Michael Cohen spars with Trump’s lawyers on witness stand at hush-money trial

MANHATTAN (CN) — Testifying for a third day in Donald Trump’s criminal case, former lawyer Michael Cohen on Thursday battled with Trump’s defense attorneys over his credibility and criminal past.

Through a meandering cross-examination, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche got Cohen to admit he had previously lied under oath to Congress, to federal investigators and to a late federal judge.

“Do you think Judge Pauley would have liked to know that you had lied to him?” Blanche asked Cohen, referencing the now-deceased federal judge who sentenced Cohen in 2018 for a number of crimes.

Cohen previously admitted to lying during that sentencing during his testimony last year at Trump’s civil fraud trial.

Blanche started cross-examining Cohen on Tuesday (trial was dark Wednesday). Throughout the first roughly five hours of cross, scarcely did Blanche ask Cohen about the facts of the case.

Instead, Blanche highlighted Cohen’s past fibs, criminal history and disdain for Trump as motivation for Cohen to help land his former boss in jail. On Thursday, Blanche played a 2023 audio clip of Cohen’s reaction to the news that Trump had been indicted by Manhattan prosecutors.

“If you’re listening to this right now, former president Donald J. Trump has finally been indicted,” Cohen said emphatically in the recording. “He is about to get a taste of what I went through and I promise you, it’s not fun. Picturing Donald Trump being led through the booking process, getting fingerprinted, having his mug shot taken, fills me with delight and sadness all at the same time.”

Blanche also showed the court a tweet from Cohen, in which Cohen called Trump a “dumbass.”

“You called him ‘Dumbass Donald,’ does that sound right?” Blanche asked.

“Sounds correct,” Cohen replied.

Prosecutors claim that Trump directed Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and “fixer,” to pay hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from telling the media that she had sex with Trump in 2006. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up his repayments to Cohen in a scheme to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

On Thursday afternoon, Blanche dug into some of the finite details of Cohen’s direct examination, sharply pressing him about an Oct. 24, 2016, phone call. Cohen previously testified that was the phone call in which he told Trump about getting Daniels to accept the hush-money deal.

But Blanche suggested there was a vastly different reason for that phone call: Cohen was getting harassed by a teenaged prank caller, and called Trump’s security chief Keith Schiller for advice.

Cohen replied that he believed both to be possible.

“I believe I also spoke to Mr. Trump and told him everything regarding the Stormy Daniels matter,” Cohen said, adding that he knew Trump was in the room with Schiller and spoke to them both on the call.

“We are not asking what you believe,” Blanche shot back, raising his voice.

Blanche suggested that the phone call, which clocked in at a mere one minute and 36 seconds, wasn’t nearly long enough to discuss both topics.

“You had enough time in that one minute and 36 seconds to update Mr. Schiller about all the problems you were having?” Blanche asked.

Cohen said that he gave Trump a brief update, as that’s all that was required. Throughout Cohen’s testimony, he’s made it clear that Trump was a boss that liked to remain in the loop and receive frequent updates on matters that concerned him. Cohen reiterated that notion later in his Thursday testimony when discussing statements he’d make to the press on Trump’s behalf.

“It was my routine to always advise Mr. Trump, because if a story that I was going to put out was not the way he would want it, one, it would cause him to blow up at me and two, it would probably be the end of my job,” Cohen said.

Blanche suggested that there were “plenty of times” where Cohen would send comments for stories without Trump’s permission. Cohen disagreed.

“No sir,” Cohen said. “If I did that and he didn’t like the response, it would probably cost me my job.”

Several Republican politicians joined Trump in court on Thursday to show their support for the former president, including U.S. Representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, who spoke to reporters outside of the courthouse.

“We’re here of our own volition because there are things we can say that President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say,” Gaetz said, an apparent reference to Trump’s gag order.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, and denies ever having sex with Daniels.

Read daily transcripts of the Trump hush-money criminal trial  here . Note there is a delay of several days before new transcripts are posted.

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