Jury hears audio of Trump-Cohen conversation
They’re playing the September 2016 tape in which Michael Cohen and Donald Trump can be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
In the tape, Cohen can be heard explaining to the then presidential candidate his plans to open a company through which he would finance the purchase of the rights to McDougal’s story.
Trump can be heard saying:
Let me know what’s happening, OK? … For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it’s so false what they’re saying, it’s such bullshit.
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The recording, Cohen said, was meant to be proof that Trump would cover Pecker, “to appease him that he was going to receive the money back.”
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Hoffinger asked shortly thereafter, “did you ever alter that recording?” Cohen says no.
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They’re playing the September 2016 tape in which Michael Cohen and Donald Trump can be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
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In the tape, Cohen can be heard explaining to the then presidential candidate his plans to open a company through which he would finance the purchase of the rights to McDougal’s story.
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Trump can be heard saying:
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Let me know what’s happening, OK? … For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it’s so false what they’re saying, it’s such bullshit.
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Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, sent Michael Cohen an email in early August 2016, asking Cohen to call him.
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“Great job, [the] Boss is obviously very happy about it. The matter’s now resolved,” Cohen recalled telling Davidson.
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Cohen is now talking about repayment to American Media Inc. “David had asked me when he should anticipate receiving, being paid back the $150,000,” Cohen said. Pecker needed the money, Cohen said:
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It was too much money from him to hide from the CEO of the parent company and he had also just laid out 30,000 previous so he was putting pressure on me to speak to Mr Trump and get the money back.
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They had lunch in September 2017, where Pecker pressed Cohen more.
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He asked me if I would meet him at his favorite Italian restaurant and I went to meet with him and again, he expressed his anger that I need to get this money back. And I said look, Mr Trump told you he’d pay it back.’
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In June 2016, Michael Cohen said he was present when Donald Trump had a conversation with former American Media Inc chair David Pecker.
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Trump “had the call put through and he had a speakerbox on his desk and instead of lifting up the phone, he used the speakerbox so I was able to hear,” Cohen testifies.
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What did he recall from that conversation? Cohen says:
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He asked him how things were going with the matter and David said, ‘we have this under control and we’ll take care of this.’
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Cohen continues:
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David had stated that it’s going to cost him $150,000 to control the [Karen McDougal] story to which Mr Trump replied, ‘no problem, I’ll take care of it.’
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Cohen said that AMI as going to lay out the funds and as Mr Trump had stated to David, said ‘I’ll take care of it.’ It hadn’t been sorted out exactly how Trump would repay Pecker, he said.
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Now we’re on to Karen McDougal, the Playboy bunny who claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump.
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When Michael Cohen was apprised by his American Media Inc pals that she was trying to tell her story, he went to Trump right away.
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“I asked him if he knew who Karen McDougal was,” Cohen recalled.
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His response to me was: She’s really beautiful. I said, OK but there’s a story that’s right now being shopped.
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What did Trump tell him to do?
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Make sure it doesn’t get released.
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What did you take that to mean?
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We need to acquire the story. I went ahead and reached back out to both Dylan Howard as well as David Pecker.
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Michael Cohen says he learned that in fall 2016, he’d heard that a former Trump Tower doorman said that he had a “love-child.”
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He told Donald Trump because he wanted to get his direction on what he wanted done. Cohen says:
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He told me to make sure that the story doesn’t get out – you handle it.
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As for the effected employees, Cohen says:
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He asked me to speak to them and let me know it’s getting taken care of.
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To prevent it from going public, “I worked with [the National Enquirer’s] Dylan Howard and David Pecker.”
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He said that Pecker was going to buy the life rights to the doorman’s story. Along the way, Cohen testified, Pecker and/or Howard would give him updates.
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In turn, Cohen said, he would update Trump “immediately” whenever he learned something.
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The prosecution asks if Michael Cohen made public appearance for Donald Trump and his campaign. Cohen says he did.
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While watching the rallies, I went to Mr Trump and I said, one of the things that I noticed is, it’s very white, and we really need diversity. If we’re going to win, we’re going to need diversity. And so I started a group called National Diversity Coalition for Trump along with pastor Darrell Scott.
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Cohen said that Trump had expressed concern about negative press when he announced.
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You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward.
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Michael Cohen recalled that he’d call Donald Trump Boss or Mr Trump. He described his time at the Trump Organization in a wistful tone.
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It was fantastic. Working for him, especially during those 10 years, was an amazing experience in many, many ways. There were great times, there were several less-than great times, but for the most part, I enjoyed the responsibility that was given to me. I enjoyed working with my colleagues at The Trump organization, the Trump children. It was a big family.
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Did you at times lie for him? “I did.”
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Why? Cohen said he did “what [was] needed to accomplish a task.”
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Did you bully people for him?
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Again, in order to accomplish a task. The only thing on my mind was [to] accomplish a task to make him happy.
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Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks whether Donald Trump ever communicated by email. Michael Cohen says no, and provides an eyebrow-raising explanation.
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Mr Trump never had an email address.
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“Did he ever comment to you about why he didn’t have one?” During certain conversations, he would comment, “emails are like written papers,” Cohen recalls, saying Trump stated:
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It’s too many people that have gone down as a direct result of having emails that prosecutors can use in a case.
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When you saying going down, do you mean getting in some sort of trouble? Hoffinger asks. Cohen responds: “Yes, ma’am.”
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He also says that Trump had an “open door policy.”
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“Did you work with the press to try to minimize negative stories and sort of enhance positive stories about Mr Trump and his business?” Michael Cohen replies: “Yes.”
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Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is using Cohen’s testimony to establish that Donald Trump and Cohen worked extremely closely with one another – that the former personal attorney for Trump was effectively his right-hand.
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“Initially, when I started, it was toward’s the back of the office,” Cohen said of his office, “until ultimately I moved to a different office that was maybe 50 feet, 60 feet from his office.”
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How often did they interact?
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Every single day – and multiple times per day.
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We’re talking about the period before his presidential run? Hoffinger pressed. Cohen replies: “Yes.”
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Michael Cohen is now discussing other binds from which he extricated Donald Trump, including the controversial Trump University business courses.
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“Trump University fell into trouble and there were approximately 50 vendors that had not been paid” but just two million available to pay them, Cohen says.
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Unfortunately, the bills exceeded $2m. Trump was not going to fund the balance, so what I did was put them on a spreadsheet …divided it by the $2m, came up with basically 2% of everyone’s invoice, contacted each and every one of the vendors and all but two accepted, ultimately, the 20% releases drafted and upon receipt of the release, within 48 hours.
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Trump told him that he’d done a “fantastic” job, Cohen says.
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Asked how Trump’s praise made him feel, Cohen said he felt “like I was on top of the world.”
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Through her questioning, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is establishing that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen had a direct connection – and that even from the outset, Cohen’s performing legal work was not his only duty. Cohen says:
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It was whatever concerned him, whatever he wanted. Initially when I first started working at the Trump Organization I was presented with an opportunity and I brought it to Mr Trump immediately.
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It was a landfill remediation project in New Jersey, 1000 acres, Cohen recalled.
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It ultimately didn’t come to fruition because funding got pulled by [then New Jersey] Governor Corzine.
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Who did you report to at the Trump Organization? The prosecution asks. Cohen replies:
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Mr Trump.
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He said that he was not part of the general counsel’s office. “That’s not the discussion in terms of when I elected to take the position.”
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Michael Cohen is Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer who was for more than a decade his Mr Fix-It, but is now the prosecution’s star witness as it builds its case that the former president sought to conceal hush-money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
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Cohen served as Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney and self-described “attack dog with a law license”. But the relationship soured after Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 and did not offer Cohen a role in his administration.
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Cohen, former lawyer for Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump departs his home in Manhattan to testify in Trump’s criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in New York City, 13 May 2024.”,”caption”:”Michael Cohen, former lawyer for Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump departs his home in Manhattan to testify in Trump’s criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in New York City, 13 May 2024.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Cohen, a native of Long Island, began practicing law as a personal injury lawyer in 1992 and joined the Trump Organization in 2006. He’d told Trump he’d read his book The Art of the Deal twice and soon became a close confidant.
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In a 2018 profile, it was noted that Cohen performed a role much like that of Roy Cohn, the notorious New York political and legal fixer who had worked for Trump and his father. Cohen’s duties led him into fixing situations of a sensitive nature, including setting up “catch-and-kill” arrangements with David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, which has circuitously led to today’s court confrontation.
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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, has been called to the witness stand.
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Cohen entered judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom just before 9.40am ET.
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Donald Trump just entered the courtroom. He was carrying papers, once again.
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He was indeed trailed by supporters, including son Eric Trump and Nicole Malliotakis.
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Donald Trump appeared frustrated at the Manhattan courtroom for his hush-money criminal trial on Friday, after sitting through two days of testimony from the adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who provided a detailed account of an alleged sexual liaison with him some 20 years ago.
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Daniels’s testimony described their relationship in graphic detail and over lengthy periods of court time, despite the alleged criminal behavior at the heart of the charges being due to the way the payments were accounted for as prosecutors have claimed they were an election expense.
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Here are the key takeaways from the first and second day of Daniels’s testimony.
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sketch”,”caption”:”Donald Trump watches as Stormy Daniels is questioned by defense attorney Susan Necheles on 9 May 2024 in this courtroom sketch.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1715601588000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.59 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1715604864000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.54 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1715604864000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”08.54 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”08.54″,”title”:”Key takeaways from Stormy Daniels’s testimony last week”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 13 May 2024 11.59 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 13 May 2024 07.59 EDT”},{“id”:”663e6c458f0804774c89575d”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s criminal trial over his hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which enters its fifth week today with proceedings due to start at about 9.30am ET in New York.
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Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and personal fixer, is expected to take the stand as soon as today. As trial wrapped for the week on Friday afternoon, the prosecution said they expected to call two more witnesses – one of whom will be Cohen. Last week, the jury heard testimony from Daniels, who provided a detailed – and embarrassing – account of an alleged sexual liaison with Trump some 20 years ago.
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Cohen’s hush-money payment to Daniels is at the very heart of the historic trial in Manhattan criminal court. Prosecutors charge that Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels’s then attorney just 12 days before the presidential election to keep quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
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Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payments and had pleaded not guilty.
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We’re at the courthouse again today. Stay with us.
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Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
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A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
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The key takeaways from Daniels’ testimony last week.
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The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?
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The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump
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How will Trump’s trial work?
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From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
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Key events
“It was very good,” Michael Cohen said of his relationship with former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg at the time.
As for Weisselberg’s interactions with Donald Trump, Cohen said they did so on a regular basis.
The whole point of this line of questioning is to establish that Cohen’s problem-solving was clearly known by Trump’s leadership and Trump himself.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked if Weisselberg was involved because it was a lot of money. Cohen said:
It wasn’t even a deal of this magnitude – it was any deal. Allen handled all finances coming in and out.
Cohen said he and Weisselberg talked about ways to pay back David Pecker without leaving fingerprints.
Allen said, ‘if we do it from a Trump entity it kind of defeats the purpose because the whole point is to have this not affiliated … at all.
Weisselberg said they needed to think of ways to create barriers, Cohen said.
“Was it typical for you to discuss financial matters with [former Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg?” Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.
Michael Cohen said:
It was typical for everyone to discuss financial matters with Allen Weisselberg.
He said that was because Weisselberg was a longtime Trump Organization exec and loyal to Trump.
It was also because Mr Trump had directed me to speak to Mr Weisselberg.
Cohen says he recorded Trump conversation to appease Pecker over reimbursement
Michael Cohen, again clarifying why he made this 2016 recording of a conversation between him and Donald Trump, said it was to placate American Media Inc chair David Pecker over his payment to Karen McDougal – which still hadn’t been repaid.
The recording, Cohen said, was meant to be proof that Trump would cover Pecker, “to appease him that he was going to receive the money back.”
Hoffinger asked shortly thereafter, “did you ever alter that recording?” Cohen says no.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is presenting hard evidence that appears to back up Michael Cohen’s account of the recording between him and Donald Trump, namely phone records which explain why the audio recording just stops.
Hoffinger is asking Cohen to review and AT&T record with his call history. “Does it appear to show an incoming call around the time of your recording?” Yes.
“Do you recall when you tried to pick up that call whether it connected or went to voicemail?” “I don’t recall.”
Cohen said that the call must have been important for him to pick up while conversing with Trump. Through her questioning of Cohen, Hoffinger showed a phone record showing that it was someone from a bank calling Cohen.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is resuming her questioning. Hoffinger is asking Michael Cohen why he thought paying the Karen McDougal money in cash was a bad idea.
Why did you think it was a bad idea, Mr Trump’s suggestions, that this be paid in cash?
Cohen said “I believed the proper way to do it would be by check” and make it look like a proper transaction.
The recording cut off, Cohen said, because he got another call.
Why not record after the call? Cohen replies:
I didn’t want to record more. I already had enough that I would have been able to show David Pecker as to convince him he was going to receive the $150,000 back.
Donald Trump, addressing the media before court proceedings this morning, called the case a “political witch-hunt” and again took aim at judge Juan Merchan, accusing him of being “corrupt”.
Trump spoke about his polling numbers and his New Jersey rally on Saturday, and also complained about high security around the court and how “very cold” the courthouse was.
Donald Trump is walking back into the courtroom with somewhat pursed lips again. No papers in his hands this time.
Michael Cohen is walking back into the courtroom. He did not look in Trump’s direction as he made his way back to the witness stand.
The court is taking a short break.
Per pool reports, Donald Trump did not answer questions as he left the courtroom for the morning break. The former president “pumped his fist three times” as he walked.
Jury hears audio of Trump-Cohen conversation
They’re playing the September 2016 tape in which Michael Cohen and Donald Trump can be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
In the tape, Cohen can be heard explaining to the then presidential candidate his plans to open a company through which he would finance the purchase of the rights to McDougal’s story.
Trump can be heard saying:
Let me know what’s happening, OK? … For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it’s so false what they’re saying, it’s such bullshit.
We’re fast forwarding to 6 September 2016. Michael Cohen said he had a conversation recorded with Donald Trump about American Media Inc.
Cohen said he had taped this conversation so he could show it to David Pecker to show him that he would be getting reimbursed, and that “I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr Trump”.
I had my mobile phone in my hand, I had [hit] record on voice memo, and I walked in.
Cohen says Pecker angry after Trump failed to pay him back for Karen McDougal story
Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, sent Michael Cohen an email in early August 2016, asking Cohen to call him.
“Great job, [the] Boss is obviously very happy about it. The matter’s now resolved,” Cohen recalled telling Davidson.
Cohen is now talking about repayment to American Media Inc. “David had asked me when he should anticipate receiving, being paid back the $150,000,” Cohen said. Pecker needed the money, Cohen said:
It was too much money from him to hide from the CEO of the parent company and he had also just laid out 30,000 previous so he was putting pressure on me to speak to Mr Trump and get the money back.
They had lunch in September 2017, where Pecker pressed Cohen more.
He asked me if I would meet him at his favorite Italian restaurant and I went to meet with him and again, he expressed his anger that I need to get this money back. And I said look, Mr Trump told you he’d pay it back.’
The prosecution asks Michael Cohen if David Pecker told him that he thought the Karen McDougal agreement was bulletproof? Cohen says yes, adding:
We prevent this story from being leaked on ABC news and effectively, the story has now been [killed.]
What was Trump’s reaction to hearing that an agreement had been done?
Fantastic! Great job!
Enter Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the payment for McDougal, again. He reached out, this time as an attorney for Stormy Daniels.
They’d already corresponded before regarding a 2011 story about Daniels and Trump that she wanted taken down. Cohen said that he and Davidson worked together to get that story taken down.
Michael Cohen says he repeatedly asked questions of former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about developments on the scheme to bury the Karen McDougal story.
Cohen says he wanted to know what the number was, because he would have to report that to Trump. He also said that he wanted the know the day of a planned meeting with McDougal.
Was there a particular reason why he was so worried about this? Cohen says:
There was the campaign and we were concerned that this story was going to find its way to ABC.
Cohen said he’d learned in 2016, from Howard and David Pecker, that an agreement had been reached with McDougal for $150,000 and that they were going to provide her with 24 penned articles that would bear her name, as well as the fact that she was going to be on two covers of those various magazines that they owned.
Cohen says Trump said he would ‘take care’ of $150,000 hush-money payment to Karen McDougal
In June 2016, Michael Cohen said he was present when Donald Trump had a conversation with former American Media Inc chair David Pecker.
Trump “had the call put through and he had a speakerbox on his desk and instead of lifting up the phone, he used the speakerbox so I was able to hear,” Cohen testifies.
What did he recall from that conversation? Cohen says:
He asked him how things were going with the matter and David said, ‘we have this under control and we’ll take care of this.’
Cohen continues:
David had stated that it’s going to cost him $150,000 to control the [Karen McDougal] story to which Mr Trump replied, ‘no problem, I’ll take care of it.’
Cohen said that AMI as going to lay out the funds and as Mr Trump had stated to David, said ‘I’ll take care of it.’ It hadn’t been sorted out exactly how Trump would repay Pecker, he said.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now showing a log of calls between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump. There was one on 16 June 2016.
Hoffinger asks: “Did you have that call right after you contacted ‘[Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith] Schiller? Cohen says: “Yes.”
Hoffinger is now asking about texts on 20 June 2016. He got one from National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard.
I’m about to meet her…name is Karen McDougal, former Playboy playmate.
Cohen says:
I then respond to Mr Howard, ‘OK, we need to speak.’ He then responds to me, ‘Yes.’
In one text, Howard says, “spoke to DP (American Media Inc CEO David Pecker), I’m wrapping up with them, and then we will convene a three-way call between us …understand I’ve got this locked down for you, I won’t let it out of my grasp.
During the three-person call, Howard and Pecker said “that they believed they had this under control,” Cohen says.
Do you recognize these texts with Keith Schiller, Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks of Michael Cohen’s exchanges with Trump’s longtime bodyguard. Cohen says: “I do.”
She asks Cohen to read texts from 16 June 2016:
This is from me to Keith Schiller asking, ‘Can we speak? I need you.’ I didn’t receive a response back and so I followed it up with another that says, ‘you there?’ He then responds to me, ‘on Dallas,’ [he] meant in Dallas.
Cohen says he then responded to Schiller asking “Where’s the boss?” referencing Donald Trump.
He then responds to me, ‘next to me,’ and then I then ask, ‘is he free to speak?’
The prosecution asks: “Why were you trying to reach Mr Trump?” Cohen replies:
Regarding the Karen McDougal matter.
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