NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Donald Trump turned vehement critic, faced a circus-like cross-examination Wednesday as the former president’s attorney took shots at the Trump defector and his accounts to law enforcement of Trump Organization business fraud.
In the hot seat after years of battling Trump on social media, in books, on a podcast and in frequent interviews, Cohen, a disbarred attorney, defended his second career as a self-styled Trump historian and truth-teller at a civil fraud trial over alleged financial fraud at the Trump Organization.
Trump attorney Alina Habba suggested that Cohen is not reliable, because he had a motive to make himself the center of a scandal at Trump’s namesake company. Cohen conceded he had a financial incentive to criticize his former boss.
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“A substantial amount of your present-day income is derived from publicly criticizing President Trump?” Habba asked.
“Amongst other people,” Cohen said. “It’s not just Trump only.”
Cohen’s testimony is likely to conclude Wednesday afternoon.
The former self-described “fixer” for Trump is considered key to the case, as the whistleblower whose insider accounts from a decade of employment at the Trump Organization led to New York Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company. The case has been at trial since Oct. 2.
Throughout the morning, the courtroom, including James (D), who was seated in the front row, erupted in laughter during Habba and Cohen’s lively arguments. Cohen began his testimony on Tuesday afternoon.
Trump, who was also in attendance, sat with a stern expression and his arms crossed at the defense table, sometimes shifting in his seat. He was visibly exasperated and smirked when Cohen described what he said was Trump’s direct role in the creation of false annual net-worth reports used to deceive lenders and insurance professionals.
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Trump’s door was “constantly open to executives — it was a constant carousel in his office,” Cohen testified.
The witness, the first on the attorney general’s roster to directly implicate Trump in wrongdoing, testified that for several years Trump instructed him and longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg to tinker with the value of his real estate and other assets to present the false net-worth figure Trump wanted.
In court, Habba also painted Cohen as a habitual liar, pointing to his perjury conviction and inconsistencies in public statements. Before their falling-out, Cohen praised Trump as the ideal candidate for president in 2016 and described having such a love for Trump that he would take a bullet for him.
Share this articleShareThe civil bench trial in New York Supreme Court could last until nearly the end of the year. A number of other witnesses have testified, including two longtime Trump executives who are named defendants. Trump and his adult sons are expected to testify.
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James is seeking the recovery of $250 million in what she alleges were ill-gotten gains. From 2011 to 2021, the company and its executives allegedly falsified the value of Trump’s assets to obtain discounts in dealings with banks and insurance firms.
James has also asked the judge to impose restrictions on the Trump Organization that would essentially cripple its ability to conduct business in New York.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case, has already found that the company, Trump, his adult sons and two longtime company executives are broadly responsible for committing fraud by deceiving lenders and insurance companies when they drastically inflated Trump’s net worth by up to $2.2 billion to reduce his perceived level of risk.
Engoron already ordered the cancellation of Trump’s business licenses in New York through a receivership process that would dissolve the entities. The summary judgment could cost Trump control of his New York properties, including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
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The trial is focused on whether specific illegal acts were committed in the course of the decade-long fraud. Even though James alleges crimes, the matter is civil, and no one involved can get jail time in the case.
Trump and his attorneys maintain that there was no wrongdoing and that asset valuations are subjective by nature. They also argue that the business partners who received the statements did not rely on them to make decisions about their deals with Trump.
Separately, Trump has four pending criminal cases in different jurisdictions. In D.C. and Fulton County, Ga., he is charged in connection with attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In Florida, federal prosecutors said he mishandled classified records that were hoarded at his Mar-a-Lago residence and private club.
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Trump also faces a criminal case in New York, where he is accused of falsifying business records in an alleged coverup of a 2016 payment meant to silence an adult-film actress who claimed she had a sexual encounter with him years before. Trump denies the affair and blamed Cohen for making any payment.
That case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), is also expected to rely heavily on Cohen’s account. The $130,000 payment Cohen made to the performer was allegedly reimbursed by Trump.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all criminal matters.
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