Donald Trump’s defense lawyer accused star witness Michael Cohen of lying about a crucial phone call that linked the former president to a cover-up of money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in a dramatic exchange Thursday.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche landed his blow just before the lunch break, offering evidence that the key conversation was actually about a prank caller and not, as Cohen claimed three days earlier, about a $130,000 payment. for Daniels’ silence.
It created an ‘aha’ moment just as the case nears its conclusion; the kind of shock common in television courtroom dramas but rare in real life.
And it undermined Cohen’s testimony that he spoke personally with Trump about plans to hide hush money, a claim that is central to the case.
After reminding the 12 jurors that Cohen had a history of lying in court and laying the groundwork for the idea that he was an unreliable witness, Trump attorney Todd Blanche took the court in an unexpected direction.
He pulled out text messages and call logs to show that Cohen had been plagued with nuisance calls in October 2016.
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen returned to the stand Thursday. The defense accused him of lying about a key phone call linking Trump to Stormy Daniels.
The prankster was unmasked when they forgot to hide his caller ID
Cohen told them they would have to explain themselves to the Secret Service. The person he called responded saying they were only 14 years old.
Cohen then messaged Trump’s aide, Keith Schiller, shortly before 8 p.m. on October 24 to ask who he could talk to about the prankster and how to handle the matter, according to a message read in court.
Schiller was always at Trump’s side and was often the conduit for phone calls to the boss.
Call records show that Cohen made a call at 8:02 p.m. that lasted just 96 seconds, which meant it couldn’t have been about Daniels, Blanche said.
‘That was a lie. Because I was actually talking to Mr. Schiller about… he was receiving harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old boy,” he said in the most dramatic moment of the case so far.
Cohen, who has adopted a meek and embarrassed air throughout, protested. He said Daniels’ update was brief.
“I always asked the boss to find out everything right away, and in this case he would have said, ‘Everything has been resolved, it has been resolved,'” he said.
“That’s a lie,” Blanche said, raising her voice in front of the doe-eyed jury, who had sat through a morning of incremental claims and counterclaims about what White House jobs Cohen might or might not have been offered. “You can admit it.”
On Monday, Cohen said that a call was made to Trump on October 24, through Keith Schiller, to discuss the “Stormy Daniels matter” and its resolution.
But in an explosive moment, defense attorney Todd Blanche (center of this sketch) presented details of text messages that suggested the call was about a 14-year-old making pranks.
It was a big moment for Trump’s defense, after he reportedly complained that his legal team had not been aggressive enough in court with witnesses.
“No sir, I can’t, because I’m not sure it’s accurate,” he said. He added that he believed he had discussed both matters.
“We’re not asking you to believe,” Blanche said, raising his voice again, before an objection from the defense interrupted him.
It was a deadly moment after weeks of complaints from the Trump camp that Blanche had not been aggressive enough with witnesses.
This was the victory they wanted.
His son Eric Trump, sitting in the front row of Courtroom 1530, delivered a one-word verdict on X: “Wow” (followed by a series of fire emojis).
His father walked off the court arrogantly, winking at a reporter in the back row.
Trump denies 34 counts of falsifying business records, manipulating invoices, accounting entries and checks to suggest that Cohen had been paid for his legal services, rather than reimbursing him for silencing Daniels.
The court has heard days and days of dry evidence about how payments were processed and checks issued by Trump Organization staff.
Trump’s allies, including his son Eric, who was in court, loved how the cross-examination went.
Cohen and Trump in happier times. The real estate mogul and his lawyer are seen here during a visit to New Hampshire while Trump was considering a possible presidential run in 2011.
He also heard the salacious details of Daniels’ story of how she met and slept with Trump in 2006.
But it wasn’t until Cohen took the stand that a direct line was drawn between Trump and the money paid to his former lawyer and fixer.
Cohen is a problematic witness, having served time in prison for crimes including tax fraud and lying to Congress.
The defense tried to make the most of that Thursday morning, using Cohen’s own words against him to show that he intended to put Trump behind bars.
Trump had allies on the court, including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Michael Waltz, members of the Freedom Caucus, to watch the fireworks.
They included hearing his on-air personality, as the court heard a clip from one of his podcasts, which included some very unbecoming court language.
“In a podcast statement, Cohen says, ‘I really hope this man ends up in prison,'” he said of Trump at one point.
In another clip he made it clear that he would enjoy Trump’s fall.
‘It will not recover the year I lost or the damage caused to my family. But revenge is a dish best served cold,” Cohen was heard saying. “You better believe I want this man to go down.”
Trump was again joined by allies on Capitol Hill. Here, posing for a photo in another Manhattan criminal courtroom, are: Representatives Anna Paulina Luna, Matt Gaetz, Bob Good, Eli Crane, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert.
Trump’s allies left the courtroom during the morning recess to speak to reporters in a small park across from the courthouse.
The defense offered a motive for Cohen: He was bitter after being rejected for any of the top White House jobs when Trump took office.
“The truth, Mr. Cohen, is that you really wanted to work in the White House, right?” asked Blanca.
Not true, Cohen said, before being confronted with a series of messages in which he spoke to friends and family about the possibility of being named chief of staff.
A reading in court even suggested he was turning to a friend to become his assistant if he got the job.
Cohen said he simply wanted to be taken into account, for “ego purposes.”
But there were other embarrassing questions for Trump’s former lawyer, including how he secretly recorded hundreds of phone conversations and how he had used nonexistent AI-generated legal cases to support a request last year to end his post-Trump judicial oversight early. the prison.
Cohen responded as he has throughout his testimony, calmly, patiently and with the lawyerly air of a prickly professional.
Cohen is due back on Monday, but the prosecution’s case could rest later in the day.
A court order prohibits Trump from talking about witnesses. But not his allies.
During the morning recess, eight members of Congress crossed the street to deliver their verdict to waiting television cameras.
Rep. Matt Gaetz called Cohen a liar who “committed these lies for his own benefit” before calling the case, “Mr. Potato Head of crimes, where they had to put together a bunch of things that weren’t together.”
Cohen will return to the stand on Monday when the case resumes, and the judge signaled Thursday that he expects to make closing arguments a day later.
It has not yet been decided whether Trump himself will testify, according to his legal team.