Category Archives: Michael Cohen

Trump hush-money judge to guide jury as trial wraps and deliberations begin

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If jurors reach verdict after judge Juan Merchan’s directives on the law, they’ll determine whether ex-president is guilty or not guilty

Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York inches towards its concluding stages Wednesday with the expected start of jury deliberations.

The deliberations are poised to commence after judge Juan Merchan instructs jurors on the law. Merchan’s directives on the law are intended on guiding jurors about how they are supposed to weigh the case.

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Election conspiracies are ‘done all the time’, Trump lawyer tells trial jurors

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Hush-money trial enters final stages as defense makes closing argument in case centered on allegedly falsified business records

Donald Trump’s secret plot to bury negative press ahead of the 2016 election deprived Americans of their right to choose a candidate at the ballot box, said the prosecution in its summation on Tuesday at the former president’s New York hush-money trial.

Steinglass’s closing statement reminded jurors of a summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where the real estate mogul sat with then consigliere Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker.

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Trump insists defense ‘had a great case’ as court resumes for jury instructions – live

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Ex-president back in court with entourage as hush-money trial moves closer to conclusion

Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial entered its 19th day on Monday in Manhattan with what has become a routine procession, with a phalanx of supporters that included his son, Eric, Kash Patel and the law professor Alan Dershowitz, a former leader of the New York Hells Angels chapter, and a disgraced former NYPD commissioner.

Here are some key takeaways from the day’s proceedings:

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Lawyer: Michael Cohen said ‘numerous times’ Trump didn’t know about Stormy Daniels payments – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the hush-money trial, read our full report:

Judge Juan Merchan is speaking about whether or not to restrict the testimony of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) expert, who the defense wanted to call.

Judge Juan Merchan says he expects closing arguments to be next Tuesday. “It’s become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,” Merchan says.

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Michael Cohen tells trial he once thought Stormy Daniels was extorting Trump over her story – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting below:

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and the court is in session.

Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for day 18 of his criminal trial.

Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican representative

Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican congresswoman

Eric Trump

Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide

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Don’t panic about presidential polls – yet

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Trump’s criminal hush-money trial continues in New York, while both Trump and Biden fight for voters in swing states

Hello! Welcome back to our new US elections newsletter.

Non-Trump supporters have been all jittery this week, after a poll appeared to show Joe Biden getting royally stuffed by Trump in the election.

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Cohen declines to bite at combative questions from Trump’s man Todd

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Todd Blanche seemed to be looking for a ‘gotcha’ – instead there was laughter in the viewing room and one irked judge

“Mr Trump, is Todd doing a good job?”

So shouted a pool reporter outside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon shortly after Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, started cross examining former fixer turned prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, in his criminal hush-money trial.

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Michael Cohen admits he wants to see Trump convicted in hush-money cross-examination – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting from court here:

Donald Trump is entering the courtroom. He was carrying papers, which he dropped on to the defense table before sitting.

Trump is joined by Florida congressman Cory Mills, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Eric Trump and Lara Trump.

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Michael Cohen: Stormy Daniels payment needed Trump sign off and he told me to ‘figure this whole thing out’ – live

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Former Trump lawyer tells trial that ex-president said, ‘Just do it. Go meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out’

More people here this morning in support of Donald Trump, per poolers:

JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is being floated as a potential Republican running mate to Trump

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator of Alabama

Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery in Arizona

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser

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Michael Cohen says Trump told him to bury Stormy Daniels story: ‘Just take care of it’

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Former fixer tells hush-money trial Trump was ‘really angry’ after account of alleged sexual liaison with adult film star emerged

Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”, according to trial testimony in Manhattan court on Monday.

“This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen, after he took the stand, recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”

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Text shows Stormy Daniels lawyer’s shock at Trump win in 2016: ‘What have we done?’

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Keith Davidson gives colorful testimony at former president’s hush-money trial about how agreements came together in 2016

As Donald Trump’s presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate’s alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: “What have we done?”

So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson – who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – in the ex-president’s criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.

This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to correct the amount of money that Davidson said in testimony that Michael Cohen sent to Stormy Daniels.

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Michael Cohen accidentally gave his lawyer fake citations, court filing says

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Former Trump lawyer says he used AI program Google Bard and blames his lawyer for not fact-checking him

Michael Cohen, the former attorney and fixer for ex-president Donald Trump, said in a newly unsealed court filing that he accidentally gave his lawyer fake legal citations that were made up by an artificial intelligence program.

In a sworn declaration made public on Friday, Cohen told a Manhattan judge that the sham citations had been generated by the AI program Google Bard, and had made their way into his lawyer’s filing because of a pair of misunderstandings – including his failure to realize that the information spat out by the program was not based in reality.

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Michael Cohen tells court Trump tasked him with reverse-engineering asset classes by ‘whatever number Mr Trump told us’ – live

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Trump’s former fixer testifies in ex-president’s civil fraud trial at Manhattan court

As the court breaks, here is a bit of background on the Trump-Cohen relationship:

In 2006, Cohen started working as Trump’s personal lawyer and served in that role for 10 years, according to The Hill.

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Michael Cohen says he inflated assets to ‘whatever number Trump told us to’

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Trump’s ex-fixer takes stand at New York fraud trial as former president, in attendance in court, attacks Cohen as ‘proven liar’

Donald Trump’s ex-fixer inflated the valuation of the former president’s assets to “whatever number Mr Trump told us to”, he has testified.

Michael Cohen made the allegation as he took the stand at Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York. His highly anticipated testimony is at the heart of the prosecutors’ case against his former boss.

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Donald Trump indicted by grand jury over hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

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Ex-president is expected to appear for his arraignment on Tuesday where he will be fingerprinted, photographed and processed for arrest

A grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.

No former US president has ever been criminally indicted. The news is set to shake the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in which Trump leads most polls.

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Manhattan prosecutor says Trump created ‘false expectation’ of imminent arrest – as it happened

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In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, CNN supreme court analyst Joan Biskupic reveals a body where the conservative majority fortified by Donald Trump is driving forward with decisions to change America – even as some of its members try to appear conciliatory in public.

She also describes chief justice John Robert’s decision to quickly move Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s papers from her office after she died in 2020, which offended some of her aides used to more relaxed transitions between justices.

Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court’s ground floor, where – before the ongoing pandemic – tourists could watch a film about court operations.

Grieving aides to the justice who’d served 27 years and become a cultural icon known as the “Notorious RBG” sorted through the chambers’ contents there.

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Michael Cohen to testify in Donald Trump hush-money investigation

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His appearance comes as the inquiry into the $130,000 the former president paid to Stormy Daniels comes to an end

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and intermediary in the Stormy Daniels hush-money affair, is scheduled to testify before a Manhattan grand jury on Monday about payments made to the adult film performer, according to a report on Saturday.

Cohen’s appearance before a grand jury convened by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg comes as prosecutors are believed to be nearing the end of an investigation into payments totaling $130,000 that Trump made to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to stop her discussing their alleged affair.

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Michael Cohen: prosecutors could ‘indict Trump tomorrow’ if they wanted

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New York investigation of Trump Organization is one of a number of sources of legal jeopardy for the former president

Prosecutors in New York could “indict Donald Trump tomorrow if they really wanted and be successful”, the ex-president’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said on Sunday, discussing investigations of Trump’s business affairs.

Asked if he was “confident you did help Donald Trump commit crimes”, Cohen told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I can assure you that Donald Trump is guilty of his own crimes. Was I involved in much of the inflation and deflation of his assets? The answer to that is yes.”

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Michael Cohen says he deserves early release from home confinement

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Cohen filed court papers contending he ‘could be eligible for release’ under the First Step Act that Trump signed into law in 2018

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, says he deserves early release from home confinement under Trump’s signature sentencing reform – but federal authorities refuse to credit him for good behavior and hundreds of hours of work and prison courses completed behind bars.

Related: Disloyal review: Michael Cohen's mob hit on Trump entertains – but will it shift votes?

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Disloyal review: Michael Cohen’s mob hit on Trump entertains – but will it shift votes?

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The president’s fixer wanted to be a Goodfella but ended up taking a fall. His revenge is a tawdrily readable tell-all memoir

Michael Cohen is no saint. Aside from the obvious, Donald Trump’s former fixer has never entered into a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, a fact duly noted by the US attorneys’ office for the southern district of New York in its sentencing memorandum. Because of that, the “inability to fully vet his criminal history and reliability impact his utility as a witness”.

Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic

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