Fixer-turned-foe Cohen takes the stand

'Women are gonna hate me,' Trump allegedly said

By: Aysha Bagchi
Kinsey Crowley
and Bart Jansen
USA Today

NEW YORK - On Monday, [04/13/2024] the man who once said he;d take a bullet took the stand.
..... Disgraced fixer Michael Cohen connected the dots the prosecution needed him to connect. He said his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, was fully involved in plans to pay off people with unflattering stories about extramarital affairs in the lead-up to the 2016 election. And Cohn said, Trump's motivations were to protect his electability, not his wife.
..... Prosecutors say Trump interfered in that election by paying pron star Stormy Daniels $130,000 and unlawfully falsified business records to hide it. Trump has denied the affair, and pleaded not guilty.
..... However, the disbarred lawyer is a challenging witness: Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, among other crimes.
..... Prosecutors hope to overcome that baggage and convince the jury in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president that this time, Cohen is telling the truth.

A close relationship, but no email

...... Trump sat with his eyes closed as his former fixer described badgering and threatening the press about stories that were bad for the man he called "the Boss."
..... Cohen described working "maybe to feet, 60 feet" from Trump;s office before the presidency. The man spoke :every single day, and multiple times per day," Cohen testified. He worked directly for Trump, not the Trump Organization's legal office.
..... Several witnesses have described Trump as a micro-manger, and Cohen affirmed that. The boss liked to be kept abreast of developments form all his executives, telling them, "keep me informed, let me know what's going on," Cohen said.
..... That would be in person or by phone. Trump never had an email address because he believed ti cerated a risk of indictment, Cohen said.
..... Sometimes Cohen and David Pecker, then-publisher of the National Enquirer, would communicate about Trump stories over an encrypted messaging app, Signal.
..... "Depending upon the matter, sometimes we thought that encryption, not having the event traceable, would be beneficial," Cohen said.
..... As the reality TV star planned his 2016 presidential campaign, he said to Cohen, according to the ex-lawyer's testimony: "Just be prepared. There's gonna be a lot of women coming forward."

'You handle it'

..... Cohen described working with Trump, and often with the National Enquirer, to squash potentially damaging stories about the candidate in 2016. Trump gave the OK, and Cohen did the dirty work, he said.
..... First Cohen spoke about the National Esquire's parent company buying the story of a Trump Tower doorman who claimed the candidate fathered a child out of wedlock.
..... Though Trump denied the story, and the Inquirer's investigations found it not credible, he told his lawyer to make sure the story did;t get out, Cohen said.
..... "You handle it," he quoted Trump as saying.
..... The lawyer undated trump "immediately" along the way. When the purchase was done, Trump responded, "That's great," according to Cohen.
..... Next Cohen spoke about the $150,000 payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claimed an affair with Trump that the candidate denied.
..... Cohen testified that Allen Weisselberg, then the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, pointed out to him that they needed to make the payment form an outside account so no one could make the connection: "If we do it from a Trump entity, that kind of defeats the purpose."
..... When Cohen told Trump the McDougal deal had closed, the candidate responded "Fantastic. Great Job," Cohen said.
..... The situation got shakier, though. The infamous Access Hollywood" tape came out, with Trump bragging about grabbing women;s genitals. And then Dylan Howard, the National enquirer edit at the time, told Cohen that Daniels was trying to sell her story.
..... "Catastrophic," Cohen said he thought.
..... In Cohn's account, his boos immediately recognized that in the wake of the "access Hollywood" tape, Daniels' story posed a major danger to his candidacy.
..... Women are gonna hate me," Trump allegedly told Cohen. "Guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."
..... "Just take care of it," Trump ordered Cohen, according to the ex-lawyer's testimony. Get control over it."
..... Trump didn't answer when Cohen asked if he had slept with Daniels, but he said she was a beautiful woman and boasted that women preferred him to his friend "Big Ben' Roethlisberger, the Steelers quarterback.
..... Cohen testified that Trump instructed him to push out paying Daniels as long as he could, and to just get pass the election. Trump allegedly said if he won the election before the story could be released, the story would then have "no relevance," Trump aided, according to Cohen: "and if I lose, I wouldn't care."
..... Cohen and Trump "wasn't thinking about Melania, his wife. "this was all about the campaign.
..... As the days passed, Cohen said he felt pressure because he feared Daniels would give her story about Trump to the Daily Mail. Cohen said he brought the matter back to Trump.
..... "Just do it," Trump allegedly said. Trump told Cohen to meet up with Weisselberg" and figure this whole thing out."
..... Then came the mechanics of the payment. Cohen asked Weisselberg to front the money. the CFO said he was too stretched for cash with grandchildren in prep school and summer camps.
..... "Don't worry about it," Weisselberg told Cohen about paying Daniels. I will "Make suer you get paid back."
..... Trump said the same thing, Cohen testified: He stated to me, don't worry you'll get the money back."
..... Cohen said he wouldn't have paid the $130,000 for the nondisclosure agreement without an understanding he would get paid back.

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