NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, on Tuesday informed jurors of a meeting that took place at the Oval Office, in 2017. It was in this meeting that the then-newly elected US president, allegedly confirmed a plan to ‘reimburse Cohen secretly’. This was essentially a hush money payment, to an adult film star.

Cohen is the prosecution’s ‘star witness’ for Trump’s criminal trial, in New York. He has acknowledged lying on multiple occasions, including under oath. However, Cohen did emphasise that he did so out of ‘loyalty’ to Trump, as prosecutors sought to pre-empt an expected defense attack on Cohen’s credibility.

In his first day as a witness on Monday (yesterday), Cohen laid out in ‘painstaking’ detail how Trump ordered him to pay the adult film actress, Stormy Daniels (just before the November 2016 election). Cohen remembered Trump saying “Just do it”, so (that) her story about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter could be kept ‘under wraps’.

The $130,000 payment from Cohen, in October 2016, is at the heart of Trump’s historic trial, (now in its fifth week). Trump aged 77, is the 2024 Republican presidential candidate and has pleaded ‘not guilty’, whilst simultaneously denying any sexual encounter with Daniels. He has characterised the case as a ‘partisan attempt’ to interfere with his campaign to take back the reins of the White House, which he lost in 2020 to the Democrat President, Joe Biden.

Prosecutors believe Trump paid Cohen back after the election, via false records which indicated they were ‘legal fees’. Those disguised reimbursements, provide the basis for the 34 counts of falsifying business records, which Trump is currently facing.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Cohen recounted the Oval Office meeting in February 2017 (cited above), where Trump told Cohen that he would soon receive the first monthly installments of a ‘bonus package’. Cohen said these included reimbursements for the Daniels payment.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2024