Donald J. Trump’s lawyers took their best shot at Michael D. Cohen, the star witness in the former president’s Manhattan criminal trial, on Thursday, questioning Mr. Cohen about a mix of misrepresentations, manipulation and pure and simple lies.
Seeking to destroy Mr. Cohen’s credibility, a defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, portrayed him as an unrepentant criminal and serial deceiver who only spoke out to get revenge on Mr. Trump.
He argued that Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s loyal lawyer and fixer until an argument years ago, had changed his tune on matters big and small: whether he had wanted a House job Blanche, if he had requested a presidential pardon and if he had lied during the trial about a phone call he said he had with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen testified that he contacted Mr. Trump in October 2016, during the final days of the presidential campaign, to inform him of a secret deal Mr. Cohen was negotiating with a porn star on behalf of his boss. . Mr. Blanche, raising his index finger as his voice rose to a higher register, offered an alternative theory about the conversation, arguing that Mr. Cohen was actually calling to complain about a teenage prankster who had targeted him.
“You were actually talking,” Mr. Blanche said, “about harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old,” rather than hush money.
“It was a lie,” Mr. Blanche then shouted, evoking the climax of a legal drama. “You can admit it.”
“No, sir, I can’t,” Mr. Cohen replied, sticking to his story, as he did for much of the day as the defense sought to corner him. “I think I was telling the truth.”
Today, on his third day of testimony in the first criminal trial of a US president, Mr. Cohen showed signs of fragility as the defense undermined his credibility without appearing to deal a fatal blow to the case. charge. Mr. Cohen, a self-described former “thug” of Mr. Trump who oscillates between defiance and charm, bowed to the bar, but did not back down.
Mr. Cohen’s conduct – and his truthfulness – are at the heart of the matter. He paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to suppress her account of a sexual affair with Mr. Trump, who then reimbursed Mr. Cohen from the White House. Prosecutors accused Mr. Trump, who denies sexual relations and any wrongdoing, of falsifying related documents so he could permanently cover up the scandal.
When the agreement still leakedMr. Trump washed his hands of Mr. Cohen, who in turn pleaded guilty to his role in the hush money, among other federal crimes, saying he made the deal at the direction of the ‘former president. The plea marks a definitive break with Mr. Trump, his former mentor, and Mr. Cohen is the only witness to offer testimony linking Mr. Trump to the records that prosecutors say were falsified.
During cross-examination on Thursday, Mr. Blanche sought to undermine Mr. Cohen’s testimony with supposedly jaw-dropping moments, including hammering Mr. Cohen about his criminal record and his previous confessions of lying under oath.
“There is no doubt that you know what perjury means, right?” » asked Mr. Blanche of Mr. Cohen. The witness, who admitted to lying to Congress and the courts, responded: “I know what perjury means. »
It was one of dozens of heated exchanges between the two lawyers — Mr. Blanche, a former prosecutor, Mr. Cohen, a disbarred litigator. Each sought to outwit the other while parrying throughout the day.
Some of Mr. Blanche’s attacks have been meandering, while Mr. Cohen’s others have easily deviated. The questioning prompted more than a dozen objections to the prosecution that the judge sustained and resulted in a handful of side conferences from the judge’s bench. The interruptions made a high-stakes showdown feel disjointed.
Early in the day, Mr. Cohen lightened the mood in the courtroom amid the tension caused by the prosecution’s series of successful objections. Glancing at the jurors, Mr. Cohen shook his head, appearing to give a brief smirk before accepting a cup of cool water from a bailiff.
Mr. Trump, who had kept his eyes closed during much of Mr. Cohen’s earlier testimony, was now wide awake, leaning toward him and, at one point, glaring at his former fixer.
And his lawyer, Mr. Blanche, regained vigor and confidence after ending the morning with questions about prank calls. Although he did not call into question key elements of the prosecution’s case, he tired Mr. Cohen.
The former president, who faces probation or up to four years in prison if convicted, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, one for each record involved in Mr. Cohen’s reimbursement : 11 checks, 11 invoices and 12 entries in the former president’s ledger.
According to prosecutors, the records concealed the nature of the reimbursement from Mr. Cohen. Although Mr. Trump partially reimbursed him for the money he had spent, the documents only referred to a warrant and ordinary legal fees.
Questioned by prosecutors earlier in the week, Mr. Cohen gave his account of two crucial meetings with the former president about the files, the first in January 2017, where he said Mr. Trump learned of a project aimed at falsifying them. They met again the following month in the Oval Office, where Mr. Trump confirmed his intention to send a check to Mr. Cohen.
Although Mr. Trump did not personally falsify the records or explicitly ask anyone to do so, under New York law, prosecutors must simply demonstrate that Mr. Trump “assisted” in committing a crime or “caused” his company to file false records.
Mr. Blanche did not address those two meetings, but instead focused much of his cross-examination on what he described as Mr. Cohen’s obsession with hurting Mr. Trump and his unrepentant lies.
The defense lawyer began by playing excerpts from Mr. Cohen’s podcast, “Mea Culpa,” in which the former fixer seemed stunned by Mr. Trump’s indictment last year.
The jury heard Mr. Cohen’s manic excitement as he called Mr. Trump “an idiot Donald.” In another recording, he expressed his hope “that this man ends up in prison,” adding that “revenge is a dish best served cold.” He claimed that “you better believe I want this man to crumble and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.”
Mr. Blanche also highlighted what he said was a motive for Mr. Cohen to attack Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen, he noted, missed out on a job in the Trump administration.
“You really wanted to work at the White House, didn’t you?” » said Mr. Blanche, setting a trap for Mr. Cohen, who briefly intervened.
“No, sir,” Mr. Cohen replied.
Then Mr. Blanche produced recordings that appeared to contradict that denial and raised his voice showing that Mr. Cohen had in fact aspired to be Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.
“It was for my ego, yes,” Cohen admitted, and it seemed as if Mr. Blanche had dealt a major blow.
But the questioning quickly degenerated into a debate over semantics and nuance. Mr. Cohen said he had actually wanted a “hybrid” role, working both in the White House and as a personal lawyer, that would have kept him close to the president.
Mr. Cohen also denied Mr. Blanche’s assertion that he initially turned on Mr. Trump to win clemency from federal prosecutors years ago as they investigated him for crimes related to the secrecy agreement and other wrongdoing.
He countered that he “wasn’t interested” in a formal cooperation agreement after pleading guilty in 2018; he also received nothing from the local prosecutors who filed charges against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a possible deal with Trump Tower in Moscow. He also pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations related to payments to Ms. Daniels and another woman. Mr. Cohen has taken responsibility for these crimes, attributing them to a primal need to protect his family and Mr. Trump, his longtime boss and a man he once revered.
But he also pleaded guilty to personal financial crimes unrelated to Mr. Trump, admitting under oath to committing them. But today he disputes his guilt in these cases.
Mr. Blanche sought to highlight the discrepancy, portraying Mr. Cohen as a blind liar who changed his story to fit the situation.
Mr. Cohen said he pleaded guilty to tax fraud only because prosecutors threatened to charge his wife as well. But, Mr. Blanche noted, when Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty, he was asked if anyone “threatened you or tricked you into pleading guilty.”
He suggested that when Mr. Cohen said no, he was lying.
Mr. Cohen admitted that it did, a compelling exchange that seemed to hold the jury’s attention.
Mr. Blanche also described Mr. Cohen as something of a conspiracy theorist, as he noted that Mr. Cohen had placed blame on the federal judge who oversaw the 2018 case, William H. Pauley.
“So you think Judge Pauley was in on it?” » asked Mr. Blanche.
“Yes,” he replied.
Mr. Blanche also seized on Mr. Cohen’s sworn assertion before Congress in 2019 that he never sought a pardon from Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen testified during that trial, as well as in an unrelated deposition, that he had already asked his lawyers to explore the possibility.
While Mr. Blanche, now lowering his voice, insisted on the inconsistency, Mr. Cohen pointed out that Mr. Trump was currently dangling pardons from various allies. Mr. Cohen explained that he simply wanted to know if he could also qualify, testimony that earned a slight nod from Mr. Trump.
“Is this really something they talk about?” Can you find it?” Mr. Cohen remembers telling his lawyers. “I wanted this nightmare to end.”
Jonathan Swan, Wesley Parnell And Kate Christobek reports contributed.
