Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial involving former president Trump’s cover-up of an affair, admitted Monday to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.
Cohen, whose credibility has been attacked by the defense, confirmed that in 2017 he requested $50,000 from the company’s CFO Allen Weisselberg to reimburse tech firm RedFinch.
In 2014, Cohen hired John Gauger, who owns the I.T. consulting firm RedFinch Solutions LLC, to write computer code that would artificially elevate Trump’s ranking in a number of online polls ahead of his presidential campaign. After Trump had gone months without fulfilling the bill to Gauger, Cohen said he gave RedFinch $20,000 cash to pacify them, asked the Trump Organization for the full $50,000 reimbursement, then pocketed the $30,000 difference.
Cohen testified that he stole the money because he felt slighted after his annual holiday bonus was reduced from the typical $150,000 to $50,000.
“I was angered because of the reduction in the bonus and so I just felt like it was self-help,” Cohen said.
Cross-examining Cohen Monday, Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked: “You stole from the Trump organization, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Cohen said.
“You did steal from the Trump Organization based upon the expected reimbursement, correct?” Blanche asked.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen testified, according to MSNBC.
Since he took the witness stand last week, Trump’s legal team has grilled ex-lawyer Cohen over his history of lies and public criticisms of his old boss. Portrayed by the defense as a resentful, obsessive ex-employee, Cohen is a now disbarred, convicted felon who pleaded guilty to perjury and various financial crimes connected to his work for Trump. Cohen emphasized during his testimony that he lied to protect Trump and falsified invoices for the reimbursements at the direction of Weisselberg.
During the trial, the defense pointed to Cohen’s anti-Trump public commentary and compared it to his past support for Trump, according to multiple reports.
“Do you want to see President Trump convicted in this case?” Blanche asked.
“Sure,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s testimony is key to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump on charges that he falsified business records of reimbursements to Cohen for paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from going public with allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump. In the courtroom Thursday, Cohen recalled his past claim that Daniels was extorting Trump and admitted the non-disclosure agreement she signed was a legally binding contract.
Bragg is prosecuting Trump on 34 counts for allegedly falsifying business records and allegedly doing so to conceal campaign finance crimes. Federal prosecutors are not currently pursuing a campaign finance case against Trump.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said that Michael Cohen confessed to more serious crimes during cross-examination than those alleged against Trump.
“The fact that he was never charged with larceny is important, because stealing $60,000 through fraud is more serious of a crime than falsifying business records,” Honig said.
Cohen testified last week about falsifying invoices for the reimbursements and Trump’s alleged involvement in the plan to pay Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied Daniels’s allegations and accused Bragg of waging a lawfare campaign against him to paralyze his 2024 presidential campaign.
Last week, Daniels testified and shared details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, despite its irrelevance to the criminal charges. The prosecution has attempted to weave the Daniels payment into a larger story: Trump conspiring to interfere in the 2016 election by concealing information about his affair from voters, which is not a crime.
Republican lawmakers have visited Trump’s trial in a show of solidarity. Trump is currently still gagged by Judge Juan Merchan and barred from speaking about witnesses and other key figures in the case, but he has violated the order several times and incurred significant fines for doing so.