Michael Cohen suggested Donald Trump wasn’t worried about his wife Melania leaving him over the Stormy Daniels affair story during his blockbuster testimony on Monday.
The former president’s middleman took the stand in the Manhattan hush money trial and detailed how he arranged payments to keep accusers quiet before the 2016 election.
She told jurors she thought Daniels’ salacious story would be “catastrophic” for the campaign and revealed how the then-future first lady reacted to the allegations about her husband.
Step by step, he explained how he struck deals with the National Enquirer and Trump’s accusers to remove their stories before the 2016 election.
Part of their job was to continue trying to delay payments until after the November vote.
Michael Cohen suggested Donald Trump wasn’t worried about his wife Melania leaving him over the Stormy Daniels affair story during his blockbuster testimony on Monday.
The payments are at the center of prosecutors’ case that Trump concealed $130,000 used to silence Daniels as legal expenses.
Cohen, now Trump’s nemesis, has been touted as the prosecution’s star witness and could disrupt the first trial of a former president in history.
His credibility is essential to being able to persuade the jury, after having spent time in prison for lying to Congress.
Trump appeared to have his eyes closed for most of the testimony and kept his reactions to a minimum. At times he also seemed to fall asleep.
But he shook his head and smiled when Cohen began to discuss how his family reacted to the lurid accusations that emerged.
Cohen told jurors he thought Daniels’ salacious story would be “catastrophic” for the campaign and revealed how the then-future first lady reacted to the allegations about her husband. Trump and Melania in the 2016 photo
Trump appeared to have his eyes closed for most of the testimony and kept his reactions to a minimum. At times he seemed to fall asleep
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he spoke to Trump about how the Stormy Daniels story had gone for Melania.
It was just before his 2016 general election battle with Hillary Clinton, and Cohen worried that the allegations could hurt Trump’s support among women.
The real estate mogul already warned those around him that women would likely come forward with a multitude of complaints when he announced he would run for president.
“I said, ‘How are things going upstairs?'” Cohen said, looking up as he described a conversation he said took place inside Trump Tower, where Trump has a penthouse.
Cohen, now Trump’s nemesis, has been touted as the prosecution’s star witness and could derail the first trial of a former president in history.
Cohen said he was worried. But Trump was not.
‘Don’t worry. He says…how long do you think I’ll be on the market? Not long. He wasn’t thinking about Melania. “All this was for the campaign.”
Cohen also told the court that it was Melania who gave the advice to “spin” the infamous Access Hollywood tape.
She claimed to the jury that if she suggested the clip of her husband saying “grab them by the p****” it should be dismissed as “locker room talk.”
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he spoke to Trump about how the Stormy Daniels story was going for Melania Trump.
Cohen’s credibility is essential to persuade the jury, after having spent time in jail for lying to Congress.
Trump lawyers Susan Necheles (second from left) and Alina Habba (right) return to the courtroom after lunch.
‘He wanted me to get in touch with all my media contacts. We needed to turn this around. The spin he wanted to give it was that it was a locker room talk, something Melania had recommended or at least he told me that was what Melania had thought and that she was using it to have control over the story and minimize its impact on him. and his campaign,” Cohen testified.
He also detailed a meeting with Trump in his Trump Tower office in the middle of porn star Stormy Daniels’ interview with TheDirty.com in 2011.
Cohen outlined the outlines of Daniels’ allegations about an affair dating back to a 2006 golf tournament. Cohen was asked if Trump told him anything about meeting the porn star.
‘He told me he was playing golf with Big Ben Roethlisberger, the star of the Pittsburgh Steelers. “They had met Stormy Daniels and others there,” Cohen testified.
Cohen smiled as he described a Trump boast in which he compared himself well to the football player. “But she liked Mr. Trump and that women prefer Trump even to someone like Big Ben,” she said.
He said Trump did not directly answer whether Trump and Daniels had sex. But Trump said she was a “beautiful woman.” (Trump has called Daniels “horseface” in tweets after she publicly accused him of the affair.)
