File photo. Former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen and former US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP
By Jody Godoy, Jack Queen, Luc Cohen and Andy Sullivan, Reuters
Donald Trump's lawyers sought to undermine the credibility of his former fixer Michael Cohen at the Republican presidential candidate's criminal hush money trial, highlighting his past record of lying and statements celebrating Trump's legal troubles.
Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche played jurors audio clips of Cohen saying the case "fills me with delight" and that he felt "giddy with hope and laughter" imagining Trump and his family in prison.
"Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally?" Blanche asked.
"Yes," Cohen said.
Blanche told jurors that Cohen had lied to Congress and to US Justice Department investigators about Trump's ties to Russia, and also had lied in court when pleading guilty to tax violations. He pointed out that Cohen had privately sought a pardon from Trump while publicly saying he would not accept one.
Cohen agreed that he had blamed others, including Trump, in the wake of his own criminal convictions on tax and campaign-finance charges.
Cohen maintained his composure while answering questions in contrast to his aggressive and often profane public comments. Blanche's questions suggested Cohen could face another long day on the stand as the defence seeks to cast him as a spiteful turncoat eager to see his former boss behind bars.
Cohen, 57, testified earlier this week that Trump ordered him to pay porn star Stormy Daniels US$130,000 (NZ$216,000) in 2016 to protect Trump's presidential campaign.
Blanche noted in cross-examination on Tuesday that Cohen had called his former boss a "dictator douchebag," and other insults on podcasts and in social media posts.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the first criminal trial of a former US president and denies having a sexual encounter. The New York case, one of four criminal prosecutions he faces, is likely to be the only one with a jury verdict before his 5 November election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Cohen testified earlier this week that he and Trump discussed a plan to reimburse Cohen for the payout through a series of bogus invoices for legal fees. Their chats included one in the White House Oval Office when Trump was president in 2017, Cohen said.
Trump, 77, faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York to cover up a payment to the porn star in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
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 characterizes the case and three other prosecutions as an attempt to interfere with his campaign to take back the White House.
Members of the far-right US House of Representatives Freedom Caucus attended the trial on Thursday and echoed his complaints.
"We're seeing today what lengths the Democratic Party will go to to try to rig or steal another election," the group's chairman, Republican Representative Bob Good, said outside the courthouse.
Cohen carries significant baggage as a witness. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign-finance and tax violations related to the Daniels payment and lying to Congress during an investigation into Trump's Russia ties. He told jurors on Tuesday he lied repeatedly to journalists and others about the Daniels scandal.
Cohen's testimony has been corroborated by other evidence, including handwritten notes outlining Cohen's reimbursements and a surreptitious recording made by Cohen of Trump seeming to discuss a hush money payment made by the National Enquirer tabloid to another woman.
Uncertainty over whether Trump will testify
Blanche has said he expects his cross-examination of Cohen to last most of Thursday, meaning the defence would have the opportunity to call its own witnesses when the trial resumes next week. Trump has yet to decide whether to testify, he said.
Trump has argued that his monthly payments to Cohen throughout 2017 were for his work as his personal lawyer to the president, meaning there was nothing improper about the word "retainer" being written on the checks Trump signed.
Prosecutors say the reimbursement payments were falsely labelled as legal expenses in the Trump Organization's records to conceal the Daniels payoff, which they say violated US election campaign finance law.
Cohen is the 20th and final witness to be called to testify by prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office at the trial, which began on 15 April in New York state criminal court.
- Reuters