Michael D. Cohen, the do-anything fixer who once boasted of burying Donald J. Trump’s secrets and spreading his lies, took the stand at the former president’s criminal trial in Manhattan on Monday and exposed those machinations to the jury and the world.
Narrating the prosecution’s case in tell-all detail, Mr. Cohen testified that Mr. Trump in 2016 had personally directed him to pay off a porn star and had approved a dubious reimbursement plan.
“Just do it,” the former fixer recalled Mr. Trump saying about the hush-money payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels.
After Mr. Trump had won the White House, Mr. Cohen demanded his money back, he said, and met with Mr. Trump, who approved monthly reimbursements. Then, the president-elect changed the subject to his new job, saying “This is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.”
Over nearly five hours of testimony, Mr. Cohen painted a damning portrait of his relationship with Mr. Trump, decoded their shady vernacular and spotlighted the conduct at the center of the first criminal trial of an American president: the silencing of women who had stories of sex with Mr. Trump to tell and to sell.
