LOS ANGELES.–Disbarred, convicted felon former Atty. Michael Cohen, 57, arrived in Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom today as District Atty. Alvin Bragg’s star witness in his case against 77-year-old President Donald Trump. Cohen raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, after convicted of lying to Congress and a wide variety of felonies completely unrelated to his work for Trump. Yet the usually boisterous and bravado-appearing former attorney appeared sheepish to prosecutors and the jury, hoping to salvage what’s left of Cohen’s shaky credibility. Cohen has a vendetta with Trump for not pardoning him after leaving office in 2020, now acting in the most disloyal fashion imaginable serving as the prosecution’s star witness against Trump in his hush money trial with Bragg looking to convict Trump on 34 felonies, largely related to bookkeeping.
Bragg’s case against Trump attempts to show that Trump improperly charged off payouts to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, both women that alleged affairs with Trump in 2006, ten years before Trump ran for president. Trump has denied both trysts, saying the women were trying, because of his wealth and celebrity status, to extort money from him. Trump instructed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the extortion and blackmail attempts by Stormy and McDougal. Direct examination by DA’s Susan Hoffinger, chief of the D.A.’s investigation division, went through, in some detail, how Cohen met Trump to wind up being his so-called “fixer” to handle various legal problems to the New York real estate tycoon and reality TV star. Cohen admitted he went from working in New York’s shadowy Taxi medallion business to eventually working for Trump in 2007.
Hoffinger presented Cohen as a bedraggled witness to the jury, someone swept up in various activities, working for Trump. “It was fantastic working for him, especially during those 10 years. It was an amazing experience in many, many ways. There were great times. There were several less than great times, but for the part, I enjoyed the responsibilities that were given to me,” Cohen told Hoffinger, admitting he liked working for Trump. Hoffinger is doing everything to make Cohen look like a sympathetic witness, when he’s anything but. Can you imagine you’re former attorney stabbing you in the back, breaking attorney-client privilege to denounce Trump for the last three years since getting out prison? Cohen appears as a guest pundit in the anti-Trump media, doing everything possible to deny Trump as fair trial to see him convicted.
Cohen’s multiple felonies that lost him his law license and resulted in months of prison were related to his own personal corruption whether illegally selling NY City taxi medallions, income tax evasion, lying to Congress, bank and wire fraud, etc., all completely unrelated to Trump except for one charge related to campaign finance violations related to the payouts to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. “Did you bully people for him,” Hoffinger asked Cohen.
Yes . . . in order to accomplish the task. The only thing on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy,” Cohen said, acting like it pleased Trump to know his personal attorney committing multiple felonies while working for Trump. Hoffinger’s job is to buffalo the jury into thinking Trump transformed innocent Cohen into a sleazy criminal, not part of Cohen’s criminal character but all because of his work for Trump.
Adversarial proceedings in the U.S. criminal justice system have both sides trying to win at all costs. But why would the DA deliberately rehabilitate a hopelessly tainted witness who was in the center of the decision to arrange extortion payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. In the case of McDougal, she was paid for her story about her tryst with Trump by former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. Pecker already testified that the Enquirer paid for various stories and would sometimes publish them, sometimes not. But if you listen to Bragg, it was criminal behavior to engage in what’s called “catch-and-kill,” the process of paying for a story and not publishing it. When it came to Stormy Daniels, Cohen arranged to take care of her extortion demand with a direct $130,000 payment, something Cohen arranged as part of his legal duties for Trump.
Bragg’s case against Trump is prosecutorial abuse at the most corrupt levels, because no other defendant for the same infraction would have been charged with 34 felonies. Bragg is a Democrat political hack, who ran his campaign for DA on the promise of prosecuting Trump, something his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. refused to do because of a lack of evidence. Bragg has no more evidence today than Vance, only testimony by a disbarred, convicted felon former attorney that likes to spend his time on CNN and MSNBC denouncing Trump. Judge Merchan only recently asked Bragg to keep his star witness off his favorite pastime of disparaging Trump on national TV. No jury in their right mind can believe anything Cohen says, knowing his vendetta with Trump and all his time spent on CNN and MSNBC yucking it up with Trump-hating hosts.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
