Michael Cohen receives a grilling: Trump trial key takeaways, day 18

Donald Trump, flanked by his son Eric and staunch congressional supporters Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, returned to the Manhattan courthouse on Thursday for the 18th day of his hush-money trial.

Prosecutors have spent the last few weeks setting up Cohen as someone with an exaggerated personality and occasionally contemptible behavior. This strategy seeks to ensure that there is nothing left to surprise jurors about Cohen and his anti-Trump attitude during his cross-examination. Still, as the defense played the clips, Cohen looked visibly upset.

Blanche also pointed to Cohen’s guilty plea in August 2018 for federal tax evasion and false statements in New York.Cohen said: “As I stated previously, I was provided 48 hours within which to accept the plea or the southern district of New York was going to file an 80-page indictment that included my wife, and I elected to protect my family.”“I never denied the underlying facts. I just did not believe that I should have been criminally charged for either of those six offenses,” said Cohen.

Blanche’s questioning appeared to suggest that the prank calls and Cohen’s need for help to address them was why he called Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller at the time. Cohen previously testified that he instead called Schiller to confirm to Trump his plans to facilitate the hush-money payment to Daniels.

Blanche raised his voice, and suggested it was not possible for Cohen to complain about the calls to Schiller and also confirm the plans for the hush-money payment in under two minutes. Cohen also said he believed he “spoke to Mr Trump about the Stormy Daniels matter.” Blanche yelled back: “We are not asking what you believe … The jury doesn’t want to hear what you think!”At the end of his questioning, Blanche asked, “Make no mistake, this was a completely legal binding contract, correct?” in reference to Daniels technically entering a legal contract with Cohen to purchase the rights to her story about the alleged liaison. Cohen replied: “Yes sir.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Cohen declines to bite at combative questions from Trump’s man ToddTodd Blanche seemed to be looking for a ‘gotcha’ – instead there was laughter in the viewing room and one irked judge
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

Trump hush-money trial enters third week as banker who worked with Michael Cohen testifiesCourt set to hear further testimony from Gary Farro who was Cohen’s contact at First Republic Bank in 2015
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

A fine and the specter of Michael Cohen: deja vu for Trump in hush-money trialWith the ex-president punished for violating a gag order, the third week of the hush-money trial resembled his fraud case
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

Michael Cohen tells Stormy Daniels hush money trial he acted 'at the direction' of Donald TrumpDonald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen directly implicates the former US president in a hush money scheme, telling jurors that his celebrity client approved hefty payouts to stifle stories that he feared could be harmful to his 2016 White House campaign.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »

Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-foe, takes the stand in the hush money trialThe prosecution will hinge on how well Cohen can convince a jury that Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit campaign finance violations.
Source: brisbanetimes - 🏆 13. / 67 Read more »

Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-foe, takes the stand in the hush money trialThe prosecution will hinge on how well Cohen can convince a jury that Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit campaign finance violations.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »