I watched the coverage….
I agree with those who say Cohen , under the direction of the DA’s questioning, did fine with connecting his old boss, the ex-President Donald Trump, to having knowledge of the efforts of hiding the payments to Stormy Daniels and Susan McDougal…
Cohen may have had his own issues with the law….
But on the stand?
He sang a song Donald Trump was the center of…..
He’ll be in it on cross-examination….
Cohen, who pleaded guilty to making false statements in a separate case, calmly sat on the stand all day, answering questions. Prosecutors will continue their direct examination of Cohen on Tuesday, with cross-examination from the defense to follow.
Here are key takeaways from Cohen’s Monday testimony…..
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Before the Daniels hush money payment, Cohen testified that he coordinated other deals with people who claimed to have negative stories about Trump. There was $30,000 paid to a former Trump Tower doorman who said Trump had a secret child with a former employee. There was $150,000 paid to a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump.
In each instance, Cohen said, Trump was aware of what was happening and directed that Cohen do what was needed to kill the stories. When it came to Daniels — whose hush money payments led to the criminal charges — Trump’s involvement was no different, according to Cohen.
“Just take care of it,” Cohen said Trump responded when he learned that Daniels was shopping around her story. Cohen told prosecutors that meant Trump wanted him to buy the rights to Daniels’s story so no one else could publish it.
Cohen said he updated Trump about how he coordinated the payments because he wanted his boss to give him credit for his work. And when it came to the Daniels’s payment, Cohen fronted the money and wanted Trump to reimburse him.
“Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off,” Cohen said. “On top of that, I wanted the money back.”
Cohen later testified that Trump was in the room with him and Trump Organization CFO Allan Weisselberg in 2017 when they discussed how and when they would structure the repayments to Cohen…..
image…RFI