New York State Criminal Case Against Trump (71543-23)

In the first few weeks of the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, witnesses have cast Michael D. Cohen as a bully, a nervous wreck and, as one witness put it, a “jerk.”That may not make Mr. Cohen, the one-time lawyer and fixer for Mr. Trump, seem like the ideal witness in the first criminal trial of an American president. But prosecutors — anticipating the attacks Mr. Trump’s lawyers will mount against the man who once called himself the former president’s “designated thug” — have introduced those unflattering characterizations as a way to desensitize the jury to Mr. Cohen’s bracing presence.On Tuesday, one of the prosecutors, Susan Hoffinger, walked Mr. Cohen again through previous testimony about “monetizing” his role as Trump’s personal lawyer by using it to attract other clients — another attempt to present and defang Mr. Cohen’s behavior themselves, before what is expected to be a cross-examination bent on undermining his credibility.Mr. Trump’s legal team, which has taken aim at Mr. Cohen before, is expected to paint him as a rogue actor who caused more problems than he fixed. They have promised to seize on Mr. Cohen’s credibility and criminal record — Mr. Trump is fond of noting that he is a “convicted liar” — and portray him as a scorned underling seeking revenge against the former president.Mr. Cohen does have baggage: In August 2018, he has pleaded guilty to a number of crimes, including breaking campaign finance laws with a pair of hush-money payments to women who had said they’d had sex with Mr. Trump.One of those payments, to the porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, is at the heart of the case. Mr. Cohen is expected to offer his firsthand account of how the new president subsequently reimbursed him but falsified records to disguise the reimbursement as legal expenses.While the prosecutors introduced witnesses to corroborate much of Mr. Cohen’s account, they have invited those same witnesses to offer their unflattering views of him.Hope Hicks, Mr. Trump’s former spokeswoman, scoffed at the notion that Mr. Cohen would have made the $130,000 hush-money payment to Ms. Daniels out of the kindness of his heart because doing so “would be out of character for Michael,” an insulting comment that nonetheless supported Mr. Cohen’s story.The intent, it appears, is to suck the air out of the defense’s attacks and turn Mr. Cohen into an object of amusement for the jury. Already, his name has drawn smiles from some of the jurors, who will now evaluate his credibility for themselves.Prosecutors also made sure to enter into evidence the voice of a man who had once found Mr. Cohen essential.“Michael Cohen is a very talented lawyer,” Mr. Trump said, in a recording from a news conference in 2017 that was played in the courtroom. “He’s a good lawyer at my firm.” More

He was known by many titles — “lawyer,” “special counsel,” even one he gave himself, “designated thug” — but when Michael D. Cohen’s testimony began Monday morning at the criminal trial of his former boss, Donald J. Trump, he was asked about the most common: fixer. “It’s fair,” the witness acknowledged, before describing the job. He tried to manage what the news media said about Mr. Trump, even the puff pieces — he instructed the National Enquirer, wary of how it would play among women, not to mention that Trump used to date a Penthouse magazine model. Over time, Mr. Cohen became a key player in the catch-and-kill deals described to jurors over several days of testimony thus far. Mr. Cohen said Monday that when he learned of Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, his response was: “She’s really beautiful.” Mr. Cohen says he warned Mr. Trump that Ms. McDougal was shopping her story, and Mr. Trump told him to “make sure it doesn’t get released.”They enlisted the help of The National Enquirer, whose parent company, American Media Inc., ended up paying $150,000 to buy the rights to her story and then bury it.By then, in the lead-up to the 2016 election, he talked to Mr. Trump every single day, by phone or in person at impromptu meetings that began, “Boss, do you have a second?” he testified. Mr. Trump avoided email, because of a fear of creating a paper trail, potentially for prosecutors, he testified.His work included scouting the occasional deal, including foreign projects that never materialized, like a plan for a Trump Tower in Moscow. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More