Michael Cohen confesses to helping Trump inflate assets in fraud trial
Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen took the stand on Tuesday in the Trump Organization fraud trial that will decide the fate of the company.
MSNBC's Lisa Rubin was among those in the courtroom live-tweeting the proceedings, as was The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld.
The first questions were about Trump Tower Moscow, a project to build a skyscraper in Russia, which Cohen said he lied about at the direction of Trump.
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Trump attorney Chris Kise moved to strike Cohen's answer as non-responsive, saying, "I don't know if that's from a book that he's writing."
But Judge Arthur Engoron overruled the objection: "It could have been shortened, but it was responsive."
Klasfeld said that the Attorney General's office then asked about the initial business he did for Trump.
"I was asked to handle a few other matters for Mr. Trump, which also resolved successfully," said Cohen, according to Klasfeld. "He asked me if I would like to leave that sleepy old firm," referring to Phillips, Nizer, where he was working at the time, "and join him."
He explained he never reported to anyone beyond Donald Trump, and he worked outside of the Trump Org. legal department.
Questions then turned to Donald Trump Jr., one of the company's vice presidents and a key figure on the television show "The Apprentice." Cohen describes Eric Trump as being involved in the development and acquisitions side of the Trump Org.
"He concentrated on golf as well as, again, different opportunities that would come into the company, Don, Eric and Ivanka would split" up the different deals, Cohen said.
As for former CFO Allen Weisselberg, Cohen states, “Every financial transaction went through his office.” All of the invoices from Cohen's firm, for example, went to Weisselberg to be processed.
Jeff McConney, Cohen said, also “worked predominantly for Allen Weisselberg” but also reported to “Mr. Trump if it was necessary.” He explained that McConnery did “all of the bookkeeping.”
"Cohen now says he worked on statements of financial condition, which he characterized as a complete listing of all of the assets of the Trump Org with each asset broken down into an asset class, with a value, along with the Org’s liabilities," Rubin reported from the courtroom. "The goal was to create a statement of financial worth for Trump personally."
He went on to testify that he understood the financial statements "were to be used to demonstrate net worth, for acquisitions, and for insurance purposes and that they were meant to be shared with third parties, including by presenting them to insurance brokers brought to the Trump Org by its main broker," Rubin recounted.
Both the acquisition of the Doral Club in Miami and his attempted purchase of the Buffalo Bills were things that Cohen recalled observing.
Prosecutors then walked through a slate of financial documents asking for Cohen's involvement in them and what he knew about them.
"I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that [Trump] arbitrarily elected," Cohen testified according to Klasfeld's transcript. "And my responsibility, along with Allen Weisselberg, predominately, was the reverse-engineer the various asset classes — increase those assets to achieve the number that Mr. Trump asked us."
The fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James relies heavily on testimony Cohen gave to Congress in 2019 in which he said that Trump, “Inflated his assets when it served his purposes."
He also testified that he had evidence to prove it.
Cohen felt abandoned by Trump when he was taken to court – and ultimately jailed – over his part in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who had an affair with Trump just months after his third wife, Melania, had their son – and which Trump is accused of trying to silence.
Since then, Cohen has sued Trump for unpaid legal fees, and won. He has written two best-selling books attacking Trump and spends his days on his "Mea Culpa" podcast blasting his former client. As former Fox host Chris Wallace said, "Hell hath no fury like a fixer scorned."
"If you really want to get to Donald, the way to do it is through his bankbook," explained Cohen in an interview with CNN. "Not by saying he is a narcissistic sociopath, or he is definitely not 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. You go after the wallet. Once you start hitting that bankbook, that is what gets to him."
"You are someone who was incredibly close to Donald Trump," interviewer Kaitlan Collins said. "There was a reason you were able to provide that information to the congressmen and the congresswomen. Do you think he regrets your relationship was severed, seeing how this ended up?"
"Most human beings would say, absolutely," the former lawyer said. "It was a grave mistake. Donald does not see things that way. He may feel it when he is by himself and reflecting upon it. When it comes to openly acknowledging and admitting, Donald is incapable of fault."
