"Star witness Michael Cohen directly implicates Trump in testimony at hush money trial.
Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe, Michael Cohen, directly implicated the former president in a hush money scheme Monday, telling jurors that his celebrity client tasked him on several occasions to stifle stories about sex that he feared could torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign."
"Catastrophic" is Cohen's description of the impact Daniels's story could have had on #Trump's 2016 campaign.
Cohen says he spoke directly to Trump about Daniels early on, after learning she was shopping her story. "Boss, can I speak to you," he says he asked him, before telling him what he'd found out.
#MichaelCohen says #Trump told him not only that he knew her, but that he had met her at a golf tournament. Trump, Cohen says, told him that #StormyDaniels liked him & that women preferred him even over football stars, like those who were at the tournament.
Cohen says he asked Trump then whether he had had sex w/ Daniels. He says Trump did not answer him, but called Daniels "a beautiful woman."
Cohen, goes through his texts w/ Davidson & #DylanHoward, editor of The #NationalEnquirer, taking the jurors through material they're familiar w/from when Davidson testified, but it's more corroboration.
The language in these Cohen conversations is coded & very mob-like. The #HushMoney is described as a "business opportunity."
#MichaelCohen says that #Trump, upon learning that #StormyDaniels was shopping her story, was very angry w/Cohen, calling it a "total disaster" & saying "women are going to hate me." Cohen says he responded that he had no control over Daniels's story.
#MichaelCohen said that #Trump told him: "I thought you had this under control."
Cohen says Trump also said of #StormyDaniels's allegation: "Guys may think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."
Cohen says that Trump explicitly told him they needed to do whatever they could to suppress Daniels's story until at least after the #election, because it wouldn't matter at that point.
#MichaelCohen also recalls asking #Trump how #Melania might take it. He describes Trump's reply as follows: "He goes, 'How long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long. He wasn't thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign."
Cohen's description of Trump expressing fear that the #StormyDaniels story could poison him w/female voters is important, but uncorroborated. It's the first time a witness has attributed concerns about the scandal hurting the election directly to Trump.
#MichaelCohen says that #Trump was "trying to push it past the election, which was upcoming." Others have testified that they suspected this was the reason the payment was delayed. Cohen is testifying that the delay came directly from Trump.
Cohen describes the details of the agreement w/ #StormyDaniels. He says that he suggested the clause that would penalize Daniels $1M every time she chose to tell her story. The clause, Cohen says, was meant "to ensure that she didn't speak."
After the lunch break, #Hoffinger, the prosecutor, picks up where she left off, w/ #MichaelCohen on the verge of describing having made the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels. She shows a series of emails w/ #KeithDavidson, who was Daniels's lawyer in 2016.
Davidson, who already testified he was frustrated by a delay in receiving the payment, says in the email that it wasn't necessary for him to speak to Cohen, & that he just wanted to be paid.
Prosecutors show #MichaelCohen the same emails & bank paperwork they showed to Farro on the witness stand. Farro previously testified about Cohen’s urgency to open up an account for Essential Consultants LLC, which was ultimately used to pay the #HushMoney to #StormyDaniels.
We are heading into the part of Cohen’s testimony that is focused on the alleged falsification of business records.
#MichaelCohen, reads emails he exchanged in 2016 w/ #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels's lawyer, says that the correspondence represented that “we were losing control over the settlement of this agreement in order to prevent” Daniels’s story from coming out. He says that loss of control was a “direct result of my failure to wire funds.” Reportedly there’s still anxiety in Cohen’s voice about that “failure,” nearly 8 years later.
#MichaelCohen says that he believed that at this point in the narrative, just weeks before the 2016 election, he could no longer delay making the payment to #StormyDaniels.
Cohen is shown a text message #Melania#Trump sent him on 18 Oct, 2016:
“Good morning Michael, can u pls call DT on his cell. Thanks.”
He replied: “Of course.”
The timestamps on the texts show that he responded to Melania’s message within 30 seconds.
This shows how attentive Cohen was to the #Trumps.
This ties #MichaelCohen to the #Trump campaign & addresses defense’s arg that Cohen was “freelancing,” on his own. Cohen says that he regularly received talking points from the campaign, including before the CNN appearance.
Cohen describes Trump telling him that his friends had advised him to just pay #StormyDaniels the #HushMoney, & reminded him that he was a billionaire. “Just do it,” Cohen recounts Trump saying.
This testimony echoes #HopeHicks's remarks that she didn't think #MichaelCohen would have done this on his own.
The testimony is critical because it links #Trump not only to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels, but also to the scheme to reimburse Cohen for fronting the money — & that is what forms the basis of the falsification of business records charges.
#MichaelCohen says he spoke to #Trump before the LLC creation. “Everything required Mr. Trump's signoff" &, "I wanted the money back."
Cohen testifies about using a home equity line of credit to pay #StormyDaniels.
Cohen discusses a call between him & 2 reps of The #NationalEnquirer, David #Pecker & #DylanHoward. They discussed Daniels's plans to go to The Daily Mail w/her story, & Cohen says that it would be "catastrophic" for the campaign, further turning women against the candidate.
The jury sees a text from Howard to Cohen on 25 Oct, 2016, in which Howard says they need to get the deal done w/ #StormyDaniels or it would look “awfully bad" for everyone. #MichaelCohen testifies that they all understood the effect her story would have on #Trump's campaign if it came out so close to the election & on top of the #AccessHollywood tape. This is important contextual #evidence. The defense is arguing that Trump's motivation was to protect his family.
these texts - combined w/ #MichaelCohen's testimony - indicate that the motivations for the #HushMoney deal were to protect #Trump politically.
After Cohen decided to pay #StormyDaniels himself, we are seeing, he launched into a blitz of phone calls w/ both #KeithDavidson & David #Pecker. This is documentary evidence: & shows, w/ surprising ividness given that it is simply metadata, the frenzy that Cohen was experiencing as he sought to suppress the Daniels story.
#Trump shakes his head & smirks when #MichaelCohen says he didn't mention Trump when setting up the bank account because he wanted to "protect him" from the transaction.
(#HopeHicks testified Trump told her essentially the same thing)
Prosecutors show an email Cohen sent #StormyDaniels’s lawyer, #KeithDavidson, showing that he had acquired the necessary funds.
Cohen says that he laid out the Daniels deal for Trump because "everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off."
#MichaelCohen says he told #Trump “immediately" once he'd resolved the #StormyDaniels#HushMoney deal & says that he told Trump right away because he wanted to get "credit" for resolving the task.
Cohen describes arranging every last detail of the payment to Daniels. Prosecution is doing this to use the incredible amount of documentary evidence they have to corroborate Cohen.
#MichaelCohen has linked #Trump directly to the scheme to reimburse him for the #StormyDaniels#HushMoney payment, which forms the basis for the falsification of business records charges. And he has said that Trump was personally concerned that Daniels's story, if it got out, could affect his chances w/ female voters, which speaks directly to the underlying election #conspiracy statute that elevates those charges from misdemeanors to #felonies.
Prosecution shows that #MichaelCohen had a 5-minute call w/ #Trump on 38 Oct, 2016.
Cohen says that on that call he told Trump that, having signed the NDA, the #StormyDaniels "matter is completely under control & locked down."
This testimony underscores again how important documentary evidence is to this case. Here - how frequently Trump & Cohen spoke - facts seen in phone records.
Prosecution shows voluminous records of phone calls between #MichaelCohen & #HopeHicks after the article about #KarenMcDougal came out. If anything, these records make Hicks look as if she underplayed the amount that she was speaking to Cohen & his involvement in the campaign.
Next is one of Cohen's calls to #KeithDavidson in documentary evidence, (the lawyer for McDougal & #StormyDaniels) after the story about McDougal being paid off was published.
#MichaelCohen says that he suspected Davidson or people in his camp of leaking & that he was very angry. He also says that #Trump was angry.
This is a vivid picture - backed by numerous texts & calls — of what was happening inside the Trump campaign in the final 2 weeks of the 2016 campaign. Trump's inner circle was spending its time not thinking about an ad strategy for swing states but how to maintain the silence of Playboy Playmate #KarenMcDougal & porn star #StormyDaniels.
When Hicks testified, she acknowledged that it was ironic to be testifying about this exchange she had w/ Cohen, which focused on whether or not the McDougal story was being picked up by other news outlets, at a literal criminal trial that stemmed from the publication of this story & the one about #StormyDaniels.