'Not quite accurate': Legal expert demolishes Trump's false claim about his ex-lawyer

As Donald Trump's civil fraud trial was wrapping up in New York, the former president gave a politically angled press conference attacking the whole thing as a sham. But one of his claims stood out: that Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney and fixer who turned state's witness after a stint in prison for his role in a Trump hush-money payment scheme, has taken back all of the claims he made about Trump ordering fraudulent property valuations.

"He's got a lot of problems," Trump said of Cohen. "He's been a man who's been convicted of lying, he's a felon, a convicted felon. And not a good person. But that's their only witness, and he is now crashed and burned. They have no witnesses. And by the way, that witness took back everything he said in court. He took it all back."

Quite aside from the fact that there were several other witnesses including members of Trump's own family, it is not true that Cohen retracted his claims on the witness stand, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig pointed out in a fact-check panel on CNN shortly after the presser.

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"Trump ... claimed that Michael Cohen has recanted all of his testimony," said anchor Jake Tapper.

"That is not quite accurate," said Honig. "Michael Cohen was asked on the stand at one point, did Donald Trump ever tell you specifically to falsify these amounts, and Michael Cohen said — and he has been consistent on this — that is not how Donald Trump operated, he didn't give us explicit instructions, we understood the general marching order."

That is clearly not the same thing as Cohen taking back the allegations he made against Trump, Honig continued. "Michael Cohen has certainly got some credibility issues, but it was an overstatement as to what happened with Michael Cohen."

Watch the video below or click here.

Elie Honig debunks Trump's claims about Michael Cohen retracting his testimonywww.youtube.com