Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is being dragged into court this week by the ex-president's lawyers who are hoping his testimony will help them fend off a $250 million business fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
According to an exclusive report from the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, the former Trump fixer has been avoiding demands that he sit for a deposition where he will be questioned by Trump attorney Alina Habba about accusations that the former president overvalued his properties.
With the fate of the Trump Organization in the balance, the report notes the "case that seeks to destroy his[Trump's] family company—and forbid him and his progeny from serving as business executives in the state."
According to the report, "So far, the AG’s investigators have built a case that relies largely on thousands of documents that plainly show Trump inflating the cost of several real estate projects, sometimes going through ridiculous lengths to snag a better deal. In the most outrageous example, Trump tripled the size of his palatial apartment in Trump Tower—simply making up nearly 20,000 square feet of space that doesn’t exist. But Cohen has the potential to, as prosecutors often say in other cases, 'breathe life into the documents.'"
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However, as Pagliery wrote, Cohen's testimony could backfire.
"Trump’s lawyers are expected to use Friday’s deposition as an opportunity to attack Cohen’s credibility—an effort to undermine any value he might serve as a witness at the October trial," he wrote before adding, "And while it’s Trump’s attorneys who are calling Cohen to be deposed, it’s anyone’s guess which side he’ll ultimately benefit."
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