ABC: Prosecutors Looking for Michael Cohen ‘To Complete Narrative and Pin Crime on Trump’

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Trump: “So, this was a very big day, a very revealing day. As you’ve seen, their case is totally falling apart. They have nothing on books and records, and even something that should bear very little relationship to the case. It’s just a disaster.”
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RADDATZ: “That was former President Donald Trump reacting to the sometimes salacious and often heated testimony of Stormy Daniels this week in his New York hush money trial. Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen is expected on the stand tomorrow. ABC’s Aaron Katersky has preview of what Cohen’s testimony could mean for the case.”

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KATERSKY (voice-over): “Over the last three weeks, the jury has heard a story of sex and scheming. Stormy Daniels described a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump in a hotel suite that he said never happened. She told the jury Trump wore silk or satin pajamas, kept Old Spice, Pert Plus and a manicure set which was gold in his toiletry bag. And she said, while she never felt threatened, there was an imbalance of power for sure. There are the details the prosecutor said Trump paid to bury in 2016, and they are now counting on Michael Cohen to complete the narrative and pin the crime on Trump.”

COHEN: “I’m kind of looking forward to it because, again, can’t be finished with something unless you start it, right?

KATERSKY (voice-over): “Cohen has already been a trial fixture. The jury saw his $130,000 wire to Daniels 12 days before the 2016 election. The invoices Cohen prepared, and the checks Trump signed to reimburse him in monthly installments, and the jury heard a recording of Cohen on the phone saying Trump complained about paying.”

COHEN: “I can’t even tell how many times he said to me, ‘You know, I hate the fact that we did it,’ and my comment to him was, ‘But every person that you’ve spoken to told you it was the right move.’”

KATERSKY (voice-over): “The defense has tried to distance Trump from criminal conduct, but prosecutors have said Cohen will testify that he paid off Daniels at Trump’s direction and did it to make sure voters did not learn of her sexual encounter with Trump that he denies happened. Cohen will have to overcome unflattering testimony from other trial witnesses. Stormy Daniels’ one-time lawyer Keith Davidson called Cohen ‘a jerk and highly excitable, sort of a pants on fire kind of guy who no one wanted to talk to.’ Hope Hicks said Cohen was Trump’s fixer only because he first broke things. Trump’s defense attorney has said Cohen cannot be trusted as a convicted liar and is obsessed with Trump. There he is on TikTok, first reported by ABC News, wearing a shirt with Trump behind bars in an orange jumpsuit, taunting his former boss.”

COHEN: “Trump 2024? More like Trump 20 to 24 years.”

KATERSKY: “Ahead of his testimony, the judge instructed prosecutors to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about the case. He will have plenty to say from the witness stand.”
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KATERSKY: “Martha, when Michael Cohen takes the witness stand here on Monday, it will be the second time in recent months he has come face-to-face with Donald Trump. Cohen testified against Trump in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case. That time, Trump volunteered to come to court to stare down Michael Cohen. This time, as the defendant, Trump will have no choice but to sit there and listen. Martha?”
RADDATZ: “Our thanks to Aaron Katersky.”