Donald Trump was furious with Michael Cohen and feared a “disaster” for his 2016 presidential campaign when his then-term in office revealed that Stormy Daniels was preparing to share her story about having sex with him in 2006.
“I thought you had everything under control. I thought you took care of that,” Cohen said from the witness stand at the former president’s secret trial on Monday, recalling Mr. Trump’s furious reaction to news that the star’s allegations adult cinema had resurfaced.
” Take care of it. There’s a lot going on in the campaign at that time. Take care of it,” Mr. Trump said, according to Cohen. “It’s a disaster. It’s a total disaster. Women are going to hate me. It’s really a disaster. Women are going to hate me. The guys will think it’s cool, but it’s a disaster for the campaign.
Mr. Trump told him to “push back” Election Day, according to Cohen.
“If I win, it won’t matter.”
Mr. Trump “wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Cohen said. “It was all about the campaign.”
Cohen is among the final witnesses in the former president’s historic criminal trial, where he is accused of hiding secret payments for the adult film as legal fees.
Prosecutors say those checks to Cohen — who bought the rights to Ms. Daniels’ story about her sexual encounters with Mr. Trump for $130,000 — rewarded his efforts to suppress politically compromising stories over the weeks criticism leading up to the 2016 elections.
Before launching his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump prepared Cohen for the likelihood of damaging articles about his relationships with women that could derail his White House bid, according to the former lawyer’s testimony.
“You know, when this comes out — that is, the announcement — just prepare yourself that there are going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Cohen said, remembering what his former boss told him in 2015.
Trump wanted to rely on the “power” of the tabloid giant National investigator and his placement in “supermarkets and bodegas” to publish “positive stories” about him and “negative stories” about his rivals, according to Cohen.
During a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015, two months after the launch of his campaign. Mr. Trump met with Cohen and tabloid editor David Pecker, who previously said he was committed to being the “eyes and ears” of the campaign.
“What he said was that he could keep tabs on anything negative about Mr. Trump and that he would be able to help us know in advance what was going to happen to us. happen to prevent this from coming to light,” according to Cohen.
The resulting “catch and kill” plan helped bury a false story about an alleged love child with a Trump Tower maid, as well as a story about a former Playboy model who alleged a months-long affair with Mr. Trump years earlier.
Mr. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty.
As a lawyer for the Trump Organization and a “surrogate” for his campaign, Cohen allegedly “lies” and “bullies” on behalf of Mr. Trump.
“I did it,” he testified Monday. “If it was necessary to accomplish a task.”
Asked if he agreed that the term “restorative” accurately described his work, Cohen replied, “It’s fair.”
Testimony, recordings, emails and text messages shared with jurors show Cohen negotiating secret deals to secure rights to stories of Mr. Trump’s alleged affairs.
In Mr. Trump’s criminal trial, Cohen is expected to connect the dots in the prosecution’s narrative: It was Cohen who negotiated a deal for Ms. Daniels’ silence, it was Cohen who sent her $130,000, and it was Cohen who sent Mr. Trump invoices. all this under his direction.
Cohen had already reunited with his former boss in a courtroom down the street from the criminal courthouse in downtown Manhattan.
Last year, he was a key witness in the former president’s civil fraud trial, where Mr. Trump glared from the defense table and fumed in the hallway and on social media as Cohen compared him to a “mafia boss” who asked him to falsely inflate. his net worth and assets.
It was Cohen’s explosive testimony before Congress that shed light on Mr. Trump’s alleged fraud, inspiring several criminal and civil investigations targeting the former president. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations and tax charges that included the “catch and kill” scheme at the center of the Manhattan case.
In the years since its fallout, Cohen has been imprisoned, Mr. Trump has run for office, lost and been criminally charged four times in four separate jurisdictions, with a mountain of litigation threatening his business and campaign. 2024.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers are expected to spark furious cross-examination when they take on Cohen, a frequent subject of violations of the silence order threatening Mr. Trump’s witnesses.
Last week, after threatening Mr. Trump with prison for any future violations of the silence order, New York Judge Juan Merchan also asked prosecutors to maintain control over Cohen, who uses his social media platforms and his podcasts to attack his former boss, now desperate to bury the affair. credibility of a former ally who could now have him convicted.
This is a developing story
yahoo
