Donald Trump’s former lawyer admits that he lied in the Stormy Daniels case: he unmasked it

Michael Cohen, who at the time was Donald Trump’s trusted lawyer and lawyer, acknowledged having lied for his former boss and having used intimidation, when testifying at the trial in New York against the former president.

Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, was questioned by the Prosecutor’s Office about the payments to a former porn film actress that were disguised as legal expenses and that have put a former US president in the dock for the first time.

After Stormy Daniels’ interrogation last week, Cohen is the most important witness in the Prosecutor’s Office, which is trying to prove that Trump falsified accounting records to hide a payment to the former actress in the final stretch of the 2016 elections.

>>> In trial against Trump, Stormy Daniels talked about unprotected relationships and other details

“It was what had to be done to accomplish the task”: former Trump lawyer

At the hearing on May 13, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he had ever lied for Trump, or if he had intimidated people.

“Yes… It was what had to be done to complete the task,” responded Cohen, who from time to time turned to look at Donald Trump, sunk impassively in his armchair.

Cohen had previously stated that At the request of his former boss, he paid Daniels $130,000 out of pocket to buy his silence for a sexual relationship that occurred in 2006, and which the magnate has always denied. When he was already president, Trump reimbursed them in installments, passing them off as legal expenses, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The former lawyer, who was called “pitbull” for the zeal he showed to protect his boss, has already pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison – he only served 13 months and a year and a half under house arrest – for lying. to Congress and for financial and electoral crimes.

In his testimony, Cohen assured that when he worked for Donald Trump he attended to both his personal and corporate affairs. He said the tycoon did not have an email address for fear of leaving written evidence that could later be used against him.

He also detailed how he promoted the publication of press articles favorable to Trump and negative to Hillary Clinton, his rival in the 2016 presidential elections.

In addition, he reported that he paid to prevent the publication of information harmful to Trump, a practice that the Anglo-Saxon press calls “catch and kill” and that would be what happened in the case of Daniels and also in that of former Playboy model Karen McDougal. with whom the tycoon would have had an affair.

“He asked me to take control of this, that we had to prevent it from coming to light,” he said from the stand.

“It is enough that we get to the election because if I win it will no longer be relevant, since I will be the president, and if I lose it will no longer matter,” Cohen recalled what the then-Republican candidate told him.

>>> Trump defends himself in New York while another judicial process in Washington becomes complicated

Last week, Daniels recounted in great detail the alleged one-night adventure with the tycoon during a golf tournament for the rich: from his pajamas, his underwear and sexual position, as well as the fact that he was not wearing a condom.

Details that the defense considered irrelevant to the case and for which they tried to get Judge Juan Merchan to annul the trial on two occasions. Unsuccessfully.

Over the course of three weeks, the jury that will seal the magnate’s fate in the middle of the election campaign has heard from the numerous witnesses who have taken the stand that Cohen was a difficult character, who intimidated and cajoled others to get his way. .

For defense lawyers, he is a pathological liar and a convicted criminal.

“Everything he says is supported by documents,” a source close to Cohen told AFP. Trump sued Cohen and called him a “rat,” and Cohen in turn sued his former boss and called him a “mob boss.”

Prosecutors acknowledged Friday that they have no control over Cohen, after the judge asked them to tell him to stop badmouthing his former boss, his sworn enemy after his time in prison and whom he has mocked throughout the year. judgment.

Trump, who repeated again upon his arrival at the court that he is the victim of a “witch hunt” and “electoral interference,” attacked the judge at a rally in neighboring New Jersey on Saturday, whom he called “conflictive.” , and against the Manhattan court prosecutor who has put him on the bench, Alvin Bragg, whom he described as a “radical democrat.”

In addition to the New York case, Trump has been accused in Washington and Georgia of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and of taking classified documents when leaving the White House in 2021, although this trial has been postponed indefinitely.