Cohen the blab rat
DA can't stop witness yap
Michael Cohen keeps posting bizarre TikToks — including a livestream that showed Donald Trump behind bars — despite Manhattan prosecutors “repeatedly” pleading with him to stay quiet about the hush money case, it was revealed in court Friday.
The former president’s lawyers griped to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that Cohen should be muzzled — as their client is — after he went live on the social media app Wednesday night wearing an anti-Trump shirt.
“He’s wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of President Trump behind bars,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said about the footage after jurors in the criminal trial were sent home for the day.
“It’s becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness, but this witness has continued to talk,” he said.
Prosecutors admitted that they have pleaded with their star witness to stay quiet about the case.
“We’ve repeatedly, repeatedly asked the witnesses not to do that,” Assistant Attorney District Joshua Steinglass said after Blanche asked the judge to expand the gag order to stop Cohen from speaking out about the charges.
‘From the bench’
“The fact of the matter is, these witnesses are not subject to the gag order and we have no remedy if they engage in those activities,” Steinglass added.
At Trump’s lawyers’ request, Merchan directed prosecutors to “communicate to Mr. Cohen — yet again — that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case” or about Trump.
“That comes from the bench,” the judge added.
The edict comes as Cohen, 57, is expected to take the stand Monday to detail his role in paying — allegedly at Trump’s behest — $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, to silence her story about having sex with the Republican.
‘It’s a disgrace’
Trump, 77, is barred by the court’s gag order from bashing Cohen, and has been fined $10,000 for publicly disparaging his ex-fixer, Daniels and the jury as a whole.
On his way out of court, Trump lamented the gag order that bars him from speaking about witnesses and jurors.
“Everybody can say whatever they want,” he said. “But I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody.
“It’s a disgrace,” he added.