Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand Monday morning to testify in former President Trump’s criminal trial.
Cohen is said to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they try to prove that the former president falsified business records related to a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence.
Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, his former boss and friend, will testify against him about his role in arranging to pay money to Daniels before the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her from allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump in the early 2000s become public.
MICHAEL COHEN TO WITNESS AT TRUMP’S TRIAL ON MONDAY
Michael Cohen has been mocking former President Trump on TikTok. (Getty Images)
Trump, for years, has denied that the meeting with Daniels ever occurred.
Trump subsequently made several payments of $35,000 to Cohen, who was serving as his personal attorney at the time. The payments totaled $420,000.
Trump’s payments to Cohen are the basis of Bragg’s case against Trump. Bragg is trying to show that the payments were reimbursements to Cohen for paying money to Daniels.
But Trump’s defense lawyers maintain that the $35,000 payments “were not revenge” but were legal payments.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said: “If the falsification of a business record is due to an accountant writing down ‘legal expenses’ when paying a legal fee, that is not falsification.
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“They call it a legal expense, and that’s what it was,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It was a legal expense. It was legal fees paid to a lawyer. That’s called a legal expense.”
Judge Juan Merchán imposed a gag order on the former president, preventing him from speaking about witnesses. Trump’s legal team argued that this is a violation of his First Amendment rights and filed an appeal.
Trump has already been fined $10,000 for violating the gag order ($1,000 per violation) and has been threatened with jail if he violates the order again.
While Cohen is not under any gag order, Merchan on Friday ordered prosecutors to tell Cohen not to make any statements about Trump or the case.
In this sketch from the Manhattan state courtroom in New York City on May 9, 2024, Stormy Daniels testifies during former President Trump’s criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records to conceal money paid to silence Daniels in 2016. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
Merchan said he would “direct people to tell Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any further statements” about the case or Trump.
Merchan told prosecutors to inform Cohen that the order came from the court.
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Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
House Republicans, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, and Speaker of the House Republican Conference, Elise Stefanik, have referred Cohen to the Justice Department for investigation, saying he should be subject to further prosecution. for lying to Congress.
President Trump boards Air Force One before departing Harlingen, Texas, on January 12, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Republicans say that most recently, Cohen “admitted to lying to Congress” during his testimony in the Letitia James v. Trump case.
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When asked if he was being “honest” in front of the House Intelligence Committee in February 2019, Cohen testified: “No.”
“So, you lied under oath in February 2019? Is that your testimony?” Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, asked him.
“Yes,” Cohen responded.
