As former President Trump’s hush money trial reached its 18th day, Thursday saw the most sustained attack on Michael Cohen's credibility from the former president’s legal team, the Hill reports. This week, the trial has been dominated by testimony from Cohen, Trump’s erstwhile attorney turned enemy. The day’s most dramatic exchange was over a phone call — and whether Cohen had testified truthfully about it earlier this week. Cohen made the call to the phone of Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, in 2016. Cohen has contended that he did this because he knew Schiller would be with Trump. Cohen says he and Trump went on to discuss the arrangements for paying off Daniels. The exchange over the phone call was the sharpest-edged moment in a broader effort by Blanche to dismantle Cohen’s credibility.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The underlying events revolve around a $130,000 payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 election. The money was intended to silence Daniels from going public with her claim that she had sex with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe a decade earlier. Cohen is a pivotal figure because he paid the money to Daniels out of his own funds. He was later reimbursed by Trump and a Trump-related trust— and had a bonus and other sums added. Prosecutors contend these reimbursements were falsely classified as legal expenses to conceal their true purpose — muting Daniels and thereby helping Trump’s chances of winning the election. Trump counters that the money paid to Cohen was indeed a legal expense, that he did nothing wrong, and that his prosecution is politically motivated. Trump also denies having sex with Daniels.
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