The prosecution and defense rested yesterday, meaning, to no one’s shock, that Donald Trump did not testify. Trump had said he would, but it would have been judicial malpractice for his lawyers to expose him to a hundred different lines of interrogation. Michael Cohen went into the hush money trial with a well-established reputation as a convicted liar.
But the lie he acknowledged on Monday is in a whole different category – and may be a turning point in convincing one or more jurors to dismiss him as a money-grubbing thief and vote for Trump’s acquittal. The onetime fixer fixed up a nice deal for himself: stealing from the Trump Organization. Yep, he did it, said Cohen. Yep, he lied about it. Yep, he gladly pocketed the money because he was angry about his bonus being cut.
But Robert Costello walked into that courtroom with a giant chip on his shoulder. After one question, he audibly said 'ridiculous.' After another, he said 'Geez.' Judge Juan Merchan had enough and sent the jury out. 'If you don't like my ruling, you don't say ‘Geez,’ okay. And then you don't say ‘strike it;’ because I'm the only one that can strike testimony in the courtroom.' The lecture was severe.
Costello said they kept urging Cohen to sign a retainer – so they could get paid – but he kept making excuses and putting it off. Was he pressuring Michael Cohen to do anything? Costello said he was not. And that was it. Closing arguments are set for next Tuesday. The prosecution has plenty of other witnesses and documents, but Cohen is the only one tying Trump directly to his reimbursement for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in this openly partisan and shakily built case. So Cohen’s evisceration on the stand really matters to the falsification of documents charge, unless 12 jurors believe that the former president had to know.
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