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Michael Cohen, former lawyer for Donald Trump, arrives at courtroom in New York Metropolis on March 13, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Michael Cohen testified Monday that Donald Trump warned him that “be ready, there will probably be a whole lot of ladies coming ahead” as quickly as Trump introduced he was operating for president.
Cohen’s revelation got here on his first day testifying at Trump’s prison hush-money trial in New York.
As soon as slavishly dedicated to Trump as his private lawyer and fixer, Cohen is now his open enemy and might be the important thing witness towards him within the case.
The 57-year-old will inform jurors how he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly earlier than the 2016 presidential election in change for her silence a couple of one-night stand she had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump’s reimbursement of Cohen for that payout whereas serving within the White Home is the idea for the Manhattan District Legal professional’s case towards the ex-president.
The Trump Group reported the Daniels-related charges to Cohen as authorized charges. However District Legal professional Alvin Bragg claims this was a criminal offense — falsification of company data — dedicated by Trump to cover the truth that the hush cash had protected his then-faltering presidential candidate at a key second.
Trump, who denies having intercourse with Daniels, says the crime allegations are bogus. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is looking them an try by a Democratic prosecutor to wreck his possibilities of profitable the upcoming elections towards President Joe Biden.
Along with making the fee to Daniels, Cohen was deeply concerned in arranging one other hush cash fee to Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal by the writer of the Nationwide Enquirer in 2016 in change for her story about an affair with Trump.
Cohen testified that when Trump introduced he would run for the White Home in 2015, it turned clear that the married actual property mogul was taking his secret private life into consideration.
“Has Mr. Trump expressed any issues about unfavourable tales about his private life?” Assistant District Legal professional Susan Hoffinger requested Cohen as Trump sat on the protection desk.
Cohen replied, “Sure.”
“What did he say?” Hoffinger requested.
Cohen responded that Trump stated, “You already know if this comes out, that’s, the announcement, be ready, a whole lot of ladies are going to come back ahead.” ”
Former US President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly protecting up hush cash funds at Manhattan Legal Court docket on Could 13, 2024 in New York Metropolis.
Spencer Platt | Reuters
As Cohen started testifying Monday, telling jurors about his private {and professional} background, Trump listened along with his eyes closed, simply as he has achieved when different witnesses within the case took the stand.
“What number of occasions would you say you met or spoke to him throughout the time you labored there for Mr. Trump,” Hoffinger requested Cohen.
Cohen responded, “Day-after-day, and several other occasions a day.”
He advised the prosecutor that greater than a decade of working for Trump “was an ideal expertise in some ways.”
“There have been some nice occasions and a few not-great occasions, however for essentially the most half I loved the obligations that got to me, I loved my colleagues, the Trump kids,” Cohen stated, as Trump’s son Eric Trump joined him from the courtroom stared intently. gallery.
“It was an enormous household.”
Cohen later defined how he encrypted the Sign app to speak with David Pecker, then-CEO of American Media, writer of the Nationwide Enquirer, and Pecker’s lieutenant Dylan Howard.
Cohen stated he used Sign when it was “a delicate matter that we needed to maintain non-public.”
Cohen, who has stated up to now that he had “blind loyalty” to Trump whereas working for him, is predicted to testify in Manhattan Supreme Court docket in a number of days.
Extra information about Donald Trump
After Hoffinger completes her first spherical of questioning, Trump’s legal professional Todd Blanche will cross-examine Cohen.
Blanche is predicted to deal with Cohen’s self-admitted historical past of mendacity — typically in Trump’s service — and his federal prison plea to tax crimes and marketing campaign finance violations associated to Stormy Daniels’ hush cash funds.
“He is a convicted felon. And he is additionally a convicted perjurer. He is an admitted liar,” Blanche stated in his opening assertion about Cohen initially of the trial.
On Friday, Blanche requested Choose Juan Merchan to impose a gag order on Cohen, who’s an outspoken critic of Trump. The previous president is underneath a silence order concerning witnesses within the case.
Merchan didn’t comply with gag Cohen, however he did inform Bragg’s prosecutor to let Cohen know the choose needed him to cease making public statements about Trump or anything within the case.
That is information improvement. Test again for updates.
