NEW YORK — With the hush money case against Donald Trump coming to an end, their star witness will reemerge on Thursday as lawyers try to get rid of Michael Cohen’s crucial testimony implicating the former president.
The trial, now entering its fourth week of testimony, will resume in Manhattan with a potentially explosive cross-examination of Cohen, whose credibility could determine the fate of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in the case.
Cohen is prosecutors’ last witness — at least for now — as they try to prove that Trump plotted to suppress a damaging story that he feared would torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign, and then falsified corporate records to cover it up .
With the defense not expected to call many witnesses, Cohen’s cross-examination is a crucial moment for Trump’s team, which must convince jurors that his once-loyal lawyer and fixer cannot be believed. The defense has suggested that Cohen is on a mission to take down the former president and that he will say whatever he needs to to put Trump behind bars.
During two days on the witness stand, Cohen placed Trump directly at the center of the alleged scheme to suppress negative stories and prevent damage to his bid for the White House. Cohen told jurors that Trump promised to pay him back for the money he was seeking and was kept constantly informed of efforts to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Trump denies the women’s claims.
Cohen also described a meeting in which he and Trump said he and Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, discussed how Cohen’s $130,000 hush money fees to porn actor Stormy Daniels would be paid as legal services in monthly installments. That’s important because prosecutors say the refunds were falsely recorded as legal fees to conceal the true purpose of the payments.
Trump says the payments to Cohen are properly categorized as legal fees and that the lawsuit is an attempt to torpedo his campaign to reclaim the White House. His defense has suggested that Trump was trying to protect his family — not his campaign — by suppressing what he said were false, gross claims.
Cohen told jurors how his life and relationship with Trump were turned upside down after the FBI raided his office, apartment and hotel room in 2018. Trump initially showered him with affection on social media and predicted that Cohen would not “turn around.” His tone changed when Cohen pleaded guilty months later to federal campaign finance charges and implicated Trump in the hush money scheme. Trump was not charged with a crime related to the federal investigation.
Prosecutors sought to blunt defense attacks on their star witness by getting him to admit from the start his past crimes, including lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project he pursued on Trump’s behalf during the heat of the 2016 campaign. Cohen admitted on the witness stand a host of other lies, including many that he said were intended to protect Trump. The defense is expected to use his history of falsehoods to cast doubt on his testimony.
Attorney Todd Blanche began questioning Cohen on Tuesday with questions unrelated to the criminal charges but aimed at showing that Cohen turned against Trump because he wanted fame and revenge. Blanche confronted Cohen with profane social media posts, a podcast and books about the former president, prompting Cohen to acknowledge that he has made millions of dollars from his new persona as one of Trump’s fiercest critics.
Defense attorneys are expected to question Cohen through the end of the day Thursday. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has said it will rest their case once he is done on the stand, although they could have the chance to call rebuttal witnesses if Trump’s lawyers put forward witnesses of their own .
The defense is not required to call witnesses and it is unclear whether attorneys will do so. Blanche told Judge Juan M. Merchan on Tuesday that the defense would be allowed to call one expert witness, and that there was still no decision on whether Trump himself would take the stand.
In any case, the trial will be cleared Friday so Trump can attend the high school graduation of his youngest son, Barron.
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Richer reported from Washington.