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1/… First, via Lawrence O'Donnell:
J.D. Vance was on the phone the entire time. He wasn’t taking in a word of testimony. Tuberville, to his credit, looking straight ahead, taking it all in as best he can, whatever sense he can make of it
One perk of the overflow room: ironically, I now have a much, much better view of Trump from over here.
👉🏼Other reporters told me that he kept his eyes closed basically for the duration of Cohen's testimony so far.
I'll be watching to see if that continues.
"Good afternoon," Cohen says a bit bewildered at first, then he regains his composure.
Q: What was happening at this time?
A: Continue to delay execution of the documents, execution funding.
👉🏼In this particular case, I used the holiday—Yom Kippur—as a way to delay it, until after the election.
Q: Why then?
👉🏼A: Because after the election it wouldn't matter.
At the time, Cohen says Trump was traveling a lot with his own private plane, though sometimes he was in the office. Cohen spoke to him in person when possible, other times by telephone.
We scroll back up to the top of the exhibit, the email from Olivia Cassin to Gary Farro: "Need an account opened or ike Cohen immediately. He wants no address on he checks Calling you now to discuss."
Cohen has his reading glasses back on—they sit low on the bridge of his nose, and he looks over the top of them at Hoffinger when he answers her questions in his emphatic, literal Long Island accent.
Q: Were you familiar with the paperwork at First Republic Bank, and had you had other accounts there?
A: Yes. Multiple.
Bower:
Hoffinger displays emails to and from Gary Farro--Cohen's banker at First Republic. It's dated mid-October 2016. Cohen was trying to set up an LLC for a company called Resolutions Consultants. He was doing what he thought needed to be done to make the payment, he says.
The purpose of Resolution Consultants, LLC, per the Delaware paperwork: "Michael Cohen provides individuals and businesses advice on strategy, PR, marketing, best practices and procedures, etc"
Q: Were the descriptions accurate at the time?
A: No
Q: Why didn't you give true reasons on the paperwork?
👉🏼A: I'm not sure they would've opened it if it stated "To pay off"—he stops and laughs at himself—"an adult film star for a nondisclosure agreement."
Cohen says it "dawned on" him that Resolution Consultants was already the name of a company of a friend of his, who probably wouldn't appreciate the redundancy. So he changed it to: Essential Consultants LLC.
We see emails btwn Davidson and Cohen about the delay, and
👉🏼Cohen says he intended to keep delaying at Trump's behest.
Finally we see the familiar 10/17/16 email from Davidson that says his client—Daniels—is released from the agreement. Cohen says it meant: "We were losing control over the settlement of this agreement in order to prevent this story from coming out."
Texts now, same day, btwn Cohen and Howard
MC: Call me
MC: Well???
[This was obviously incredibly stressful and incredibly important, Cohen adds]
DH: Not taking my calls
MC: You're kidding
MC: Who are you trying to reach
DH: The agent
Cohen says he was told the Daniels story would end up in the Daily mail.
We see a call log: Cohen called Trump 10/17/16 "in order to advise him of this situation, that bc I didn't forward the funds, she now declared the agreement void, and we would not be in a position to delay post election which is what he wanted me to do." Cohen got his voicemail.
Prosecutor: What is your reply to Keith Davidon here?
Cohen: I told him the office was closed for Yom Kippur... I was trying to delay until after the election, when it wouldn't matter.
Prosecutor: What was Mr. Trump doing?
Cohen: Campaigning on his private plane
Cohen: Then Dylan Howard told me that Keith Davidson had stopped taking his calls.
Prosecutor: Did you call Mr. Trump?
Cohen: I did, to tell him that due to my failure to wire funds, she was going to the Daily Mail.
Prosecutor: But the call was only 8 second.
Cohen: I received a voice mail. Oh, sorry, I left a voicemail. Then I cancelled Resolution and set up Essential Consultants LLC.
Prosecutor: Then what?
Cohen describes his appearance on Wolf Blitzer: "I advocated for Mr. Trump in the best light possible" and said I have never seen him act that way towards women.
He felt additional pressure to close the Daniels deal as a result.
We're still on 10/18/16, when Cohen decided to go on Wolf Blitzer to respond to questions about Trump's behavior with women.
Q: Did you steer the conversation as best you could to his presidential policies?
Objection—sustained.
Q: What did you talk about in the interview?
A: I advocated for Mr Trump in the best light possible...I wanted to change the direction of the comments.
Q: What if any pressure did you feel to close the Daniels story?
A: With the Daily Mail, they were anxious to sell the story...🙄Trump stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people, that it's $130k, you're a billionaire, just pay it
...there's no reason to delay, just do it, and he told me, "Just do it."
So, Cohen discussed different options with Weisselberg—Cohen had the company all set up, we just need to fund it. We need to do it immediately, Cohen says he told Weisselberg.
Cohen and Weisselberg discussed a few options:👉🏼 if I knew anyone who wanted to purchase a golf membership at one of Trump's courses, or if someone was having a wedding or bar mitzvah and wanted to pay it then use it as credit for the event—but each entity had a Trump name attached👈🏼
Q: Did you discuss with Weisselberg whether he could pay it?
Objection—overruled.
A: I did. I said you're the CFO, making seven figures, why don't you pay it. But he said to me he wasn't in a financial position to do it (four grandkids at prep school, etc).
This is a constant trick with Trump that he trains down the line, until eventually it's the valet making the car payments of everyone in the lot and getting an IOU with each handshake.
How he gets the world to pay his notes all the damn time is flabberhoozling to degrees that make me queasy to consider. 🤯
Cohen then says that Weisselberg told him, 👉🏼don't worry about it, we'll make sure you get paid back.
Cohen says that he and AW 👉🏼spoke to Trump, expressed to him that Cohen would front the money, "for which he was appreciative. He said 'Good, good,'" and stated to him, you'll ge the money back.👈🏼
"I was doing everything I could and more in order to protect my boss," Cohen says.
27/ [Me: I love every bit of color commenting on these]
McB:
Another log, more calls, but this time between Cohen and Schiller, whom Cohen called on 10/25/16 to speak to Trump, "to discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it," Cohen says,👉🏼 taking off his reading glasses.
Q: What was the plan for funding Essential Consultants account to transfer money to Davidson?
A: I had a home equity line of credit on my apartment, and that account was paperless. I elected to use money bc my wife as the CEO of the household, would not understand if there was $130k missing from the joint bank account. She would ask me, and I clearly could not tell her, which would've been a problem for me.
McB: Makes sense—he used a home equity loan to avoid domestic discord.
Cohen says he told Pecker and Howard in a call that further delaying payment "will be catastrophic to the campaign—this 👉🏼will further isolate women from the candidate,"👈🏼 and figured why not ask Pecker to pay.
Q: What'd he say?
A: Not a chance. (a few laughs from the press)
@GottaLaff NFL, PSA. Encrypted doesn’t mean 100% protection. It still has to be decrypted to be read (in end-to-end encryption, this usually means on the end-participants sides). So, on their devices, the contents of the message can still be read as plaintext (or, in this case, screenshotted). Encryption does provide a lot of protection, especially from Man-In-The-Middle-type attacks (including the provider, Signal in this case), but there’s still the other party as a “vulnerability.”
In case anyone's wondering, Signal (and other end-to-end encrypted apps) certainly do use encryption to protect messages from interception. But if an attacker gains access to a physical phone with the messages stored locally? Not so much. And prosecutors subpoenaed Cohen's phone, giving them access.
Similarly, lots of Jan6 participants were ratted out by 3rd party group chat participants, even though everything was encrypted end-to-end.
Now back to another call log (AT&T, not Signal), calls between Cohen and Davidson—many calls in quick succession again, but these were all intentional: in order to keep resolving the Stormy Daniels matter.
Back to the 10/25/16 call from Cohen to Weisselberg for 3m24s, now we get the substance, from Cohen:
"In order to discuss the finalization of the funding—the particulars regarding the execution of the nondisclosure."
😂Trump is awake—wide awake in fact, in deep discussion w Bove. But his son Eric, seated in the first row of the gallery behind him, is taking a page out of his father's book and closing his eyes.
On courtroom eye closures at least, the apple doesn't fall far it seems😂
Q: Would you have made that payment to Stormy Daniels without getting a sign off from Mr Trump?
A: No.
Q: Why?
💥👉🏼A: Because everything required a sign off from Mr Trump—but on top of that, I wanted the money back.
We dive back into documents, now a Know Your Customer form from First Republic Bank, purpose stated that: Michael Cohen is opening EC LLC as a real estate consulting company to collect fees for investment consultanting [sic] work he does for real estate deals
If anyone would like to retain me for consultanting services, I assure you my rates are fair, and my work of the utmost quality.
My company is called Essential Consultanting, LLC.
This is a great reminder that when people simply tell you they "work in consulting," or that they're just "a consultant," they're telling you, well, basically nothing.
We're following the paper trail after the funds were secured and transferred, not to People's 284.
Katie's Sidebar:
For those of you asking: Michael Cohen has been calm, thorough, detailed, and credible all day long. He has not rushed his testimony and has been very clear while answering questions.
Cohen has been walking the jury through several exhibits that were already entered into evidence, adding more color to prior testimony provided by other witnesses. Thus far, excepting a few minor inconsistences, the collective testimony has been consistent.
Cohen has also been addressing the prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, by "ma'am" each and every time he has responded to her questions. He has presented with humility and with control.
Still following the breadcrumbs...now People's 168:
W/r/t People's 168, Cohen says that the purpose of the email was that Pecker (via his proxy Howard) wanted to ensure Mr Trump knew (via Trump's proxy Cohen) how much time they invested to make this happen for Trump's benefit.
Q: On 10/27/16, did you wire $130k payment to Davidson?
A: To his attorney-client trust account yes.
Q: What's the stated purpose on the wire?
A: Retainer
Q: Was that truthful?
A: No ma'am. It was in order to pay Stormy Daniels to execute the NDA and to obtain the story.
After the wire, Cohen says that he received the final signed NDA and side letter agreement, with the same general terms sketched out.
Cohen says he let Trump know immediately for two reasons: 1) let him know it's done and 2) to take credit for myself—because this was important.
We see the NDA, and it's pseudonyms all the way down: above DD (for David Dennison aka Trump) we see the intials EC (for Essential Consultants aka Michael Cohen).
Or rather, as Cohen just pronounced it, "pseudo-names."🤭
You spoke to Trump about finalizing this agreement? Hoffinger asks, as she pulls up another call log—zeroing in on a call from Cohen to Trump on 10/28/16 (the same day Cohen signed the NDA and side letter agreement) at 11:48 a.m. for 5m16s to tell him it was all finalized.
We inch closer to the election, and stop on 11/4/16 when the WSJ published article about the NDA with McDougal.
Cohen says he heard the WSJ article was coming out, and that Daniels may be mentioned. Cohen contacted Davidson, Hope Hicks, and Pecker. Why? "So that we can all coalesce around this issue in an attempt to quell the potential effects that would result from an article like this."
More call logs, calls between Cohen and Hicks, which Cohen says were to get their hands around the situation.
👉🏼"Because it was days before the election," he adds.
Cohen discussed whether McD was "under control." He wanted to make sure she wasn't "going rogue." "I wanted to ensure Mr. Trump was safe." Cohen says he was angry.
Blanche: Object, leading the witness. Sustained.
Hoffinger has been leading the witness quite a bit here -- perhaps in the hopes that Cohen won't go off script. But I'm not sure that necessary. Thus far, he's been subdued, collected, and concise on the stand.
It looks like Cohen wanted to include a reference to the "Clinton machine" to add a little flair.
But that's just my take.
11/4/16 Calls between Davidson and Cohen were 99% about McDougal, and an angry Cohen wanted to impart: "That she was also under control. That nobody is going rogue here."
To Howard, Cohen says he said "in a rather angry manner that [McDougal] is now part of your team, so you need to get ahold of this and start issuing denials.
The poor guy must not have put his phone down that whole day. More calls later that evening, between Cohen and Trump (using Keith Schiller's phone).
This is quite the impressive battery life for an iPhone 6 or 7.
At 3:34 p.m., Trump and his team stroll back in, his entourage having thinned out slightly since this morning.
The prosecution is back as well.
Cohen begins to take his seat when we hear Merchan say, "Let's get the jury please," & video feed cuts out.
We left off on the day after the WSJ article came out, and Cohen's texts with Hope Hicks: People's 259 11/5/16
MC: So far I see only 6 stories.
MC: Getting little to no traction
HH: Same
HH: Keep praying!! It's working!
MC to HH 11/5/16: Even CNN not talking about it. No one believes it and if necessary, I have a statement by Storm [sic] denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars statement. I wouldn't use it now or even discuss with him as no one is talking about this or cares!
Q: A few days later, did Mr Trump win the election?
A: Yes
Q: After he won, was there going to be a continuing role for you in the Trump Org?
A: No, because my service would no longer be necessary, bc I was special counsel to Trump, and he was now president-elect.
Q: Were there some discussions about potential roles for you in the WH?
A: Yes, Reince Priebus offered Cohen a role as assistant general counsel (which Cohen rejected).
Q: Did anyone offer you chief of staff?
A: No
Q: Were you disappointed for not being offered chief of staff?
A: Yes. I didn't want the role, I didn't believe it was right for me, I didn't even believe I was competent to be chief of staff, I just wanted my name to be considered—it was more about my ego than anything.
Cohen says he instead pitched the title "personal attorney to the president," because "he would need it bc there were still outstanding matters we were dealing with, and every president has a personal attorney." It was to "continue to protect him."
I also had another thought in mind, which was: consulting. Because it offered him the opportunity to stay in New York "with my son, my daughter, my wife. None of them wanted to go to DC."
Cohen came dangerously close to Groucho Marx when he basically said he would never want to belong to a White House that would have him as a chief of staff.
Cohen says he made a "formal pitch" about the personal attorney role with the aid of an attorney, and they "sat with the president-elect at the time for about an hour," and went through the importance of having a personal attorney for his protection, and why Cohen fit that role.
Cohen says they didn't discuss compensation, because he didn't expect to be compensated. The compensation would come from the consulting jobs Cohen would get as a result of being named "personal attorney to the president."
Hoffinger offers into evidence a series of text messages between Cohen and his daughter. "My daughter and I are very close," Cohen says. She was concerned that he was upset about not being considered for the role of Chief of Staff.
Hoffinger shows Cohen Peoples 258, texts between Cohen and his daughter, about the position and the fact that he was not being considered for chief of staff.
Cohen sums up the texts: My daughter and I are very close, we're very much connected, and she was concerned that I was upset about not getting the role, but I explained to her there are so many opportunities.
Asking her father whether he would have a role in government, Cohen answered no — and that it was a "hybrid," Cohen says.
In December 2016, Cohen was still at the Trump Org, and he said it was customary for him to get an end-of-year bonus.
Rhona Graff would walk around with a Christmas card from Trump, with a Trump inside [sic], and that's how employees would learn their bonus, Cohen says.
Hoffinger turns to Cohen's year-end bonus at the Trump Org that year. It was customary, he says, for employees to receive bonuses at the end of the year.
For December 2016, Cohen says his bonus was cut by two-thirds. He was "angry, very angry."
Cohen had not yet been paid back for the Stormy Daniels payment yet either. It was "insulting" after everything he had done for Trump.
"I actually had to do a double take" when I saw the bonus, Cohen testifies.
When she asked whether those opportunities would be in government, Cohen says he explained to his daughter that it would be "hybrid," and that, "I'd still be able to monetize my relationship and my ability with these various companies"
Q: Was it customary for employees to get an end of year bonus?
A: It was for me.
Q: How wd you find out what your bonus would be?
A: After Trump left for MAL for the year, Rhona wd walk around w a Christmas card signed by Trump & others, in it would be a check
Q: & in Dec 2016, how did you find out?
A: Same way, Rhona and the Christmas card, and Trump had already taken flight for Florida.
Q: How did you feel about your bonus then?
A: Angry—beyond angry.
Q: Why
A: Cut my bonus by 2/3
Q: Had he reimbursed you yet?
A: No..."I was truly insulted, personally hurt by it, didn't understand it, made no sense, after all I had gone through in terms of the campaign as well as things in the Trump Org and laying out $130, to protect him. It was insulting that the gratitude shown back to me was to cut bonus."
Cohen says Weisselberg said take it easy, go and take your vacation, relax, you know we're going to make this right, we'll take care of you, that kinda thing.
Cohen thinks his anger impacted Weisselberg.
"I was, even for myself, unusually angry," Cohen says, winning some chuckles from the press in the overflow room.
After a mostly even-keeled testimony all day, his emotion, his deep hurt and betrayal, all these years later, is still very apparent.
Q: Did you go away with your family on holiday? (Yes) Did Trump call you on vacation?
A: Yes, he said hope you're enjoying your holiday, don't worry about that other thing, I'm going to take care of it when we get back. (which Cohen understood to be the 2/3 diminution of bonus)
Now post-holiday, a meeting Jan 2017 btwn Cohen and Weisselberg in which Cohen asked about the reimbursement: "He said to me, let's sit down, let's do it" and asked Cohen to bring him a copy of the statement showing the $130k transfer from First Republic Bank.
Cohen walks us through People's 35—the bank statement and handwritten notes.
Q: Whose handwriting is bottom-right? A: Mine.
Q: Bottom-left? A: Weisselberg's.
Klasfeld:
Ex-Trump Org controller Jeff McConney also identified Weisselberg's handwriting on the reimbursement system earlier.
Q: What did Weisselberg tell you to do in terms of totaling monies owed to Red Finch and what you paid out to Daniels' lawyer?
A: He told me to add up the 130 with the 50 to Red Finch, total it to 180, then he told me what he was going to do—"gross it up"...
...because I was taking it as income, and in order to get back the 180, you needed "double it for tax purposes."
Q: Did he tell you he wanted to gross up that number from 180 to 360, and why?
A: Yes, bc otherwise you wouldn't get back your 180, it would be obviously less.
Q: For Trump Org, did you ever pay out expenses for business trip, things like that?
Yes, Cohen says, but those were usually 1 for 1, not grossed up, but that it was Weisselberg's suggestion that he should take this as income, not as a reimbursement.
(Cohen also explains the $50k to Red Finch for services from two years prior—Trump had decided not to pay Red Finch the money they were owed "because he didn't feel that he had gotten the benefit of what he wanted which dealt with the ranking.")
So, Cohen says he ended up paying out money to Red Finch himself—Cohen had known the CEO of Red Finch and expressed to him that this wasn't fair.
It seems that while juggling, Cohen still had a free hand to skim off the top. Though he got $50k for Red Finch, he says he ended up keeping some for himself—not all went to Red Finch.
So that's the 360k, Cohen explains, plus 60k for the additional bonus, et voilà, the magic number of $420,000, all there in Weisselberg's chicken scratch.
He's not a CPA, he's been Trump's CFO for well over 4 decades, Cohen says of Weisselberg.
Asked about the ramifications for the reimbursements, Cohen says he didn't know or care about the tax implications. He simply wanted to get his money back, he says.
Q: Where did you go with Weisselberg after this meeting
A: We went to Mr Trump's office to speak to him about this (right before Trump left for inauguration)
Q: What happened then?
A: During the conversation Allen said to me, what we're going to do is pay you over 12 months
Cohen says all this happened—a discussion about paying Cohen's $420k out over 12 mos—in Trump's office, w Trump, & Weisselberg had the bank statement w his handwritten notes in hand
Either in this meeting, or shortly after, Cohen says Trump offered the personal attorney position.
Q: Was the $420k payment for future legal services?
A: That was what it was designed to be.
Q: But what was it actually?
👉🏼A: Reimbursement of the Stormy Daniels' payment, the bonus and Red Finch money.
In People's 250, Cohen spills the beans in a text to Gene Freidman (Yellow Cab medallion operator): Thank you. I leave tomorrow for D.C. And just between us, I will be personal counsel to Pres Trump
Did Weisselberg ever give you a copy of the handwritten document setting out the payment scheme? No
It was during this meeting or shortly thereafter, Cohen says, that he was offered the title of personal attorney for the president. On Jan. 18, he went on Hannity's show and announced his new title.
Re: payment, Cohen says Weisselberg told him it would start in Feb and to "just mark down legal services rendered, pursuant to the agreement, and we'll get you a check out"
Q: Did you talk to Trump about compensation for legal work you would do for him in his new role?
A: No
Q: How were you going to be compensated for the new role?
A: By monetizing the role of personal attorney and engaging in consulting
Q: Did you ever put together a retainer for your work with Trump?
A: No ma'am, because there wasn't going to be compensation
Cohen reiterates again that the $420k was not intended for future legal work
and that's it, Justice Merchan stops it right there, and gives his usual instructions to the jury.
In perhaps the most critical testimony of the day, Cohen said that during a meeting in Trump Tower in mid-January 2017, Trump personally participated in and approved a plan to reimburse Cohen for the money he paid to Stormy Daniels.
Cohen testified that he and Allen Weisselberg met with Trump in his office, where Weisselberg described the repayment plan.
Hoffinger asked if Weisselberg showed Trump a handwritten document laying out the proposed repayment plan. “Yes,” Cohen replied.
Cohen takes a sip of water, then another, then downs the cup entirely. He looks relieved.
Before today, people warned that Cohen would be unpredictable, unstable, angry on the stand. But today, for the most part, he was slow and steady, even calm at times.
But remember the Rule of Witnesses:
👉🏼Never pass judgment on a witness before the cross.
@GottaLaff
Expect the cross to be combative...fingers crossed Cohen doesn't take the bait and comes up with a rote response such as, "I went to prison for him and you question my loyalty?"
Cohen would have to be the biggest moron...next to Trump...on the planet to take the bait on what EVERYONE knows is coming. He's been heavily coached on this, so nothing should come as a surprise to him. Every lawyer preparing a client before testifying tells them to just keep the answers to "yes" or "no".
@Wileymiller But total lack of discipline on social media when he needed to STFU before appearing as a witness, which got him a warning from the judge. I worry that he's not as disciplined as he appeared to be today. @darthstar
Oh, I know. It was driving me crazy that wouldn't knock off talking about Trump before the trial. So, yeah, there's still a problem that his ego will make him go off the rails, despite all the coaching and admonitions he's gotten.
@Wileymiller Exactly what I'm talking about yes. Or his temper. We'll see soon enough. But honestly, it may not matter because he's got corroboration up the wazoo, so his demeanor won't change the facts.
@darthstar@Wileymiller They should just give him dried macaroni, glitter, construction paper, and paste. Then when he's done playing, he can eat the paste.
It's going to drive Trump fuckin' nuts, watching Cohen calmly responding to the cross attempts at drawing him out. Just as it did with Stormy calmly denying the accusations they threw at her for three days.
@Wileymiller (we) lawyers are some of the worst witnesses I've ever witnessed (pun intended) testifying. Because a lawyer knows the intent behind the question, and the consequence of some answer, "yes" or "no" are rarely the answer that comes out of their mouths. Sometimes we can hear "I know where you are going with that line of questioning, and no, it was not like that at all", other times we hear something histrionic like "yes, it was like that BUT X, Y AND Z, SO S, T, U" as if the lawyer never told their clients to stick to short, concise answers. Timed grenades, some call them where I practice. @darthstar@GottaLaff Thank your for your work, if it weren't for you I wouldn't have the opportunity to follow this trial with all the sources you share.
NFL - But this is the way Trump works. To properly reward Cohen would be to acknowledge him, and in Trump's orbit there is no room for credit for anyone but Trump.
Pro-tip: If you get hit on and questioned by a stranger or are on a first date and you don’t want to give info on your real job to them, “consultant for the federal government” works every single time.
So interesting that no matter how much trouble Trump is in, he is always trying to stiff someone. Even his closest associates. But Weisselberg knows this, and there is no way he's going fall for it.
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