Cohen admits he wants to see Trump convicted
After a lot of wiggling, Michael Cohen admits on the stand that he wants to see Donald Trump convicted in this case.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks:
You also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa, your desire that President Trump get convicted in this case, correct?
“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen said. “Yes, probably.”
Blanche asks: Do you have any doubt? Cohen says no. Blanche asks:
So why did you specifically say yes probably.
Cohen said he wasn’t sure if he used those exact words.
Blanche keeps prodding him on this. “I would like to see accountability … I’m just asking you yes or no, do you want to see President Trump get convicted” in this case, Blanche presses.
Cohen replies: “Sure.”
Key events
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking whether Michael Cohen started speaking to the press extensively when he left prison in 2020 due to Covid.
Did he call it the “Redemption Tour”? Cohen answered in the affirmative.
Later that year, Cohen said, he started the podcast Mea Culpa on September 14, 2020. Blanche asks:
On your first podcast Mea Culpa, you referred to President Trump as a boorish, cartoonish misogynist?
Cohen replied: “Sounds like something I would say.” Cartoon villain? Cohen says:
Sounds like something I would say.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s questioning is trying to establish a timeline between Michael Cohen’s imprisonment, meeting with prosecutors, and his desire to get a lower sentence.
He keeps trying to land some sort of a punch, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
Court is resuming after a short afternoon break.
Sam Levine
As Donald Trump’s legal team walked in to the courtroom, they all took a peek at the sketch artist’s drawing in progress of the cross examination between Todd Blanche and Michael Cohen.
The court is taking a short afternoon break.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked about comments Michael Cohen made in 2019: “You said that President Trump was a conman and that you were ashamed? Cohen replied: “I said that, yes.”
Blanche tried to intimate that Cohen tried to get a brief postponement to surrendering to federal prison so he could testify before Congress. Cohen said it was because he’d had shoulder surgery.
Blanche then asked Cohen about prison. “Otisville is about 90 miles away from here?” Give or take.
Blanche asked whether Cohen had been trying to get his sentence reduced. Cohen said yes.
“Do you know someone named Anthony Scaramucci?” “I do.”
“Did he come to visit you in October 2019?” Cohen said he’d visited him but didn’t recall when.
Cohen shook his head and looked at the jury quickly after that.
Sam Levine
First whiff of hostility in an exchange as to whether Michael Cohen lied or gave inaccurate information about the Trump Tower Moscow trip.
After initially resisting, Cohen concedes it was a lie. Blanche said:
I’m just asking questions Mr Cohen.
Cohen said back:
And I’m trying to give the answers.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking about Michael Cohen’s meeting with the feds where he was asked about Russia and the Steele dossier.
“You told them that you never paid Russians to hack anything, right?” Cohen answers in the affirmative.
I wanted my voice to be reflected that the Steele Dossier …was inaccurate.
Trump attorney tries to undercut Cohen’s credibility
Sam Levine
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is contiuing to hammer away at Michael Cohen’s credibility, painting him as someone who saw a little bit of himself in Donald Trump and was obsessed with the former president.
But Blanche’s approach has been wide ranging, jumping around a bit and difficult to follow at times.
Cohen has continued to remain calm and even-keeled in his testimony.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about telling Hope Hicks in June 2017 that he missed Donald Trump and missed being around people he had worked with for years. Cohen says:
Yes, I did, I had a great relationship with my colleagues. I did say that I missed President Trump. In fact I said the same thing at a rally, I shouldn’t say a rally, a fundraiser in Washington DC.
Blanche moves on to ask about a statement Cohen made in 2017, where he spoke about the fact that it was frustrating or that he was disappointed, that he wasn’t able to spend more time with Trump’s children or President Trump, because of the investigation.
Cohen asked where that statement was made. He says:
I was advised that I could not speak to President Trump, but not to the family.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen if he was lying when he said publicly that Donald Trump was a good man.
Cohen says “that’s how I felt” in 2015. When Blanche presses again, Cohen says he “was expressing my feelings”.
“You also said at that point that you would take a bullet for the president?” Blanche asked, referring to a fall 2017 Vanity Fair profile. Cohen says: “I did, yes.”
Did Cohen say he was offered $10m to write a tell-all book? Blanche asks: “You said in the article that your counter-offer was, ‘how about $100 m?” “You were just going back to them to say there was no number in the world that you’d agree to write about President Trump?” Cohen says that is correct.
“There was no money in the world that would have caused you to write about his family?” Cohen responds saying that sounds correct.
Cohen says he admired Trump and was ‘knee deep into the cult’
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen: “You were actually obsessed with President Trump, weren’t you?” Cohen says:
I don’t know if I would characterize it as obsessed, but I admired him tremendously.
“You publicly said he was a good man?” Yes.
“You said that he’s a man who cares deeply about this country?” Cohen responds: “I said that.”
“That he’s a man who tells it straight?” Cohen said, “Yes, sir.”
“And that all he wants to do is make this country great again?” Cohen responds: “Sounds right.”
Blanche asks: “At that time, you weren’t lying, right?” Cohen says:
At that time, I was knee deep into the cult of Donald Trump, yes.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen if it is fair to say that he admired Donald Trump when he was working for him. Cohen says yes.
Cohen is asked if he read Trump’s book Trump: The Art of the Deal while he worked for him. Cohen says yes, he’s read it twice.
Blanche asks: “You viewed it as a masterpiece, right?” Cohen says: “I viewed it as an excellent book.”
You actually described it as a masterpiece. Yes, a “masterpiece”, Cohen says.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen about how he got involved with the Trumps, and is going back to the co-op board dispute that got him noticed by the family.
The board was trying to remove the Trump name from the building, correct?
Cohen says: “Yes, sir.”
Blanche is asking Cohen about how he made money with his taxi medallions. He said he’d made a lot from them. “You viewed yourself at the time, in the early 2000s, as a bit of a deal-maker?” Yes.
Blanche is asking Cohen about his work for other members of the Trump family. Cohen says:
I don’t believe I ever represented Eric, and I can’t recall whether I ever represented Ivanka.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen when he changed his views about Donald Trump.
“I guess it will be August of 2018,” Cohen testifies.
It was around the time that I had gone on George Stephanopoulos.
Blanche is asking Cohen about all the properties he and his family owned in Trump-branded properties. “Year 2000, we bought as a block,” Cohen says.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen about items that are shown on his website, including a shirt with Trump in an orange jumpsuit.
“If we can blow up the bottom of the coffee mug as well,” Blanche says, expanding a coffee mug that reads:
Send him to the Big House not the White House.
That’s also a reference to President Trump, correct? Cohen says: “Correct.”
If you actually look at that T-shirt, you actually wore that T-shirt on your TikTok on Wednesday night? Cohen says: I did.
You actually were encouraging people to buy it. “At the merch store,” Cohen said.
Cohen admits he wants to see Trump convicted
After a lot of wiggling, Michael Cohen admits on the stand that he wants to see Donald Trump convicted in this case.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks:
You also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa, your desire that President Trump get convicted in this case, correct?
“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen said. “Yes, probably.”
Blanche asks: Do you have any doubt? Cohen says no. Blanche asks:
So why did you specifically say yes probably.
Cohen said he wasn’t sure if he used those exact words.
Blanche keeps prodding him on this. “I would like to see accountability … I’m just asking you yes or no, do you want to see President Trump get convicted” in this case, Blanche presses.
Cohen replies: “Sure.”