Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s flimsy case against former President Donald Trump rests on the testimony of its star witness, convicted liar Michael Cohen. But unsurprisingly, Cohen — and his allegations against Trump — fell apart on the witness stand under cross-examination by Trump’s defense team on Thursday.
Even CNN couldn’t help but admit it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen,” the network’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper called what Trump attorney “Todd Blanche did to Cohen” an “extraordinary cross-examination,” admitting “Cohen was cornered in what appeared to be a lie.”
Cohen lied to a Senate committee in 2017, pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress, and told the public he did not commit tax evasions “despite having told a federal judge, U.S. District Judge William Pauley, in court that he had,” Politico reported.
Federal prosecutors also expressed “substantial concerns about Cohen’s credibility as a witness” and “material false statements” he reportedly made to the FBI and prosecutors.
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CNN called Cohen’s performance under cross-examination by Trump’s defense team the former president’s “best day … so far” in the lawfare case. His testimony, the corporate media outlet admitted, presented the “kind of inconsistency that Trump’s attorneys can use to try to sow reasonable doubt about Cohen’s truthfulness and credibility in the mind of a single juror.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Trump Was Worried About His Family
The cornerstone of Bragg’s lawfare case against Trump is that the former president should have classified payments allegedly made to Cohen to purchase the silence of pornographer Stormy Daniels as campaign expenses rather than legal fees, since the alleged purchase of negative press — which is entirely legal — was done to influence the 2016 election.
Lead prosecutor and former Biden Department of Justice official Matthew Colangelo alleged during opening statements that “this was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.”
But Cohen admitted on the stand that when the allegations first surfaced in a 2011 blog post, Trump expressed concern that the story would hurt his family.
“Fair to say that the first time you heard about that and the story by Ms. Daniels, when you talked to President Trump about it, he said he was worried about what his family would think, correct?” Blanche asked.
“Yes, as well as, of course, for the brand,” Cohen testified.
“The first thing that President Trump said to you was that his family wouldn’t like that very much?” Blanche pressed.
“That’s true,” Cohen responded.
Keith Schiller Phone Call
Cohen testified earlier in the week that a call he had with Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, on Oct. 24, 2016 was to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it.”
“That was a lie!” Blanche told Cohen, according to CNN. “You did not talk to President Trump on that night, you talked to Keith Schiller.”
Blanche then demonstrated to the jury that prior to calling Schiller, Cohen messaged him and said he wanted help with prank calls he kept receiving from a 14-year-old.
Cohen tried to hold his story together by claiming “I believe I also spoke to President Trump and told him everything regarding the Stormy Daniels matter was being worked on and it’s going to be resolved.”
But, as Blanche reminded the jury, the call only lasted 96 seconds in total.
Convicted Liar Lies Again
Cohen testified Thursday that he never met Bragg, but Blanche presented the jury with audio from a podcast episode in which Cohen thanked Bragg for his work against Trump.
“Alvin Bragg, with whom I spent countless hours laying out how Trump directed those hush money payments and countless other financial crimes. He is about to get a taste of what I went through and I promise you it’s not fun. Picturing Donald Trump being led through the booking process, getting fingerprinted, having his mug shot taken, fills me with delight and sadness all at the same time.”
Cohen also damaged his credibility on Thursday when he agreed that he lied under oath in a different cause because, as Blanche put it, “the stakes affected you personally.”
“Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally?” Blanche then asked, to which Cohen affirmed “yes.”
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
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