Trump Lawyer Totally Unleashes On Michael Cohen in Heated Closing Argument: ‘He Lied to You’
Closing arguments from the defense in Trump porn star hush money trial on Tuesday focused largely on attacking the credibility of Michael Cohen – Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer whose testimony is central to the case.
Trump is standing trial over his alleged role in falsifying business documents to pay hush money to several figures, including porn star Stormy Daniels, so that damaging stories about him would not make headlines ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Cohen made those payments on Trump’s behalf and has testified that Trump explicitly ordered those stories suppressed to influence the outcome of the election, which is part of the criminal charges against Trump.
“As expected, Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen Michael Cohen is seemingly on trial here as well, and they’re wanting the jury to essentially see this entire case based upon Michael Cohen,” MSNBC correspondent Yasmin Vossoughian reported from outside the courthouse.
Vossoughian also noted that DA Alvin Bragg was in court today taking notes — a rare appearance at the trial.
She later added, “One of the things I think is important to mention, as we talk about Michael Cohen being the focus of the defense’s closing arguments, here is what I’m learning from the prosecution when it comes to their closing arguments.”
“While they will bring up Michael Cohen to help build the timeline throughout their 4.5-hour closing arguments, they will be focusing in mainly and solely on, as we thought they would, also, during Michael Cohen’s testimony, the documents. They still understand how problematic or, the credibility issues I should say, that Michael Cohen has and they will be focusing in on those documents. Right. The First Republic Bank document, we bring this up over and over again. But the First Republic Bank document in which Allen Weisselberg scribbled on grossing up to $420,000, doing the actual math that paid back reimbursed, as Michael Cohen alleges, Michael Cohen,” Vossoughian concluded — referring to Trump repaying Cohen for the hush money payments central to the case.
Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche sought to reinforce doubts about Cohen’s credibility during his closing arguments – telling the jury that Cohen had repeatedly lied to them.
MSNBC contributor Adam Klasfeld reported on specifically the kind of swings Blanche took at Cohen in his closing:
Blanche calls Cohen’s explanation that he interrupted the recording to pick up a phone call from a bank employee “ridiculous.”
Then, pointing to the phone records, Blanche says that call to Cohen went to voicemail.
Blanche:
“He lied to you when he said he answered that call.”
Klasfeld explained the importance of Blanche’s point, “This is the second time that Blanche used extrinsic evidence to undermine Cohen’s account of an alleged conversation with Trump. The first, to great fanfare, was Blanche confronting Cohen about the 14-year-old prankster spurring the call to Keith Schiller.”
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
