Michael Cohen testified Monday that Donald Trump ordered him to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to silence a sex scandal — in key testimony for the prosecution that hinges on whether jurors will believe the convicted felon.
“He said, ‘Absolutely. Do it. Take care of it.’’ Cohen, 57, recalled Trump telling him after learning that Daniels was shopping her story around about an alleged tryst with the real estate mogul inside a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006.
Speaking slowly and clearly and wearing a dark blue suit and pink tie, the salt-and-pepper haired disbarred attorney testified in Manhattan Supreme Court that the hush money payouts to both Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal were done at Trump’s behest.
“What I was doing, I was doing at the direction and for the benefit of Mr. Trump,” he testified about his role in the $150,000 payout in the summer of 2016 to McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump for a year while he was married to his wife Melania.
“Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign off,” he testified, adding that he let Trump know in advance about the Daniels payment because “I wanted the money back.”
After Cohen agreed to pay Daniels $130,000 for the “exclusive” rights to her story, Trump later allegedly tried to stiff the porn star by stalling the payout until after the 2016 election, Cohen told jurors.
But when Daniels and her lawyer threatened to renege on the deal and publish the story elsewhere, a panicked Cohen reached out to his boss again — and Trump ordered him to pay Daniels, Cohen testified.
“Just do it,” Cohen recalled his boss saying.
It remains to be seen whether jurors will buy what Cohen is selling, as the defense will likely point out during cross-examination later this week that he’s a twice-convicted felon who previously admitted lying to Congress, as well as a vocal Trump critic.
Cohen also testified Monday that he lied on the description of the shell company he set up to wire the funds to Daniels’ lawyer.
“I’m not sure if they would’ve opened it if it stated ‘to pay off an adult film star for a nondisclosure agreement.’” he quipped.
Sitting just 20 feet away inside a packed courtroom in lower Manhattan was Trump, 77, who slouched deep into his chair at the defense table.
Trump closed his eyes for close to an hour straight during Cohen’s testimony, with his eyes staying closed even when he jolted his head forward a couple of times.
He perked up however just before hearing himself on a secret recording that Cohen made of Trump discussing the $150,000 McDougal payoff.
The tape in question was first published in 2018. Such recordings are not illegal to make in New York because the state only requires one party to a communication to “consent” to a tape.
“So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump can heard saying on the nearly three-minute tape from the Sept. 6, 2016, conversation, played in court by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
Trump smirked in Cohen’s direction and shook his head as his ex-fixer said the recording was meant to give assurances to then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker that Trump would reimburse him for making the McDougal payoff, which he did not.
Cohen also testified that Trump — in a meeting that took place shortly before his arrival at the White House — personally approved his company’s plan to pay him back for Daniels payoff by paying him a total of $420,000. That sum, which was paid out over a year, covered the hush money payoff, $50,000 for technology services, a $60,000 bonus, plus some extra to cover taxes, paid out over a year.
Yes,” Cohen testified, referring to Trump. “He approved it.”
Trump then turned to Cohen, and said, “This is going to be one wild heck of a ride in DC,” Cohen testified.
Cohen earlier testified that Trump told him that Daniels’ story about Trump cheating on his wife Melania would be a “total disaster” if it came out.
“Women will hate me,” Trump admitted, per Cohen.
“Guys may think this is cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Trump added, according to Cohen.
The presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegedly falsely logging the reimbursements to Cohen for the payoffs as legal expenses on Trump Organization records.
Cohen — who will be back on the stand Tuesday — separately testified against his former boss at Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, where the ex-president’s lawyers took aim at Cohen’s status as a convicted felon who did prison time in part for a campaign finance crimes guilty plea related to the Daniels payoff.
He was sentenced in 2018 to three years behind bars but was released to home confinement after just over a year in May 2020 in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID in prisons.
The onetime Trump loyalist also testified Monday about the good times working for the real estate mogul, describing his decade-plus stint as Trump’s personal attorney as “amazing.”
But Cohen was then asked, “Did you lie for him?”
“I did,” he said from the stand. “It was what was needed in order to accomplish a task.”
“Did you bully people for him?” the prosecutor asked.
“All I wanted was to make the boss happy,” Cohen replied.
Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory
