Trump hush-money trial news: Michael Cohen begins 3rd day of testimony

Blanche is quoting from Cohen’s past statements that suggest the tax charges were bulls*** and that he thinks he is innocent, and then lied in court about that.

Cohen, emphatically: “I have stated, again, that I don’t dispute the facts of the case. … I have for the last six years, including in a sentencing memo, said the same thing, again and again.”

He was criminally charged as a first-time tax evader, he paid the taxes, “all the documents provided to my CPA, organized in a three-ring, tabulated book.”

“I don’t believe I should have been charged. I should have been given the same opportunities as someone who receives a letter from the IRS that there’s an issue with your tax. … [I] didn’t have a chance to meet with an agent. … Immediately in 48 hours, it became criminal.” (edited)

One would think Cohen is on trial here.

Blanche: In your book, you described the tax evasion charges were “bogus” and “100 per cent inaccurate”?

“I was referring to again the same thing.”

You also said on TikTok as recently as April 1 of this year that the federal investigation against you was “corrupt”?

On CNN last year, you said that the “lies by the SDNY against me for tax evasion, I hope it all comes out”?

Objection. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks to approach.

Cohen looks at what we’re told is a transcript of his CNN interview

Blanche here is trying to undercut Cohen’s testimony that he lied on Trump’s behalf, by bringing up tax charges that didn’t have anything to do with Trump. But Cohen isn’t suggesting that he lied about the crimes he committed in that case, he just doesn’t think he should’ve been charged.

Cohen is explaining how taxi medallions work in New York after Blanche suggests that Gene Freidman was his business partner.

He leased medallions. Cohen says it’s no different than a tenant/landlord relationship. He didn’t care about the business.

(Freidman was cooperating with the feds against him)

This came up in direct examination, and in the civil fraud trial, where Cohen was accused of perjury after pleading guilty in the tax case:

Cohen had “48 hours to accept the plea or the SDNY was going to file an 80-page indictment that included my wife, so I elected to protect my family.” He “never denied the underlying facts, I just did not believe I should have been criminally charged” for those two offences.

You felt that you were induced or put under pressure to plead guilty because you had just two days? A risk that your loved one would be indicted as well?

“That is what I was told’

Did the government ever tell you that?

“No, they spoke with my lawyer”

The only basis was your lawyer?

Blanche is once again suggesting that Cohen was lying to Judge Pauley when he told the judge that nobody had induced him to plead guilty.

Blanche teeing up a mighty yes-only question tree before going in on Cohen’s first testimony to Congress, which he admitted to lying to:

“The oath that you took every single time, going back to all the depositions, the same oath you took on Monday morning? … Asked to do the same thing every time? Put your right hand up? Swear to tell the truth? … When there are times like now when your testimony lasts longer than a day… you’re still under oath? … So in addition to the times you testified under oath … you also met with federal agents I believe somewhere around 17 times, does that sound right? Each time you met with a federal agent, that each time you made a false statement that was a felony?”

“You lied under oath, and you lied, you committed another felony [prosecution objects, sustained], you lied when you met with the special counsel, correct?”

Cohen once again appears relatively relaxed, shoulders sunken, leaning forward just slightly towards the mic.

Again, this is all stuff he admitted to, under direct examination — prosecutors addressed this all head-on, but defense wants to remind jurors that he lied under oath and that should mean he is not trustworthy.

Blanche is doing a terrible job of establishing a timeline — We started in 2023, went back to 2017, then November 2018, and now August 2018.

About Trump’s “horseface” post:

Blanche: You responded to this Truth [Truth Social post], didn’t you?

Cohen: “I’m not on Truth, sir.”

You don’t have a recollection of responding on X to that Truth?

You called President Trump a name right back, correct?

You called him dumbass Donald?

Cohen acknowledges that a paralegal has been assigned to monitor his social media.

“But that didn’t stop you?”

Reader, he did call him “dumbass Donald”:

And we finally hear in court Cohen’s podcast voice. The defense entered into evidence a recording of him celebrating Trump’s indictment.

He thanks the Manhattan DA’s office and “fearless leader Alvin Bragg with whom I spent countless hours” laying out the hush money scheme, he says on the recording.

“He is about to get a taste of what I went through and I promise it’s not fun,” he says. Picturing Trump going through the booking process “fills me with delight and sadness all at the same time … what an embarrassment it is to the office of the presidency.”

(Cohen admits he never actually met with Bragg himself.)

In another podcast clip heard in court: “I truly f***ing hope this man ends up in prison … Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

He says he hopes Trump will “rot inside for what he did to me and my family.”

You said, did you not, that you believe the work you did played a large role in the prosecutors’ indictment of this case?

Yes, that’s what I believe.

It’s not in evidence but the exchange seems to be Rosenberg telling Cohen about the article, not about the indictment itself.

Blanche is trying to imply the DA’s office gave the newspaper and Cohen a heads-up before the indictment was unsealed to the public.