In Monday’s trial at New York state criminal court in Manhattan, jurors heard Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer, testify that the Republican presidential candidate expressed fury over porn star Stormy Daniels shopping a story in 2016 about an alleged sexual encounter with him.
Cohen stated that Trump considered it catastrophic for his campaign, expressing concern that women would hate him and that it would be a disaster.
He revealed this critical moment coincided with the release of an audio recording from the TV show “Access Hollywood” in which Trump boasted about grabbing women’s genitals, leaving the Trump campaign scrambling to mitigate the damage just weeks before Election Day.
Cohen highlighted his $130,000 payment to Daniels to secure her silence about the alleged 2006 encounter as central to the case. Prosecutors assert that Trump reimbursed Cohen after the election and disguised the payment by falsely recording it 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, with prosecutors alleging that the altered records covered up election-law and tax-law violations, essentially constituting an unreported contribution to Trump’s campaign, which elevates the crimes from misdemeanors to felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.
Despite Trump’s denial of any sexual encounter with Daniels, Cohen testified that Trump’s primary concern was the impact on his White House bid, rather than concern for Melania, his wife. Cohen recalled Trump’s emphasis on getting past the election, asserting that if he won, it would be irrelevant because he would be the president, and if he lost, he wouldn’t care.
Other payments
Cohen also revealed other payments orchestrated to bury alleged sex-scandal stories that could have harmed Trump’s 2016 campaign. He disclosed agreements with National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to bolster Trump’s candidacy while suppressing negative stories. This included a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to acquire the exclusive rights to her story about a year-long affair she claimed to have had with Trump.
Cohen played a recording of a meeting in which Trump discussed payments and directed Cohen to handle them with cash to avoid paper trails. Additionally, Cohen recounted a 2015 incident where Pecker paid a doorman $30,000 to kill a false story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock, at Trump’s instruction.
Cohen, once Trump’s loyalist, described his role as a fixer, handling whatever Trump wanted, from threatening lawsuits to planting positive stories in the press. He emphasized Trump’s aversion to emails, preferring direct communication by phone or in person. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal campaign finance law by paying off Daniels, stating that Trump directed him to do so. While federal prosecutors did not charge Trump with any crime, Trump’s defense team painted Cohen as an unreliable witness, citing his history of lying under oath.
The Manhattan trial, though less significant than other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, is the only one expected to go to trial before the election. The other cases involve charges of attempting to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office, to which Trump pleaded not guilty.
