Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00026793 | |||||||||
|
THE TRUMP SAGA
HUSH MONEY TRIAL IN NEW YORK Fiery cross-examination of Michael Cohen underway at Trump trial: Live updates Original article: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4661555-michael-cohen-witness-trump-hush-money-trial/ Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
|
Fiery cross-examination of Michael Cohen underway at Trump trial: Live updates
BY THEHILL.COM - 05/14/24 2:20 PM ET
SHARE
POST
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
1:11
Captions
Fullscreen
Share
Play
Former President Trump’s ex-fixer Michael Cohen is officially under long-anticipated, fiery cross-examination by his former client’s defense team, considered to be the New York hush money trial’s main event.
Cohen, under direct examination by prosecutors, has so far appeared to implicate Trump more than any other witness over a $130,000 hush money scheme involving a porn actress and attempting to link Trump directly with what prosecutors deem as fraudulent business transactions
Follow below for live updates from New York.
Current witness: Michael Cohen, ex-fixer
Attorney questioning: Todd Blanche, Trump attorney
Tuberville after attending Trump trial: ‘Most depressing thing I’ve ever been in’
Scaramucci labels Vance, Tuberville ‘spineless sycophants’ after senators appear at Trump courthouse
1 of 3
05:33 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Trump acknowledges supporters from motorcade
As the former president’s motorcade left the courthouse, he gave fist pumps as he passed by a small crowd of his supporters lined up on the sidewalk and cheering, some of whom were waving pro-Trump flags.
The building they were standing in front of? The courthouse where Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) corruption trial kicked off this week.
— Zach Schonfeld
04:02 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Blanche tries to pin down Cohen on leveraging cooperation to reduce sentence
Trump attorney Todd Blanche has asked Cohen a series of questions about a Rule 35 motion, which allows criminal defendants to get their sentences reduced if they have provided substantial assistance in prosecuting another person.
Cohen met with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office during its investigation of connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, as well as the Manhattan district attorney’s office in its investigation that culminated in last year’s indictment.
Blanche appears to be suggesting that Cohen was cooperating with the Trump investigations at least in part to get his own sentence reduced.
Cohen acknowledged that his attorneys had discussed with the district attorney’s office whether it would be willing to help write a Rule 35 motion.
— Zach Schonfeld
03:39 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen acknowledges he wants Trump convicted
Trump attorney Todd Blanche raised Cohen’s public statements suggesting he wants to see Trump convicted.
“Do you want President Trump to get convicted in this case?” Blanche asked.
“Sure,” Cohen replied, after repeatedly refusing to give a direct answer.
— Zach Schonfeld
03:09 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Blanche raises Cohen’s past statements hailing Trump
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is bringing up Cohen’s statements praising his then-boss when he worked for Trump.
Blanche noted that Cohen had called Trump a good man who cares deeply about the country, even saying he’d take a bullet for Trump.
“I was knee-deep into the cult of Donald Trump,” Cohen said.
— Zach Schonfeld
02:58 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Jurors learn Cohen’s podcast selling shirts with Trump behind bars
Trump attorney Todd Blanche entered into evidence screenshots showing how Cohen’s podcast, “Mea Culpa,” sells shirts depicting Trump behind bars.
Cohen acknowledged it is “one item” in the merchandise store and that he wore the shirt during one of his recent TikTok livestreams
See the shirt here.
— Zach Schonfeld
02:51 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen's words turned against him
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is continuing to use Cohen’s public statements against him, now asking the witness about his recent TikTok livestreams.
“What’s the goal of doing that?” Blanche asked.
“Build an audience,” Cohen responded. “Create a community. To really vent, because I’ve been having a difficult time sleeping. So I found an out.”
After further prodding, Cohen did concede he charges people $5.99 per month for a subscription but insisted he doesn’t make a lot of money from his TikTok.
— Zach Schonfeld
02:38 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Trump's eyes closed as Cohen's testy cross-exam begins
Despite the testimony turning testy, Trump has continued to keep his eyes closed for most of Cohen’s cross-examination so far.
The jury has generally been stone-faced throughout the trial, but a few members have cracked smiles as Trump’s attorney raises Cohen’s social media posts and cable news appearances.
— Zach Schonfeld
02:34 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Prosecutors pile on objections at start of blistering cross-examination
Hoffinger, the prosecutor who conducted Cohen’s direct examination, has objected to Blanche’s questioning numerous times in the first minutes of his cross-examination.
Blanche has brought up numerous moments during the district attorney’s investigation when it seemed likely that Cohen had leaked information, but that information is not being shown to the gallery.
— Ella Lee
02:27 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Trump attorney pokes at Cohen social media posts
Blanche referenced to a post Cohen made April 23, after the trial had started, referring to Trump as a “dictator douchebag.”
“Sounds like something I said,” Cohen replied, causing a juror to crack a smile.
The Trump attorney also questioned whether the Manhattan district attorney had “repeatedly” asked Cohen to stop talking publicly about the case.
“They might have, yes,” Cohen said.
— Ella Lee
02:22 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen cross-examination off to a fiery start
The cross-examination of Michael Cohen began just before 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s first line of questioning, about whether Cohen knows him, has already gotten off to a fiery start.
Cohen confirmed he’s never met Blanche, but conceded he knows who the attorney is.
Blanche noted that, in April, Cohen called him a “crying little shit.”
“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen said, drawing an objection that was sustained.
— Ella Lee
12:58 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen: Working for Trump ‘violated my moral compass’; direct concludes
Cohen testified that he wishes he did not “lie” and “bully” others while working for Trump when asked about his regrets.
“Mr. Cohen, do you have any regrets about your past work and association with Donald Trump?” Susan Hoffinger asked, to which Cohen affirmatively replied.
“I regret doing things for them that I should not have — lying, bullying people in order to effectuate a goal,” Cohen said. “I don’t regret working at the Trump Organization. As I expressed before, some very interesting, great times.
“But to keep the loyalty and to do the things that he had asked me to do — it violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family,” he continued.
With that, prosecutors rested their direct examination of Cohen. After the lunch break, he’ll face cross-examination by Trump’s attorneys.
— Ella Lee
12:53 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen discusses podcasts, books
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is having Cohen explain his various podcast and book ventures since pleading guilty, including how he regularly spoke about Trump.
Cohen said he wrote his book, “Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” while in prison to help with “time management.”
“It helps the time go by quicker,” Cohen said.
On cross-examination, Trump’s lawyers are expected to hit Cohen hard over his statements in the books and podcasts to portray him as out to get his former boss.
— Zach Schonfeld
12:46 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen clears up comments on 2018 tax prosecution
Cohen confirmed that, since pleading guilty in 2018, he has made remarks expressing his belief that he should not have been prosecuted for tax crimes. But he said Tuesday that he does not dispute the facts of those underlying charges.
“I have constantly maintained that I do not dispute the fact that there was an error in the taxable amount,” Cohen said.
“What I do dispute and continue to dispute — for a first-time offender who has consistently paid taxes on his due date, never having been audited — that this would go immediately to a criminal charge,” he added.
He added that he was given 48 hours to make a decision on whether to plead guilty, or the Southern District of New York would file an indictment that included his wife.
The comments address remarks Cohen made while testifying during Trump’s civil fraud trial, in which he agreed under oath that he “committed perjury” when he pleaded guilty to the charges. The admission was made under cross-examination by Trump attorney Alina Habba, who has been watching Cohen testify in the hush money trial, too.
— Ella Lee
12:40 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Jurors paying close attention
The jury has been paying close attention to Cohen as he walks through his guilty pleas and subsequent prison sentence.
The New Yorkers have all been looking at their monitors when prosecutors display various documents, and their heads have moved back and forth to direct their gazes on whoever is speaking.
— Zach Schonfeld
12:40 PM
MAY 14, 2024
-
RRAHMAN
Cohen testified despite DA inability to help with sentence reduction
Cohen said he still agreed to testify in the Manhattan district attorney’s case against Trump, despite the office’s inability to help reduce his sentence.
Susan Hoffinger noted that Cohen and his attorneys had, at times, asked for a letter detailing his cooperating to assist with lowering his sentence. But the Southern District of New York declined to accept such letters, so the district attorney’s office did not provide them.
“And yet you’re still meeting with us?” Hoffinger asked.
“I am,” Cohen said.
— Ell
| |||||||||