Key takeaways from Thursday’s rough cross-examination of Michael Cohen – including angry texts to teen prankster that undermine his story about briefing Donald Trump

If Michael Cohen is caught by one of the receipts turned up in court by lawyers, it would be a cruel twist if it happened with harassing text messages he sent to a teenager.

It’s the kind of “bullying” that Cohen testified about for years on behalf of his former client, Donald Trump, before saying he has turned over a new leaf.

But on Thursday he was forced to confront his own text messages in which he threatened to contact the Secret Service about someone who repeatedly harassed him.

That wasn’t the reason Trump lawyer Todd Blanche brought this up. Blanche wanted to determine that Cohen’s testimony Tuesday about an Oct. 24, 2016, 8:02 p.m. phone call may not have been as Cohen remembered it. He had stated on Tuesday that he had spoken to Donald Trump at that time to tell him that Stormy Daniels’ situation had been resolved, shortly before Election Day.

But Blanche has unearthed contemporaneous text messages with Schiller about hitting the boy who called him repeatedly. “The Dope forgot to block his call,” Cohen wrote Schiller at 7:48 a.m. – a few minutes earlier.

Blanche spoke to Cohen in a rising voice about how he could arrange the porn star’s payout and track down the teen at the same time.

“You completed the deal with Stormy Daniels. You said we were moving on and you said yes,” Blanche said. ‘That was a lie. Because you actually talked to Mr. Schiller about the fact that you were receiving harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old,” he said.

Here are some other key insights from the trial:

Cohen’s lies are piling up

Michael Cohen lied. A lot of. And attorney Todd Blanche makes sure to admit it himself. He lied to Robert Mueller. He lied to a congressional committee about a tower in Moscow he was exploring while working for Trump.

He even lied when he pleaded guilty to his crimes. Blanche was able to argue that because Cohen consistently denies one part of his guilty plea: the tax evasion charge. He says he was under pressure for 48 hours to make a deal with his wife, who may face charges.

As part of that plea, Cohen had to tell a judge that there was no pressure on him to enter his plea.

“Do you really feel like you’ve been goaded into pleading guilty?” Blanche asked him.

‘I have never denied the underlying facts. I just didn’t believe I should have been criminally charged,” Cohen responded.

But it didn’t take long for him to let some of his defense down. Judge William H. Pauley III had asked Cohen in court “has anyone offered you any inducement or coerced you into pleading guilty.”

“And you said no?” Blanche asked him.

“I have accepted responsibility,” Cohen tried again. “That was a lie?” Blanche asked.

“Right,” he acknowledged.

Texts with daughter indicate a trail of resentment

Anyone who’s traveled in political circles in New York and DC knows what it’s like to score a top invite — or to show up on your doorstep feeling like you’ve been there once.

Text messages with his daughter reveal the personal toll of Cohen being sidelined by the president he helped bring to the White House.

Blanche asked Cohen about a text message from his daughter Samantha Blake Cohen that said new White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump’s new people were “walking all over you.”

Cohen even had trouble getting tickets to the inauguration, Blanche said, drawing from family texts. “I believe so,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s defense was that even though he wanted to “qualify” for a gig for his “ego,” he ended up where he wanted with an influential job that allowed him to make millions as “the president’s lawyer.”

“There’s a way I can make money off of that, and I did,” he testified.

Whether the jury buys it may depend on how much value they place on a grinning Cohen who posed for a photo behind the White House podium during a visit there.

Cohen challenged by his own denial of a $130,000 payout

Blanche will finally get the $130,000 payments Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels through an LLC he helped set up.

It’s the subject that had prosecutors spending hours sifting through tedious paperwork to piece together the trail. But Blanche has his own newspaper he can rely on. One of those is a statement from Cohen saying that none of the funds came from the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization.

Another is a letter from a law firm to the Federal Election Commission.

Blanche’s next step could be to determine that the $130,000 wasn’t even a campaign contribution at all. The defense wants to call former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith, a conservative legal scholar whose opposition to government regulation of campaign finance helped undo major campaign finance reforms in the landmark Citizens United case.

Trump’s entourage may help him outside the courtroom, but not inside

Trump keeps the media in the dark about who will assemble his daily court entourage. He’s already brought out senators, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and now a bunch of conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has faced his own troubles with prosecutors, ended up sitting near the front of the court with Eric Trump, and was on camera in the courtroom as Trump railed against the case.

But Trump’s growing entourage could be in short supply in the 15th floor courtroom, where Trump’s freedom could be at stake. Prosecutors filed complaints about disruptions to their security details, and Merchan seemed sympathetic. The way GOP members have given Trump talking points could catch the judge’s attention as a way to get around his gag order.

Judge Merchan is looking for the exits

Judge Merchan told attorneys to be ready for short arguments as early as Tuesday. That comes despite Todd Blanche refusing to exclude testimony from former President Trump himself.

Merchan was even willing to give up one of his precious Wednesdays, which he uses for legal proceedings other than the Trump trial. (President Biden mocked Trump this week, saying, “I hear you’re free on Wednesday if you challenge him to a debate).

He’s also exploring how to avoid long pauses in the pace of the process, a sign he may be eyeing completion before Memorial Day.