Information from Eyewitness News, ABC News and the Associated PressWith prosecutors' hush money case against Donald Trump barreling toward its end, their star witness will be back in the hot seat Thursday as defense lawyers try to chip away at Michael Cohen's crucial testimony implicating the former president.
Over two days on the witness stand, Cohen placed Trump directly at the center of the alleged scheme to stifle negative stories to fend off damage to his White House bid. Cohen told jurors that Trump promised to reimburse him for the money he fronted and was constantly updated about efforts to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Trump denies the women's claims.
Blanche asked Cohen if he had admired Trump and saw himself in him, and whether he saw the businessman as an ambitious, hardworking and innovative man. Cohen affirmed. Cohen's cross-examination was proceeding in stop-and-start fashion thanks in part to frequent objections from the prosecution team.Before court resumed for the day, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the judge that Donald Trump's former laywer, Michael Cohen, would be the prosecution's last witness.
Before he concluded his initial testimony prior to the break, Cohen shared how he makes money now that he has served prison time and been disbarred. Cohen also testified having Stormy Daniels, the woman at the center of the hush money case, on a podcast at one point. Trump had asked the state's intermediate appeals court to lift or modify the gag order, which bars him from commenting publicly about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case, including the judge's family and prosecutors other than District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Cohen says he came away from the conversation thinking "that it was about time to listen to them" and show loyalty "to my wife, my son, my daughter and my country." Cohen testified at Trump's trial that he'd heard Daniels was planning to go on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show and contacted Keith Davidson, the lawyer who represented Daniels in the hush money deal, about issuing a statement.
The case concerned a lawsuit against Trump, later dropped, from Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," who alleged she'd been defamed. But he said work for Trump picked up in 2018. That was after porn actor Stormy Daniels went public about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump.
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