Former president Donald Trump directed his then-attorney Michael Cohen to keep a story of his alleged affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels out of the headlines until after the 2016 election, at which point he would no longer care about it, Cohen testified on Monday during his one-time boss’s “hush-money” criminal trial.
Cohen, who has since been disbarred, took the stand and answered questions from the prosecution on his work as Trump’s attorney and his working alongside The National Enquirer to kill negative stories about Trump during the 2016 election cycle, according to multiple reports.
He is the trial’s star witness because he was the one who paid Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from speaking publicly about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump ahead of the election. Cohen previously pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations tied to the payment and to perjuring himself before Congress, resulting in his disbarment. House Republicans referred Cohen to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution prior to his testimony.
Daniels was shopping her story around in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election as the Trump campaign was doing damage control in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump graphically discussed grabbing women’s genitals.
“Just take care of it,” Trump instructed Cohen when he raised the Daniels matter, Cohen said. He recalled Trump telling him to work with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to sort out the situation.
“I want you to just push it out as long as you can just get past the election. Because if I win it will have no relevance because I’m president. And if I lose, I don’t even care,” Trump said at the time, according to Cohen.
By October 11, Cohen and Daniels’ attorney, Keith Davidson, had an agreement to pay her $130,000 for the story. The agreement included a $1 million damages clause if she violated the it. Davidson strongly criticized Cohen during his testimony earlier in the criminal trial.
Daniels testified last week and graphically described her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, though the details are not particularly relevant for the case.
Trump is being prosecuted by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who has charged the former president with falsifying business records in connection to the reimbursements he sent to Cohen for the payment to Daniels.
During his testimony, Cohen described his decade of working for Trump as “fantastic.”
“Working for him, especially during those 10 years was … an amazing experience in many, many ways,” he said. “There were great times.”
Working with the press was part of Cohen’s job, and he sought to push positive stories about his boss, whom Cohen described as an impatient micromanager.
In 2015, Cohen and Trump had a meeting with Pecker where Pecker agreed to assist Trump by publishing negative stories about his opponents while covering Trump favorably. As part of the deal, Pecker agreed to help Cohen kill negative stories about Trump, Cohen said.
“What he said was that he could keep an eye out for anything negative about Mr. Trump, and that he would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out and try to stop it from coming out,” Cohen said.
Trump demanded Cohen prevent a story from coming out from a Trump Tower doorman who claimed that Trump fathered an illegitimate child, an allegation not considered to be credible. The National Enquirer paid the doorman $30,000 in summer of 2015 to kill the doorman’s story, and Trump was pleased with Cohen for orchestrating the deal, Cohen said.
Cohen said they ran the same playbook in the summer of 2016 when former Playboy model Karen McDougal began shopping a story about having an extramarital affair with Trump. Cohen worked with Pecker and National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard to squash the McDougal story for $150,000.
“Fantastic. Great job,” Trump reacted when the McDougal deal was finalized, Cohen said. Trump vowed to “take care of” the $150,000 payment.
The prosecution played audio from a phone call Cohen recorded between himself and Trump in 2016 to discuss opening a separate LLC “in order to have separation, keeping it away from Mr. Trump,” Cohen testified.
Trump instructed Cohen during the phone call to pay the McDougal reimbursement in cash. Trump’s attorneys have suggested that Cohen doctored the call, which he denies.
After the call, Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, discussed creating the LLC to handle the McDougal situation. He opened a company called Resolution Consultants LLC to make the payment to American Media Inc, the tabloid’s parent company.
The agreed upon payment to The National Enquirer for killing the McDougal story ended up being for $125,000 after McDougal went on the cover of Men’s Health magazine.
The testimony Cohen gave is similar to Pecker’s recollection of how the “catch-and-kill” deals functioned. Prosecutors are attempting to portray Cohen’s payment to Daniels as a broader conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
But Trump’s actual criminal charges are related to the business records themselves and the alleged efforts to conceal underlying crimes. Such campaign finance violations are a federal crime, though federal prosecutors have declined to pursue charges against Trump. Cohen’s campaign finance plea was for violating federal campaign finance law.
Trump’s attorneys have tried to paint the payments as nothing out of the ordinary and question the their purpose. They will likely raise questions about Cohen’s damaged credibility during cross examination.
This is a developing story and it will be updated.