Trump's ex-fixer Michael Cohen poised to be key witness in criminal case
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[April 03, 2023]
By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former lawyer for Donald Trump who once said he
would do anything to protect the former U.S. president is now poised to
serve as a key witness in the criminal trial of his longtime boss.
Michael Cohen, who became a top executive at Trump's real estate company
and then his personal lawyer, testified twice before the Manhattan grand
jury that voted on Thursday to indict Trump following an investigation
into a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 U.S.
presidential election.
Cohen has said that Trump directed him to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep
her from speaking about a sexual encounter she has said she had with
Trump in 2006, meaning he will likely be a prominent witness if the case
goes to trial.
Trump, who has launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, has
denied having had such an encounter with Daniels, whose real name is
Stephanie Clifford, and said he did not direct Cohen. Trump has called
Cohen a "serial liar" and "convicted felon."
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After it was disclosed on Thursday that Trump was indicted, the former
president said he was "completely innocent" and called the case
"political persecution and election interference." The specific charges
have not yet been made public.
Cohen's potential role as a star witness against Trump marks the
culmination of his 15-year arc from being the
businessman-turned-politician's loyal "fixer" to an outspoken
antagonist.
"I will do anything to protect Mr. Trump," Cohen told Fox News in 2017.
Cohen's stance had changed dramatically by 2019, when he testified
before a U.S. congressional committee and said, "I am ashamed because I
know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat."
'DONALD'S ARCH-NEMESIS'
On Friday, after Trump's indictment, Cohen said his goal in cooperating
with authorities was to "speak truth to power."
"I decided that I was not going to allow history to remember me as the
villain to his story," Cohen told Reuters in an interview. "If speaking
truth to power makes me Donald's arch-nemesis, so be it."
Cohen was hired as the Trump Organization's executive vice president and
special counsel in 2007. Before that, the Long Island native and son of
a Holocaust survivor worked as a malpractice lawyer and owned a fleet of
yellow taxis.
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![](../images/040323PIX/news_r85.jpg)
Michael Cohen, the former personal
attorney of U.S. President Donald Trump, is sworn in to testify
before a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on Capitol
Hill in Washington, U.S., February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/03/images/ads/current/graue_lda_ENCOREpreowned_020723.jpg)
Cohen said in the interview he was hired after he had orchestrated
the ouster of the board of directors of a condominium in which he
owned an apartment, a board that was trying to remove Trump's name
from the building's exterior.
Cohen later advised Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and, as his
personal lawyer, remained close to Trump once he became president,
though he did not have an official job at the White House.
In 2018, after the hush money payment to Daniels came to light,
Cohen initially said he paid with his own money and that neither the
Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization reimbursed him.
He later pleaded guilty to a federal campaign finance law violation
for paying Daniels, and then testified in Congress that Trump told
him to make the payment. He said he was reimbursed in installments,
and displayed a copy of a $35,000 check from Trump's personal bank
account.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for making unlawfully
excessive campaign contributions and other crimes, including
cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress
about when the Trump Organization stopped working on a proposed
building project in Russia. Cohen served more than a year before
being released.
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Relying on Cohen's testimony presents risks for Manhattan District
Attorney Alvin Bragg, given the disbarred lawyer's history of false
statements and shifting accounts of the payment to Daniels. That
could provide fertile ground for Trump's defense lawyers during
cross-examination at trial.
Cohen, who is married and has two children, has said he has taken
responsibility for his wrongdoing. He has also said that much of his
criminal conduct - including the lie to Congress and the Daniels
payment - arose out of his blind loyalty to Trump.
On Friday, Cohen told Reuters he expected Trump and his allies to
attack him.
"It's all part of the playbook," Cohen said.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by
Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)
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