Michael Cohen, the former attorney and “fixer” for former President Donald Trump, is expected to take the stand for several days starting Monday as part of the ongoing investigation involving Trump’s business dealings. However, Cohen’s credibility was put under scrutiny by CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Friday, who pointed out the ex-lawyer’s history of dishonesty.
“I’ve never seen a witness who’s lied to Congress, who’s lied in court, who’s lied to the IRS, who’s lied to the Southern District of New York, who lied to his banker,” Honig explained. “The entire prosecution witness team has been lied to by Michael Cohen.”
Cohen’s testimony follows that of Trump’s former White House executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, who continued her own statements yesterday, along with a Trump Organization employee. Both provided insight into Trump’s involvement in business matters. Adult film actress Stormy Daniels also recently testified, facing cross-examination from Trump’s legal team, who tried to cast doubt on her allegations by pointing to inconsistencies in past interviews.
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Cohen worked closely with Trump for over a decade, serving as a key legal and business advisor. However, Cohen’s relationship with Trump soured, leading to his involvement in several investigations scrutinizing Trump’s business practices. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges related to campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress, which were connected to his work for Trump and his efforts to conceal payments to individuals like Stormy Daniels. Cohen cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified against Trump during various investigations. Cohen has since become a vocal critic of the former president and wrote a book about his experiences.
Trump is confronting 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up reimbursing his former attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels. Trump has consistently denied both the charges and the alleged affair. Speaking to reporters after the third week of the trial concluded on Friday, Trump said he would “be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution,” while criticizing those involved in the prosecution.
“If anything’s mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people, anything’s even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail,” Trump said as he showcased media articles related to the trial. “That could happen one day and I’d be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution.”
He specifically criticized Judge Juan Merchan, claiming, “What he’s doing is so unconstitutional. There’s never been anything like it.” Trump was also critical of Merchan’s direction for prosecutors to instruct Michael Cohen not to make statements about Trump or the case, while declining to issue a gag order on Cohen, which the defense had previously requested.
“There is no gag order to Michael Cohen. What the judge did was amazing. Actually, it was amazing. Everybody can say … whatever they want, but I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody. It’s a disgrace,” Trump stated. “And you see it, the media sees it, and it’s really very sad. If you look at the legal experts and the legal scholars, every one of them say this trial is a scam.”