Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen testifies today at the criminal trial in Manhattan where former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified earlier in the trial that he and Trump’s former “fixer” (Cohen) practiced a “catch and kill” tactic for Trump: Pecker paid for the stories of Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal (who both claim to have had sexual relations with Trump) only to squash them, in order to protect Trump’s image prior to the election.
“Think about Cohen today as sort of the ‘sum-up’ guy and specifically the guy who’s gonna fill the gaps that can’t be filled by other witnesses. There are several episodes here that are uniquely within Michael Cohen’s knowledge.”
— @lawofruby on Cohen’s upcoming testimony today pic.twitter.com/KNBeK9dQ1P
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) May 13, 2024
On MSNBC, hours prior to Cohen’s first day of testimony, former litigator Lisa Rubin described Cohen’s role for the prosecution “as sort of the ‘sum-up’ guy and specifically the guy who’s gonna fill the gaps that can’t be filled by other witnesses. There are several episodes here that are uniquely within Michael Cohen’s knowledge.” Rubin added, “There is no substitute.”
Note: The other person who could fill in some of the blanks regarding the “hush money” case is Trump’s former CFO Allen Weisselberg, who will not testify. Weisselberg is currently serving another five months in prison after he admitted to testifying falsely in Trump’s civil fraud case.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for what a “Manhattan federal court judge called a ‘veritable smorgasbord’ of criminal conduct, including making secret payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump, lying to Congress about the president’s business dealings with Russia and failing to report millions of dollars in income,” as NBC reported.