#Blanche moves on & brings up a phone call that Cohen talked about during direct, when he spoke to #Trump over Trump’s bodyguard's cellphone. Cohen said that during the conversation, he told Trump that the payment to #StormyDaniels had been made.
#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.
Though, Cohen concedes that ONE of the things Trump was worried about w/that story was his wife & children — that was a nearly year long affair while Melania was preggers so yeah.
Blanche asks about negotiations he had w/ ABC News reporter John Santucci regarding the #StormyDaniels story.
Blanche is restating his opening argument point that NDAs were typical among the wealthy & famous & that they were not illegal. (No one has said otherwise)
#Blanche shows the #HushMoney contract that #MichaelCohen struck w/ #StormyDaniels. He gets Cohen to agree it’s a “perfectly legal contract.” He’s raises his voice for emphasis — trying to make the #jury feel like this arrangement was business as usual.
It may be usual to have NDAs, but this was unusual for other reasons.
Prosecutors now have 3 days to prepare re-direct, when they will seek to build #MichaelCohen back up & refocus the jurors on the most important elements of their case & the actual charges for which they’ve presented mountains of evidence regardless of whether Cohen is a liar or not.
#Trump has his posse again. Today it’s more #Republican elected officials. Today, Trump will be joined by the #House speaker, #MikeJohnson, as well as #NorthDakota’s governor, #DougBurgum, a contender to be Trump's running mate. Also present will be Representatives #ByronDonalds & #CoryMills of Florida, & #VivekRamaswamy, who was one of Trump's primary rivals this year. Both Donalds & Ramaswamy are longshot hopefuls to be Trump's running mate.
The #jury is shown a picture of a t-shirt that #MichaelCohen is selling on his website. [think I’ll go buy one now] It’s an image of #Trump behind bars & wearing an orange jumpsuit.
#Blanche is suggesting Cohen is in it for the money, showing a shirt he sells that says “Convict 45” — during #StormyDaniels’s cross-examination Necheles attacked her for “shilling” mechandise online. Daniels responded it was very much like Trump's own tendency toward self-promotion.