2024-05-14 00:13:20
The historic criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York had the testimony of his former lawyer as its main protagonist this Monday Michael Cohenwho is considered the Prosecutor’s star witness.
Cohen spoke for the first time regarding the false registration of documents, in what prosecutors consider a scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by buying and concealing negative stories that might have damaged the campaign of Trump, whom the lawyer implicated direct way.
Cohen told, for example, how the porn actress scandal was handled. Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. According to his testimony, the former president asked him to hide the story “only until following the elections.”
The lawyer was the one in charge of paying the bribe to Daniels, whose reimbursement, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was falsified by Trump to hide the scandal.
“What he was doing was at the direction and for the benefit of Trump,” Cohen testified. “Everything required Trump’s approval.”
Cohen was one of Trump’s most loyal employees for years. Now, however, he is a declared enemy of the former president.
Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business documents that he recorded as legal expenses to cover up payments with which he allegedly wanted to silence different people.
The former president has declared his innocence and claims that he is the victim of a witch hunt to prevent him from campaigning to return to the White House.
These are five key moments from the testimony of Cohens, who will return to the stand this Tuesday, during the 16th day of Trump’s trial:
Cohen paid Daniels with his own money
Cohen showed at trial an email that included a file on the initial agreement between Trump and Daniels, dated October 10, 2016, which specifies the payment to the porn actress in exchange for her silence regarding the alleged sexual relationship between the two. .
He testified that just one day later, he had already confirmed with Daniels’ lawyer the terms of the agreement, including the sum of $130,000 and a $1,000,000 damages clause if the actress spoke regarding the alleged sexual encounter.
Although he tried to delay the payment, Cohen testified that Trump eventually told him, “Just do it.” He advised him to meet with the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, to resolve this matter.
The latter said that he was not in a financial position to face the payment, so he suggested that it was Cohen who did it, something he finally agreed to. To do so, he obtained a loan on the value of his home and thus hid the payment from his wife.
According to Cohen, Trump was “grateful” when he was informed of the resolution adopted. “Don’t worry, they’ll give you your money back,” he told her.
Some time later, Weisselberg informed him how the reimbursement would be made through falsified documents and recorded as “legal services provided” and that it would be higher than the $130,000 paid to Daniels, so that Cohen would get the full amount spent, following taxes.
The final money that Cohen would receive would be $420,000, which included $50,000 in technological services. The lawyer acknowledged that he had asked for more money for this item than he actually had to pay, but that he ended up keeping the difference.
When Weisselberg and Cohen went to Trump’s office to inform him of the payment to be reimbursed, the former president approved the transaction and the details, his former lawyer declared this Monday.
Silence Daniels “for the campaign, not for Melania”
According to Cohen’s testimony, Trump wanted to keep Daniels’ story secret only until following the 2016 election.
“I want you to keep her at bay as much as possible until following the election. If I win, it won’t matter because I’ll be president. And if I lose, I don’t even care,” He claimed that Trump told him.
“It was for the campaign, not for Melania,” the lawyer declared, following which the former president shook his head in a gesture of denial when listening to him in the room.
“I didn’t even think regarding Melania. It was all for the campaign”Cohen repeated.
Cohen testified that the impact of porn actress Stormy Daniels’ story might have been “catastrophic” for the Trump campaign. “Something horrible for the campaign,” she stressed..
She reiterated that Trump had asked her to delay paying the hush money to Daniels until following the elections, but Cohen told her that they might not continue to postpone it or the actress’s lawyer would declare the confidentiality agreement void.
Silencing the Playboy Bunny and other stories
But Daniels’ story was not the only story regarding Trump’s personal life that Cohen had to hush up, according to his statement.
“You know that when this comes to light, that is, the announcement (of the presidential candidacy in 2016), Get ready, many women will talk“he claimed Trump told him.
One of them was the former Playboy model Karen McDougal. When Cohen alerted Trump that she claimed the two were having an extramarital relationship, the former president ordered him to “make sure it is not published.”
Cohen said he understood the order as an instruction to buy the story and began negotiations with the tabloid. The National Enquirer so that he would not see the light.
When informed that silencing the case would cost $150,000, Trump responded: “No problem, I’ll take care of it”according to Cohen’s testimony.
This Monday, The jury heard a conversation between Cohen and Trump (made without the latter’s knowledge) in which the two are heard discussing how they would buy the rights to McDougal’s story.
He received a similar instruction following learning that a Trump Tower doorman was trying to sell a false story regarding a child the former president would have had outside of his marriage.
“You take care of it,” Told him. The bouncer was paid $30,000 to keep the story out of the media.
Help from ta
bloides
Cohen spoke regarding an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, where the former editor of The National Enquirer David Pecker He would have offered to look for negative stories regarding the former president before they were published.
Pecker acknowledged earlier in the trial that published positive stories regarding Trump and negative articles regarding his opponents.
The editor also offered to “be on the lookout for anything negative regarding Mr. Trump that might help us know in advance what was going to come out and try to prevent it from coming out,” said Cohen, who acknowledged trying to take advantage of the power and visibility of this tabloid for the benefit of his boss.
After what The National Enquirer To pay to remove McDougal’s story, Cohen said the newspaper’s editor was pursuing him to get Trump to refund the $150,000. Pecker was concerned, Cohen said, that “it was too much money to hide from the CEO of the parent company.”
Cohen claimed that Pecker had also spoken to him in the past regarding how his company had a “file drawer or a locked drawer, as he described it, where files related to Mr. Trump were located.”
The lawyer stated that he was concerned because Pecker’s relationship with Trump went back years, so He feared what would happen to those files if Pecker left that position to change jobs.
Despite everything, in his testimony he assured that he had a good relationship with Pecker. He also said that, until Trump ran for president, he was unaware of the publication’s practice of paying for stories not to be published.
Cohen wanted to be chief of staff
After Trump won the 2016 election, Cohen knew his role as Trump’s personal adviser wasn’t going to last long.
However, given the close relationship between the two, Cohen declared this Monday that he thought he might be considered for one of the most prestigious positions in the White House: chief of staff.
“I just wanted my name included,” he declared, even though he acknowledged that he was probably not “competent” enough for the position. “It was more regarding my ego than anything else,” he admitted.
He then proposed to Trump to be his “personal lawyer” and even hired another professional to present the idea to him and argue why it was so important that the former president had him for that position.
Cohen also said he did not expect to be compensated for being Trump’s “personal lawyer,” but rather his plan was to earn money from companies for his knowledge of the new president because of his “proximity to him for a decade,” he said.
1715653347
#key #moments #Michael #Cohens #explosive #testimony #Trumps #criminal #trial #York
