5 months ago
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New York hush money trial: What to expect on Day 17
Alex Woodward and Kelly Rissman are back at Manhattan Criminal Court for us this morning and send this dispatch:
“‘Handle it.’
“‘Make sure it doesn’t get released.’
“‘Just do it.’
“Michael Cohen’s testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Monday was crucial.
“For the first time, a witness tied Trump directly to a series of payments that kept politically devastating stories out of the press and away from voters before Election Day in 2016.
“When it came to burying Stormy Daniels’ story by paying her $130,000 for her silence, Trump told Cohen: ‘Just do it.’
“Less than two weeks before Election Day, Cohen finalized a contract and wired her attorney the cash. Then he told Trump that the deal was done.
“Jurors then heard how after the election, a satisfied president-elect Trump confirmed a payment plan to reimburse his attorney before heading to Washington, where he signed the checks.
“‘What I was doing,’ Cohen testified, ‘was at the direction of and benefit of Mr Trump.’
“Trump also knew that he had a deadline to secure that silence, according to Cohen. He gave excuse after excuse to Daniels’ attorney, hoping that he could avoid paying him with the election approaching, when, if Trump won, ‘it wouldn’t matter’ anymore, he said.
“‘My intent was to continue to delay it, as per Mr Trump’s demand,’ he said.
“Cohen’s testimony gave jurors the connective tissue for the trial’s weeks-long narrative: Trump warned Cohen to ‘be prepared’ for stories about women when he launched his 2016 campaign, instructed him to pay them off, then signed the checks that reimbursed him.
“Those checks and Cohen’s approved invoices are the allegedly falsified records at the heart of the falsified records charges.
“Today, Cohen returns to the stand, after prosecutors left Monday on a bombshell cliffhanger revealing a Trump Tower meeting where Trump approved a 12-month payment plan to reimburse him for paying off Daniels.
“Prosecutors are now preparing to go through those payments pursuant to Cohen’s ‘retainer’ that he said never existed.
“On cross-examination, which could also begin today, Trump’s attorneys are hoping to destroy Cohen’s credibility by painting him as a convicted liar and an opportunist willing to throw his former boss under the bus to save his skin. They will also likely bring up his antagonistic social media posts and TV and podcast appearances to argue that he can’t be trusted on the stand.
“Outside the courthouse in Manhattan, a long line of press and members of the public has been growing since before 5am, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president on trial facing down his once-loyal counsel turned very public enemy.”
