MANHATTAN (CN) — Michael Cohen is set to begin his testimony in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial on Monday, according to multiple reports.
The testimony of Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” is reportedly set to span multiple days. Cohen is expected to be a key witness for prosecutors, who claim Trump gave him instructions to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to cover up a sexual encounter, then falsified business records to pay Cohen back.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office frames the payment as part of a broader scheme by Trump to cover up negative press during his 2016 presidential run.
Cohen, prosecutors claim, was an integral part of that plan.
Multiple witnesses have already described working with Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to getting a false home equity loan in order to pay Daniels. Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson testified that Cohen frequently yelled at him over the phone, and that his peers called Cohen a “jerk” and an “asshole.”
Now a staunch critic of the former president, Cohen is expected to testify that the hush money was paid at Trump’s direction in an intentional effort to protect his 2016 campaign.
His testimony could be explosive. Trump and Cohen frequently trade barbs on social media — an activity from which Trump is currently precluded, thanks to a gag order imposed by the New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to protect trial witnesses.
“Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country. MAGA 2024!!!” Trump said in a post to Truth Social, now deleted under an order from the court.
Last month, Cohen said that he’d take a break from bashing Trump out of respect for the proceedings.
“Despite not being the gagged defendant, out of respect for Judge Merchan and the prosecutors, I will cease posting anything about Donald on my X (formerly Twitter) account or on the Mea Culpa Podcast until after my trial testimony,” Cohen said in a tweet.
Trump’s lawyers on Friday said he hasn’t stuck by his promise, though. Defense attorney Todd Blanche complained that Cohen was on a TikTok livestream earlier this week “wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of President Trump behind bars.” He asked the court to instruct Cohen not to talk about Trump until after the trial is over.
“It’s becoming a problem every day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness,” Blanche said.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said the district attorney had asked Cohen already not to speak publicly about the case. But the gag order doesn’t limit his speech as a trial witness; only Trump’s as the defendant.
“The fact of the matter is we have no control over what they do,” Steinglass said.
Merchan told prosecutors to tell Cohen that the bench wants him to tone it back.
“I would direct the people to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case, about Mr. Trump, or about anything related to this case or the process,” Merchan said. "That that comes from the bench and that you are communicating that on behalf of the bench."
Counsel and the court will have a long weekend to prepare for Cohen’s testimony. Merchan adjourned early on Friday after prosecutors flew through four custodial witnesses before the lunch break.
Two of them were phone service employees from AT&T and Verizon, respectively, who were brought to the stand to review the phone records of both Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization finance chief and member of Trump’s inner circle.
The other two were paralegals at the Manhattan prosecutors’ office, who confirmed social media posts and the call history of those related to the case. A slew of old tweets from Trump were displayed in court, including two that showed the former president’s deteriorating relationship with Cohen.
“The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman … are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip,’” Trump said in one infamous 2018 tweet.
Four months later, Trump tweeted:
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
Former Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout also testified Friday morning, wrapping up her testimony from the day prior that spoke to Trump’s attempts to reimburse Michael Cohen for the supposed hush-money payment. She said the Stormy Daniels story was “hurtful to his family.”
But when prompted by defense attorney Susan Necheles, Westerhout admitted that Trump never specifically mentioned the impact of the story on his family to her.
Trump is standing trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, to which he pleaded not guilty last year. Prosecutors said Friday that they hope to wrap up their case by the end of next week.
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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