Trump trial live updates: Michael Cohen to take the stand in testimony that could make or break the case against the former president

Michael Cohen left his New York home to go to court in Lower Manhattan.

He is scheduled to take the stand shortly after 9:30 a.m.

Cohen once described himself as Trump’s “mouthpiece, bully, pit bull and lawless lawyer.”

The repairman could now be a problem for his former boss.

Even before he set foot in Room 1530, Michael Cohen’s role as a key witness in Donald Trump’s secret money case put the former president’s lawyer and fixer at the center of the process.

Famed attorney Keith Davidson, for example, was asked about a message he received asking him to “call that asshole back.”

‘Who was that idiot?’ prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked him during the second week of the trial.

‘Michael Cohen’, he responded with laughter in the public gallery.

It is one thing for Trump’s defense to begin to cast doubt on the testimony of a disbarred lawyer who changed his story about the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels; and a very different one for the prosecution, which will rely on Cohen’s testimony to establish a direct link between Trump and the payment, to highlight his deficiencies.

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan has already heard three weeks of testimony.

They have heard from a variety of witnesses, from Stormy Daniels, who went into lurid detail about her alleged tryst with the former president, to paralegals and cellphone company workers who have come forward with evidence.

In the next two weeks, they will likely be sent to deliberate to decide guilt in the first trial of a former president.

A pair of prominent House Republicans are demanding to know why the Justice Department has not yet investigated Michael Cohen even though the former Trump fixer admitted he lied to Congress.

Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner and Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik wrote to the Department of Justice (DOJ) six months ago with a criminal referral for Cohen. The Justice Department confirmed receipt of the letter but never followed up.

Cohen admitted in October to lying to Congress in 2019 when he falsely told the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors that Trump had not ordered him to inflate his net worth.

Cohen may have been undermining his own credibility as a witness, as he has been leading to TikTok to talk about the case and solicit donations.

‘Trump 2024?’ Cohen said on the video-sharing platform. “More like Trump 20-24 years.”

The refunds Cohen received form the basis of the charges (34 felony counts of falsifying business records) against Trump.

Prosecutors say the refunds were recorded as legal expenses to conceal the true purpose of the payments.

Defense attorneys have prepared a powerful cross-examination of Cohen, telling jurors during opening statements that the fixer-turned-enemy is a “confessed liar” with an “obsession with outsmarting President Trump.”

His checkered past is fundamental to the case. Testimony from a witness with such intimate knowledge of Trump’s activities could increase the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s legal exposure if jurors find him sufficiently credible.

But for prosecutors to rely on someone who was jailed for pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payments and lying to Congress is a risky strategy.

Donald Trump emerged from his criminal trial with a smile on Friday after a judge told prosecutors to rein in their star witness Michael Cohen.

The former president nodded as Judge Juan Merchán urged the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to order the lawyer at the center of the case to stop discussing it.

The good news for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee came at the end of a grueling week in court where he heard six hours of testimony from Stormy Daniels.

The porn star went into detail with her lewd and sometimes lurid statements about the night they allegedly had sex in a hotel room in 2006, a story Trump has denied.

He finished his appearance on the stand Thursday afternoon, and Friday was a much more subdued affair with witnesses giving less dramatic but still crucial evidence.

They witnessed some of the most extraordinary moments of the Trump presidency: the decision to eliminate Abu Abkr al-Baghdadi. The first statements from the White House about a strange new virus. A ridiculous storm path approaching Alabama redrawn with a Sharpie pencil. And the president is mulling over injecting bleach.

Some Cabinet members, longtime advisers and senior White House officials remained loyal to the bitter end and still support him. Others bailed out in the final days of his administration, both before and after January 6.

Some got book deals they used to dump about the administration they once served in, or wrote op-eds denouncing Trump. Others followed him to Mar-a-Lago, helping the former president regroup as he charted a path forward that would take him to the cusp of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.