Trump’s Ex-Fixer Michael Cohen Poised to Be Key Witness in Legal Case

By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former lawyer for Donald Trump who as soon as stated he would do something to guard the previous U.S. president is now poised to function a key witness within the legal trial of his longtime boss.

Michael Cohen, who grew to become a prime govt at Trump’s actual property firm after which his private lawyer, testified twice earlier than the Manhattan grand jury that voted on Thursday to indict Trump following an investigation right into a hush fee to porn star Stormy Daniels earlier than the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Cohen has stated that Trump directed him to pay Daniels $130,000 to maintain her from talking a couple of sexual encounter she has stated she had with Trump in 2006, which means he’ll doubtless be a distinguished witness if the case goes to trial.

Trump, who has launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, has denied having had such an encounter with Daniels, whose actual title is Stephanie Clifford, and stated he didn’t direct Cohen. Trump has referred to as Cohen a “serial liar” and “convicted felon.”

After it was disclosed on Thursday that Trump was indicted, the previous president stated he was “utterly harmless” and referred to as the case “political persecution and election interference.” The precise prices haven’t but been made public.

Cohen’s potential position as a star witness in opposition to Trump marks the end result of his 15-year arc from being the businessman-turned-politician’s loyal “fixer” to an outspoken antagonist.

“I’ll do something to guard Mr. Trump,” Cohen instructed Fox Information in 2017.

Cohen’s stance had modified dramatically by 2019, when he testified earlier than a U.S. congressional committee and stated, “I’m ashamed as a result of I do know what Mr. Trump is. He’s a racist. He’s a conman. He’s a cheat.”

On Friday, after Trump’s indictment, Cohen stated his objective in cooperating with authorities was to “converse fact to energy.”

“I made a decision that I used to be not going to permit historical past to recollect me because the villain to his story,” Cohen instructed Reuters in an interview. “If talking fact to energy makes me Donald’s arch-nemesis, so be it.”

Cohen was employed because the Trump Group’s govt vice chairman and particular counsel in 2007. Earlier than that, the Lengthy Island native and son of a Holocaust survivor labored as a malpractice lawyer and owned a fleet of yellow taxis.

Cohen stated within the interview he was employed after he had orchestrated the ouster of the board of administrators of a condominium by which he owned an residence, a board that was making an attempt to take away Trump’s title from the constructing’s exterior.

Cohen later suggested Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign and, as his private lawyer, remained near Trump as soon as he grew to become president, although he didn’t have an official job on the White Home.

In 2018, after the hush cash fee to Daniels got here to gentle, Cohen initially stated he paid together with his personal cash and that neither the Trump marketing campaign nor the Trump Group reimbursed him.

He later pleaded responsible to a federal marketing campaign finance regulation violation for paying Daniels, after which testified in Congress that Trump instructed him to make the fee. He stated he was reimbursed in installments, and displayed a replica of a $35,000 examine from Trump’s private checking account.

Cohen was sentenced to a few years in jail for making unlawfully extreme marketing campaign contributions and different crimes, together with dishonest on his private taxes and mendacity beneath oath to Congress about when the Trump Group stopped engaged on a proposed constructing mission in Russia. Cohen served greater than a yr earlier than being launched.

Counting on Cohen’s testimony presents dangers for Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, given the disbarred lawyer’s historical past of false statements and shifting accounts of the fee to Daniels. That would present fertile floor for Trump’s protection attorneys throughout cross-examination at trial.

Cohen, who’s married and has two youngsters, has stated he has taken duty for his wrongdoing. He has additionally stated that a lot of his legal conduct – together with the mislead Congress and the Daniels fee – arose out of his blind loyalty to Trump.

On Friday, Cohen instructed Reuters he anticipated Trump and his allies to assault him.

“It is all a part of the playbook,” Cohen stated.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York; Modifying by Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.