Key Points
- Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has told a court Trump was furious that Stormy Daniels was telling her story.
- Among his duties was threatening to sue people and planting positive stories in the press, Cohen said.
- Trump’s defence lawyers have told the jurors Cohen is a liar whose testimony cannot be trusted.
Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has told jurors that the Republican presidential candidate was furious that porn star Stormy Daniels was shopping a story in 2016 about an alleged sexual encounter with him, telling Cohen it would be catastrophic for his campaign.
“He said to me, ‘This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me,’ Cohen testified at Trump’s trial in New York state criminal court in Manhattan.
“Guys, they think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Trump allegedly told Cohen at the time.
Guys, they think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.
Donald Trump
Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, said he learned that Daniels was selling her story at a critical moment for Trump’s White House bid, after the release of an audio recording from the TV show “Access Hollywood” in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.
Cohen’s $196,752 payment to Daniels to buy her silence about the alleged 2006 encounter is at the centre of the case.
Prosecutors have said Trump paid Cohen back after the election and hid the reimbursement by recording it falsely as a legal retainer fee in Trump’s real estate company’s records.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to the reimbursement.
Prosecutors say the altered records covered up election-law and tax-law violations — since the money was essentially an unreported contribution to Trump’s campaign — that elevate the crimes from misdemeanours to felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.
Trump, a former president who is running against Democratic President Joe Biden in November, has pleaded not guilty and denies having had a sexual encounter with Daniels, who testified last week.
He argues the case is a politically motivated attempt to interfere with his campaign to take back the White House.
Trump’s defence has suggested the payment to Daniels could have been made to spare Trump and his family embarrassment, not to boost his campaign.
But Cohen testified that Trump appeared solely concerned with the effect on his White House bid.
Jurors reviewed emails showing that Cohen repeatedly delayed paying Daniels.
Cohen said he was trying to put off the deal until after the election at Trump’s behest.
‘A lot of women coming forward’
He testified earlier in the day that Trump signed off on other payments to bury alleged sex-scandal stories that could have damaged his 2016 campaign.
Cohen said he, Trump and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker agreed to use the supermarket tabloid to boost Trump’s presidential candidacy while blocking any negative stories that might hurt his chances.
That arrangement included a $227,022 payment from Pecker’s company to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to acquire the exclusive rights to her story about a year-long affair she said she and Trump had, Cohen said.
For nearly a decade, Cohen, 57, worked as an executive and lawyer for Trump’s company and once said he would take a bullet for Trump, who is now 77.
Cohen said it was fair to describe his role as a fixer for Trump, testifying that he took care of “whatever he wanted”.
Among his duties was threatening to sue people and planting positive stories in the press, he said.
When Trump was preparing to announce his campaign for president, Cohen said, Trump told him that there would be “a lot of women coming forward”.
Trump’s defence lawyers have told the 12 jurors and six alternates that Cohen is a liar whose testimony cannot be trusted.
Cohen has admitted to lying under oath multiple times, providing substantial fodder for the defence to undermine his credibility.
