Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, began his testimony Monday by admitting that he lied for his boss.
Trump is on trial for 34 felonies that involve the falsification of business records to conceal a payment to actress and director Stormy Daniels, who alleged they'd had a sexual encounter back in 2006.
“Did you, at times, lie for him?” Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger asked.
“I did,” Cohen replied. “The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task to make him happy."
Read Also: Michael Cohen: Trump mastered the art of the dodge to avoid accountability — until now
Reporters inside the courtroom explained that Cohen testified that when he answered questions before Congress in 2019, Trump didn't give firm instructions to lie, "per se."
"Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress in 2019. That's not how he operates," said Cohen. "So, he doesn't give you questions. He doesn't give you orders. He speaks in a code, and I understand the code because I've been around him for a decade."
Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee tweeted that the conversation quickly turned to asking about Trump running for president.
Cohen said that he and Trump specifically discussed that if he ran for president, "there's going to be a lot of women." They then discussed ways to use the National Enquirer to their benefit.
For example, AMI, the parent company of the Enquirer, would send over cover stories accusing other Republican candidates of a slew of untrue, bizarre accusations. One included Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in a pool full of men on some kind of drug binge. Others targeted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose father was falsely accused of working with Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot President John F. Kennedy.
"That's fantastic. That's unbelievable," Cohen recalled Trump saying about the story covers.
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