May 14, 2024,04:26pm EDT
Michael Cohen, the former Trump fixer and central figure in ex-President Donald Trump’s New York criminal case regarding hush money payments, underwent cross-examination on Tuesday. Trump’s attorneys wasted no time in questioning Cohen’s credibility, aiming to portray the former Trump attorney as untrustworthy.
Here are the key facts:
Cohen, once a personal injury lawyer turned Trump fixer, had expressed unwavering loyalty to Trump, famously stating he would “take a bullet” for him. However, their relationship soured following a criminal investigation in 2018 into bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including causing an unlawful campaign contribution by orchestrating a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair with Trump before the 2016 election. Additional charges included tax evasion and false statements to a bank.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 and fined $50,000. Cohen was released from prison in November 2021, serving two-and-a-half years of his sentence.
In the ongoing trial, Trump faces 34 felony charges related to falsifying business records over a reimbursement payment to Cohen for the hush money payment to Daniels. Prosecutors allege that invoices Cohen sent to the Trump Organization for reimbursement checks were falsely labeled as legal services.
However, defense attorneys are expected to challenge Cohen’s credibility, emphasizing his guilty plea for lying to Congress in a separate case. During cross-examination, Trump attorney Todd Blanche confronted Cohen about his social media activity, including a TikTok post insulting Blanche. Blanche argued that Cohen’s public attacks on Trump indicate personal vendetta rather than objective testimony.
It’s worth noting that Cohen also pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress about the timing of a Trump real estate project in Moscow.