The former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen, is looking forward to the beginning of the hush money trial in New York on Monday.
Cohen is the man who paid Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her affair with Diaper Donald, Cohen’s pet name for his former boss. When Trump reimbursed Cohen and allegedly falsified documents to cover it up, it opened the door for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s 34-count indictment. The hush money trial may be the only trial Diaper Don sees before the election.
Trump’s defense is that Cohen is not credible.
Here’s Cohen’s counter:
I wish that when people state that “you lied to Congress,” that you’d do me the courtesy — do yourself the courtesy — of finishing the sentence. What is the sentence? That I had done that, really, for the benefit of Donald J. Trump. And that lie centered around the number of times that I had stated that I spoke to Donald about the failed Trump Tower Moscow real estate project — in conjunction with other lawyers Jay Sekulow, Abbe Lowell, Ty Cobb, with other individuals like Alan Garten or Ivanka [Trump] and Jared [Kushner]. Everybody worked on that statement. I was just the fool who went ahead and read it into the record and submitted it. But what benefit did I have in terms of saying three times versus 10? That’s the lie: That I claimed to have spoken to Donald three times about the failed Trump Tower Moscow real estate project, when the true answer was 10.
The public will be surprised at the corroborating evidence.
Cohen says the corroborating evidence is much stronger than what people have seen in headlines. What hasn’t been disclosed is how Bragg will connect the misdemeanor of falsifying business records — that recorded what were actually hush money payments — to another crime that Trump was trying to commit, which then makes this a felony.
Cohen was asked whether he thought Trump would testify in the trial.
Cohen says that’s what Diaper Don wants us to believe.
It would be worse than the deposition he gave at the E. Jean Carroll trial case, where he couldn’t even recognize that E. Jean Carroll was not his ex-wife, Marla Maples. Donald does not know how to tell the truth. He’s lied so many times that he cannot keep track of the lies. And one lie begets another lie. He would be putting himself into a perjury trap by taking the stand.
Although the trial starts Monday, Cohen expects it to be some time before he is called as the star, “clean-up” witness.
There’s no chance in the world that I’m testifying on Monday. The process starts with what’s called voir dire. That’s where they’re going to impanel the 12 jurors with the two alternates. They are going to pull out every stop they can to try to demonstrate to the judge that they can not get a fair jury — that they can not get a fair trial here in New York. And that way, somewhere down the road, they’re going to once again make another motion claiming that they need for Judge Merchan to be recused, that they need the venue to be changed because Donald is afforded, under the Constitution, the right to a fair trial. That’s their next move. It will not work.
Let’s say 30 days is what it will ultimately be before the jury gets impaneled. I’m not even expected to be one of the first witnesses. I’ll probably be more like in baseball: clean-up. I’ll be like a fourth or fifth batter. They’re going to keep me on that stand for as long as they possibly can, trying to discredit me. So that way, they can use that to try to make a case during appeal, why this case should not stand, and have it overturned.
Who does Cohen think Trump will pick as a VP?
Guaranteed it’ll be a woman, because he is right now so deep down into the dumpster when it comes to women that he needs to show that he’s not the sexist misogynist that he is. And I think if he could find a woman of color, that would be better. But he won’t do it. I see somebody like a Nancy Mace or maybe even [Sen. Katie] Britt, because of their looks.
From Politico Magazine