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Donald Trump’s hush money trial is back underway in Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom, with the defendant’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen on the witness stand for further cross-examination by the defence.
During his previous appearance on Tuesday, Cohen was challenged about his evolving attitudes toward his ex-boss, a series of colourful insults dished out on podcasts and social media and the idea that he has profited from publicly attacking the former president through merchandise sales.
The witness remained calm and steadfast during his testimony, also walking the jury through the strategy allegedly employed by Mr Trump’s inner circle to delay making the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to buy her silence about the sexual encounter she claims he had with the politician in July 2006.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden capitalised on Wednesday’s recess day for the trial to challenge his predecessor to a pair of presidential debates, declaring: “Make my day, pal.”
Mr Trump readily agreed, responding: “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”, and the debates are now scheduled for 27 June on CNN and 10 September on ABC.
Alex Woodward is covering the trial from Manhattan Criminal Court.
Blanche notes that a lot of “key conversations” involving McDougal and Daniels were by text.
“You weren’t using Signal to send the NDA, were you? You just emailed it?”
Judge Merchan calls afternoon recess.
Here’s the transcript of the recorded conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump:
Michael Cohen: Told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that -- I’m going to do that right away. I’ve actually come up and I’ve spoken --
Donald J Trump: Give it to me and get me a --
Michael Cohen: And, I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with --
Donald J Trump: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?
Michael Cohen: -- funding. Yes. And it’s all the stuff.
Donald J Trump: Yes, I was thinking about that.
Michael Cohen: All the stuff. Because -- here, you never know where that company, you never know what he’s --
Donald J Trump: Maybe he gets hit by a truck
Michael Cohen: Correct. So, I’m all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be --
Donald J Trump: Listen, what financing?
Michael Cohen: We’ll have to pay him something.
Donald J Trump: (INAUDIBLE) pay with cash.
Michael Cohen: No, no, no, no, no, I got it.
Donald J Trump: Check.
Cohen’s recording was interrupted by a phone call with a bank that he answered. He says they continued to speak but he wasn’t recording after that.
Blanche is arguing that when Trump said “cash” during his conversation with Cohen, when Cohen asked about “financing” for the deal with “our friend David,” Trump wasn’t talking about “benjamins or green.”
“That’s not what he’s talking about, is it?”
Yes, it was, Cohen says.
Blanche is asking about a call on June 16 2016 at 6:51pm to Trump.
He’s peppering him for a “specific recollection.”
“I am asking if you recall that conversation at that time,” he says.
“Again,” Cohen says, “based off the documents I have looked at and reviewed, I did.”
Moving on to the secret recording with Trump about “our friend David” Pecker.
Since we returned from the lunch recess, Trump has been “alert.”
He’s actually looking at Cohen as he’s testifying — or at least his body and head are pointed in his direction.
Kamala Harris agrees to VP debate with Trump’s running mate
Gustaf Kilander reports:
The Biden-Harris campaign said on Thursday that it accepted an invitation from CBS News to take part in a VP debate either on 23 July or 13 August.
This comes after Mr Biden and Mr Trump agreed to take each other on in two presidential debates on 27 June and 10 September to be hosted by CNN and ABC News.
Read on...
Blanche: You don’t have a specific recollection to a telephone call you had in June of 2016, do you?
Cohen: No sir.
How many are you getting a day?
Many. Hundreds.
Let’s just say 50. … 1,400 a month? … So we’re talking about, conservatively, 14,000 calls a year from 2016 to 2017?
If it was a “private” or “unusual” conversation, he’d use Signal or other encrypted apps.
Blanche notes that there were 95 secretly recorded conversations on his phones.
He notes that it’s not ethical for an attorney to record a client.
Cohen says: “Yes – except of course in a crime-fraud exception.”
A few people in the overflow room literally yelped.
Cohen met Maggie Haberman roughly 20 years ago and had asked her to write positive stories about him.
Blanche asks whether, in exchange, he would give her tips?
“I would use Ms Haberman if the story was something that I believed the New York Times would run. If it wasn’t a Times-style story, I would go to a different outlet.”
Asked if he would record conversations with reporters: “I wouldn’t say a lot.”
Asked how many, he came up with a number very quickly: “40.”
Cohen said he stopped recording conversations in 2016, after the election.
You didn’t record in 2017 or 2018? “I’d have to check.”
Blanche said he will.
“OK.” (said in an almost “okie dokie” kind of way).
Did he ever disclose that?
He doesn’t recall, but notes that “it’s not illegal in New York.” (It’s a so-called one-party state.)
Cohen had a “full rolodex” of reporters, Blanche says.
Cohen agrees.
“You never reached back out to a reporter, ever, without first checking with President Trump?”
“It was my routine to always advise Mr Trump because if the story I was going to put out, 1, it would cause him to blow up at me, and 2, it would be the end of my job.”
“One magazine, one newspaper would pick up the same story, so I would use the same statement over and over and over again. For those I would not tell Mr Trump, I would send to my same list of reporters … We just mimicked the same response to the next magazine, the next newspaper, and so on.”
Blanche is finally correcting that CNN interview / unsealed indictment timeline for the jurors.
He asks Cohen whether by the time he was on CNN the indictment of Trump had been unsealed.
Yes, Cohen responded.
Cohen is now reading through the text messages from Oct 24 with the alleged 14-year-old about the harassing phone calls. The messages are on the screen now and are entered into evidence.
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2024-05-16 18:54:16Z
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