Michael Cohen endured his roughest hours on the witness stand to date on Thursday as former President Trump’s hush money trial reached its 18th day.
This week has been dominated by testimony from Cohen, Trump’s erstwhile attorney turned enemy. Thursday saw the most sustained attack on his credibility from the former president’s legal team.
The day’s most dramatic exchange was over a phone call — and whether Cohen had testified truthfully about it earlier this week.
Cohen made the call to the phone of Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, in 2016.
Cohen has contended that he did this because he knew Schiller would be with Trump. Cohen says he and Trump went on to discuss the arrangements for paying off Daniels.
But Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, was able to cast some doubt on that account on Thursday.
Blanche noted that the call happened amid an unrelated minor drama in which Cohen was receiving harassing calls from a teenage prankster.
Text messages show that, in a period of about 15 minutes, Cohen texted Schiller asking for advice on the phone harassment, Schiller dialed back but his call went to voicemail, and Cohen then called Schiller for a conversation that lasted less than 100 seconds.
Blanche pressed Cohen hard, arguing that the call was really about the harassing calls and had nothing to do with Trump or Daniels.
Cohen admitted that “part of it was about the phone calls” but stood firm that he had also spoken about the hush money to Trump.
Read more at TheHill.com
What Are Your Thoughts?
