Cohen says he stole from Trump company
Prosecution rests its case; defense impugns witness
NEW YORK − Theft, accusations of perjury and clearing the courtroom: Monday was a dramatic day in former President Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial in Manhattan.
The prosecution rested, giving the defense its last chance to undermine the prosecution’s key witness, Michael Cohen.
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche got Cohen to readily admit that he stole from the Trump Organization. After the prosecution batted cleanup, the defense called lawyer Robert Costello – and in a startling moment, Judge Juan Merchan cleared the benches: He kicked out the jury and reporters to chastise Costello, an experienced former federal prosecutor, over his behavior on the stand.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The records are tied to a series of payments to Cohen that prosecutors allege were reimbursements for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her story from repelling voters. It is the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Cohen delivered a major point for the prosecution last week, telling jurors that Trump approved first the Daniels payment, then a scheme to misrepresent his reimbursement to Cohen.
Over about 16 hours of cross-examination, Blanche worked to plant a key doubt in jurors’ minds. Cohen was convicted and disbarred for lying to Congress and the IRS. Can they trust that he is telling the truth now?
Hence Costello – who said Cohen lied on the stand in this trial.
Costello said that Cohen previously told him, “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.” And that Cohen told him “numerous times” that he did this on his own – an apparent reference to the hush money deals surrounding Trump.
Cohen had testified earlier that Costello served as an intermediary between him and Trump after the FBI raided Cohen’s home as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. He said he never told Costello the truth about Trump’s involvement in hush money payments because he thought Costello would tattle to Trump.
Costello’s testimony would have been startling enough. But then he began commenting from the witness box on prosecution objections to his testimony, muttering “jeez” and telling the court stenographer to “strike that.”
Merchan excused the jurors, then scolded the witness on decorum. “If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes,” the judge said.
“Do you understand that?” Merchan asked Costello, and then, “Are you staring me down right now?”
He then ordered the courtroom cleared of reporters, seemingly so he could dress down Costello in private.
Stealing as ‘self-help’
In all, it was a powerful day for the defense – enough so that prosecutor Susan Hoffinger started her requestioning of Cohen by reminding jurors that Trump, not Cohen, was on trial.
Blanche, the defense lawyer, jumped from topic to topic Monday morning, trying to paint Cohen in a bad light. He asked Cohen about cashing in, first on his position as the president’s personal attorney, then on his status as a latebreaking Trump hater.
And then the bombshell: Cohen admitted to stealing from the Trump Organization.
The payments to Cohen in 2017 totaled $420,000. That amount, he previously testified, covered the $130,000 to Daniels and $50,000 for campaign-related “tech services” from a company called RedFinch. Both the $130,000 and $50,000 figures were doubled to account for taxes, according to Cohen, and he was paid a $60,000 bonus.
Blanche zeroed in on the “tech services” payment. Cohen paid RedFinch only $20,000, which he delivered in cash in a brown paper bag, he said. But he asked to be reimbursed for $50,000.
“You stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asked.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen said. Blanche then pointed out that Cohen stole $60,000, not just $30,000, because the reimbursement payment was doubled.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen said. He told prosecutors about that, he confirmed.
“Did you ever have to plead guilty to larceny?” Blanche asked.
“No, sir,” Cohen said calmly. Under questioning by prosecutors, Cohen said he stole the money because he was steamed about Trump cutting his 2016 bonus: “I just felt it was almost like self-help.”
Countering the cross
The defense landed one other body blow: Last week, Blanche raised doubt about whether Trump really did OK the Daniels payment in a phone call Oct. 24, 2016, as Cohen claimed.
He showed the jury a text exchange before the call in which Cohen told Trump’s bodyguard that he wanted to discuss harassing phone calls from a 14year-old.
Cohen responded that the bodyguard handed his phone to Trump, and they discussed both matters.
The prosecution was so eager to limit the damage that it was ready to delay resting its case to have C-SPAN fly in a witness Tuesday to attest to the validity of a video clip showing Trump and his bodyguard together minutes before the call – showing, in other words, that it was possible for the bodyguard to hand Trump his phone.
Instead, they showed jurors a photo of that moment.
Even as the defense began calling its witnesses, it wasn’t clear whether Trump would testify. Before the trial started, Trump said he would take the stand. However, his lawyer told Merchan Thursday the decision had not been made.
On his way into the courthouse Monday, Trump ignored reporters’ questions on the matter. As usual, he criticized the trial and said it was keeping him from campaigning.
As of Monday morning, Merchan has scheduled closing arguments for May 28. The trial will be off Wednesday as usual and Friday and Monday for Memorial Day.
And then, it will be the jury’s turn.