New York prosecutors making an attempt to convict Donald Trump for falsifying enterprise information face a formidable problem: They should persuade a jury to belief the phrase of a convicted perjurer.
The credibility of Michal Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, dominated the fifth week of the previous President’s trial. Cohen’s testimony lies on the coronary heart of the fees that Trump allegedly directed a scheme to cover hush-money funds to porn star Stormy Daniels forward of the 2016 election and lied on enterprise kinds to hide marketing campaign finance violations.
“He is actually the one particular person for the prosecution who can join these dots and weave all that proof collectively,” says Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor.
However Cohen’s not precisely the perfect star witness. In 2018, Cohen pleaded responsible to eight crimes involving the hush-money scheme together with mendacity to Congress and federal investigators. He spent greater than a yr in jail earlier than ending the remainder of his three-year sentence in residence confinement. “It goes with out saying he’s obtained some credibility points,” says Anna Cominsky, a New York Legislation Faculty professor.
Trump’s protection attorneys spent a lot of the week working to discredit Cohen. In his cross examination, lawyer Todd Blanche depicted Cohen as untrustworthy and pushed by vendettas, emphasizing his historical past of mendacity and his frequent anti-Trump tirades on social media. He reminded Cohen that he not too long ago referred to as Trump a “dictator douchebag” who belongs in a cage. “Feels like one thing I might say,” Cohen replied. Blanche additionally steered Cohen had a monetary curiosity in Trump’s demise, pointing to the $3.4 million he made off of two books and to t-shirts and low mugs he was promoting that stated, “Ship Trump to the large home not the White Home.”
It’s the core technique of Trump’s protection: to painting Cohen as a disgruntled former worker whose phrase can’t be trusted. “You’ve obtained to drive in that this man’s not a reputable particular person,” says a supply near Trump. “He lies about every part. He did not simply lie as soon as in his life. He did not simply lie as soon as to Congress. He lied in court docket, he lied to investigators, he lied to his spouse.”
Learn extra: Trump and Cohen Share a Tortured Historical past
Trump’s attorneys underscored a secret recording Cohen took of Trump shortly earlier than the 2016 election, which he later leaked to the Nationwide Enquirer. “He surreptitiously recorded Donald Trump in a cellphone name as blackmail,” the supply says. “That’s his consumer on the time. Utterly unethical.”
The burden on prosecutors is to show past an affordable doubt that Trump ordered Cohen to pay Daniels $130,000 to stop her from going public a few sexual encounter she allegedly had with Trump in 2006. (Trump denies the affair.) Based on Cohen, Trump agreed to repay him a complete of $420,000 in month-to-month installments of $35,000 and document the funds as authorized retainers. Invoices and checks present Trump paid Cohen that quantity in January and February of 2017, every labeled as authorized charges. However solely Cohen can clarify the rationale for these funds.
In court docket, Cohen recalled discussions with Trump about guaranteeing Daniels’ silence after the notorious Entry Hollywood tape emerged of Trump bragging about grabbing ladies by the genitals. “Simply do it,” Cohen says Trump informed him. He additionally claimed that Trump was anxious extra about his electoral prospects than his residence life. In Cohen’s testimony, Trump stated: “Ladies will hate me. Guys might imagine it’s cool, however that is going to be a catastrophe for the marketing campaign.”
To some former prosecutors, Cohen delivered the products essential to convict Trump, who faces 34 felony expenses. “He offered the testimony the prosecution wanted on direct examination,” says Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Legal professional. Mariotti agrees: “These conversations are key to establishing important components of the prosecution’s case.”
In the end, although, a 12-member jury will decide Trump’s destiny. If solely one among them concludes that the prosecution did not show its case, Trump may stroll away.
Blanche’s cross examination of Cohen is ready to renew on Monday, and it’s not but clear whether or not Trump will testify in his personal protection. A supply acquainted with the matter says a choice has not but been made.
The case will bend on whether or not jurors imagine Cohen regardless of his unsavory previous. That’s not a novel complication; prosecutors are sometimes compelled to depend on witnesses with credibility points. However it’s a a lot graver problem within the first ever felony trial in opposition to a former and doubtlessly future President. Says Cominsky: “We by no means know what a jury will do.”