Former President Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen will testify Monday before a grand jury investigating hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
Cohen’s planned testimony comes as prosecutors approach a decision on whether to press charges against the former president as part of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into the payments. Bragg’s office questioned at least seven other people before the grand jury.
Trump was asked to testify before the New York grand jury next week.
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Cohen has already done 20 interviews with Bragg’s office and will appear before the grand jury Monday afternoon, his attorney Lanny Davis told Axios.
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Former President Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen will testify Monday before a grand jury investigating hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf. (AP)
“Mr. Cohen will continue to cooperate,” Davis said. “We are impressed with Mr. Bragg’s team and the careful and meticulous approach.”
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, and was sentenced to three years in prison for arranging payments to Daniels and model Karen McDougal to keep them from going public. The former president has denied having the affairs.
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Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which recorded the payments as “legal fees.” McDougal’s received $150,000 through the publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.
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Michael Cohen has already done 20 interviews with Bragg’s office and will appear before the grand jury on Monday afternoon (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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Trump condemned the investigation Friday, writing on social media that the investigation is a “swindle, injustice, ridicule, and full and total weaponization of law enforcement to influence presidential elections!”
Prosecutors appear to be investigating whether Trump committed crimes in arranging the payments or how they were accounted for internally at the Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization “disqualified” Cohen’s refund for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against Cohen in 2018 for the payments.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which recorded the payments as “legal fees.” (AP)
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Federal prosecutors said during Cohen’s criminal trial that Trump knew about the payments to the women. But the US law firm in New York did not prosecute the then-incumbent president. Trump’s legal team claimed victory as the federal case closed.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office later launched a separate investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
