Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and a key witness in his hush money trial, has quite a few detractors in the New York courtroom.
Prosecutors have been contributing to skepticism about their star witness by highlighting personality flaws and his alleged wrongdoing. Those prosecutors, jurors, and even the judge in the case have criticized Cohen’s actions. It may not make sense that prosecutors are using him as a critical cog in a machine that aims to convict Trump on 34 felony counts and could be undermining the former attorney’s credibility at the same time.
But it’s intentional.
Prosecutors are hoping the jury dislikes Cohen enough to reflect those feelings as a “boomerang” effect against Trump, who once called him a “very talented lawyer.” They are trying to put Cohen in a frame on their own terms — before the former president’s team can do so and discredit the prosecution’s calling of him as a witness.
“This is an interesting trial, in that you have the most problematic defendant and the most problematic witness in the same case,” veteran criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor Robert Katzberg said. “Prosecutors guard their credibility with the jury by bringing out all the bad stuff on direct examination. A prosecutor never wants to be seen by the jury as hiding something from them.”
And prosecutors have a lot of dirt on Cohen that they need to show they are not trying to hide.
Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles lawyer who testified in the case, compared Cohen to Dug, the talking dog from Disney’s Up, in that he displays personality traits akin to a canine’s attention deficit. Dug often favored squirrels in the movie.
Outside of learning Davidson’s awareness of popular animated movies, the lawyer expressed those feelings to the jury so they could digestibly understand Cohen’s rapid-fire, chaotic personality.
Davidson once called that personality after a talent manager named Gina Rodriguez said “some jerk” was abusive to her over the phone. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass made sure to highlight who that jerk was, asking Davidson who he had called.
“It was Michael Cohen,” he said. Davidson received little warning as Cohen answered, screamed, and bombarded him with insults with no initial verbal explanation about the animosity.
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Cohen, once a formidable Trump supporter, shifted his views to often denigrate the former president. That opinion shift led to his testifying in the case, and he has pledged to tell the truth.
The tricky line between driving the jury to hate Cohen enough to reflect on Trump, but not enough to discredit his testimony is one prosecutors will likely tiptoe in the coming weeks.