News about Michael Cohen

Donald Trump returns to court for the Manhattan hush money trial on Thursday while his lawyers try to persuade the Supreme Court he is immune from prosecution. The former president will be sitting in court listening to the third day of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker's testimony as the justices consider arguments that could have huge implications for his federal criminal trials. Pecker ended his second day of testimony on Wednesday by laying out how he coordinated with Michael Cohen when Playboy model Karen McDougal came forward with affair allegations. The tabloid executive also detailed how he would 'catch and kill' stories that could have hurt Trump and embellish headlines of the Republican's rivals in the 2016 presidential race.

In wide-ranging testimony National Enquirer boss David Pecker detailed how he had pledged to 'catch and kill' bad stories about Trump in the 2016 election campaign. The tabloid chief told the court he had been Trump's 'eyes and ears' on the lookout for claims by women that could damage his friend, who he called the 'most eligible bachelor.'

Cruz blasted Trump in 2016 over attacks on his wife and father. On Tuesday he wouldn't revisit 'ancient history' as David Pecker testified about a 'deal' with Trump to go after Cruz and other 2016 rivals. Pecker, the ex-National Enquirer publisher, said Trump hooked him up with former fixer Michael Cohen, who would steer him toward political targets and provide information.

As Trump looked on prosecutor Christopher Conroy handed the court copies of 10 statements on Trump's Truth Social platform or campaign website that he said violated the gag order. Conroy said: "The defendant has violated this order repeatedly and hasn't stopped.

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial made an interesting case against the former president, saying the billionaire is actually a 'penny pincher' who paid his attorney Michael Cohen double to cover up his 'affairs.' The counterintuitive argument came up during opening statements in the case Monday morning by District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told a captive jury that Trump was a 'very frugal businessman' who ran the Trump Organization with 'total control.'

Prosecutors in the hush money trial said they will play the September 2016 phone call between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen in which they discuss paying off Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump 's hush money trial said Monday that they will play the September 2016 phone call between Trump and Michael Cohen in which they discuss paying off Playboy model Karen McDougal over affair allegations. Cohen secretly recorded a conversation with his-then boss and the two-minute recording was unearthed during the FBI 's June 2018 raid of his home, with its existence first reported by CBS that July.

Former President Donald Trump's attorney rejected claims by the prosecution in his criminal hush money case that payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels were made to help him win the 2016 election. Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche also made the case that Trump, being a 'frugal' penny pincher, would never have overpaid his 'obsessed' personal attorney Michael Cohen and attempted to discredit Daniels, saying she fabricated their affair. The former president has pleaded not guilty of concealing an alleged scheme to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels with an illegal $130,000 payment immediately before he 2016 election. 

Prosecutors used some of their opening arguments to detail Donald Trump's involvement in 2016 National Enquirer stories that savaged his opponents. The same figures were involved in the Stormy Daniels payoff. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said had access to bombshell tabloid stories in advance, even suggesting changes and accepting or rejecting publication. He mentioned stories about former Trump rival Sen. Ted Cruz, who was the subject of Enquirer stories accusing him of affairs and linking his dad to the JFK assassination.

An NYU law professor believes that David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, will provide 'dynamite evidence' against Donald Trump when he takes the stand on Monday morning. It was revealed over the weekend in a New York Times report that Pecker would be the first witness called against the ex-president during his historic trial in Manhattan over allegations he participated in a hush money scheme ahead of the 2016 election. 'Pecker could be key witness - in ways more devastating than Michael Cohen .This also indicates DA is foregrounding unlawful election influence for jurors,' Professor Ron Goodman tweeted.

Lawyers in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial on Thursday selected 12 jurors who will assess his guilt or innocence over the coming weeks in a case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star. The defense and the prosecution still must select alternate jurors for the trial, the first ever in which a former U.S. president is the defendant.

Donald Trump could be held in contempt in the historic hush money trial after prosecutors produced seven more social media posts they claim violate a gag order. Attorneys for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said the former president should be punished for sharing a New York Post article calling Michael Cohen a 'serial perjurer' and 'embarrassment' to the court system. Another was Trump resharing a quote from Fox News host Jesse Watters saying the defense team is 'catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge' to get on the jury. Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled a hearing over violations of the gag order next week, and could even be jailed if he keeps flouting the guidelines. The stern warning kicked off the third day of jury selection in the trial where Trump also risked angering the judge by taking a phone call. He only spoke briefly before his lead attorney Todd Blanche spoke to him.

Megyn Kelly has blasted Donald Trump's ongoing hush money trial, calling it 'disgraceful' and noting it's the first time a former US president has faced a criminal trial. She argued that the trial broke centuries-old precedents and was a humiliation for the country, focusing on $130,000 payments made to Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, to silence Stormy Daniels. Kelly expressed sadness for both Trump and the country, condemning what she saw as a disproportionate legal response. She also criticized the handling of the trial, expressing low hopes for fairness and accusing the judge and potential jurors of bias against Trump. The trial, part of Trump's legal challenges, is a critical moment in his political trajectory, with implications for the upcoming election and his image in the public eye.

They are the first of the eventual the jury of 12 people, along with six alternates, who will decide whether to convict Trump of charges accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump let loose outside court after the first day of jury selection as he became the first U.S. ex-president to stand criminal trial. The former president also castigated the judge for refusing him permission to go to the U.S. Supreme Court next week for a hearing related to January 6.

The judge in Donald Trump 's hush-money case warned he could be jailed if interfered with proceedings and had to interfere in a heated exchange between the prosecutors and defense teams. Prosecutors also claimed the former president had violated the gag order against him and demanded a $3,000 fine for three social media posts targeting the judge. The 77-year-old's lead defense attorney Todd Blanche got a word of caution from Judge Juan Merchan when he said his high-profile client wanted to be involved in every aspect of the trial. 'President Trump wants to be present at everything,' Blanche said. Merchan then warned that he could put Trump behind bars if he interferes and let the trial continue in his absence.

Ex president Donald Trump 's criminal hush money trial begins in earnest Monday morning as jury selection begins in a New York courtroom for what the GOP frontrunner called a 'communist show trial' at a rally in Pennsylvania. Among those will take center stage will be porn star Stormy Daniels, pictured left, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, shown top right, and AMI publisher David Pecker, shown bottom right.

Donald Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his hush money payments to women he had affairs with, including prostitutes. The most notable is pornstar Stormy Daniels, whom Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 in 2016 to deny their alleged affair happened. Trump then falsely claimed Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg was working in 'close coordination' with the White House on the timing of the trial in an effort to damage his campaign.

The loyal Trump executive who worked for the family for 50 years was last month found guilty of lying under oath during the former president's New York fraud trial. He told the court he didn't know how Trump's Manhattan penthouse ended up being listed as three times its actual size in the company's financial statements. A judge handed down a five month sentence for Weisselberg, 76, to be served at the notorious New York prison.

Trump, 77, has denied a 34-count indictment related to him falsifying business records over a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels over their alleged affair. Attorney Todd Blanche, representing the ex-president in this case, sent a subpoena to a man they thought was Manhattan investigator Jeremy Rosenberg in March to get files related to former Trump confidant and fixer Michael Cohen. Rosenberg used to investigate financial crimes for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. However, the Trump defense team appears to have sent the subpoena to Brooklyn man Jeremy Rosenberg, who emphasized that he is a different person by e-mailing them back: 'I don't have any files for you.'

A day after Trump ordered a gag prohibiting remarks at witnesses, court employees, and family members, Trump got off on New York judge Juan Merchan. Trump called the gag "un-American" and a violation of his First Amendment rights, and he brought up his daughter's work as a political consultant for a network of Democratic clients. He said that his daughter shared a picture of him behind bars, but that information could not be verified right away.

Judge Juan Merchan suspended the order on Trump just hours after Trump branded him a 'Trump Hater,' while still going after his daughter over her work with an online advocacy company. Trump made a 'threatening, inflamatory, denigrating' remark, according to him. Alvin Bragg, a Texas attorney, requested the gag, citing Trump's long history of going after court employees.

I'm completely set.' When asked about a suspected deal involving a suspected payment by Trump to silence her before he secured the 2016 presidential race, he said, 'I've been prepared.' 'I'm hoping they call me with all my heart because - as I said on the stand against Michael Avenatti - I don't want someone to speak for me, and I relish the day I will meet him and say my truth.' It comes after Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan ruled on Monday that Daniels, his true name, Stephanie Clifford, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and long-time fixer Michael Cohen would testify in the pending documents falsification lawsuit. Daniels appeared on The View as she continued promoting her latest documentary Stormy, which follows her as she navigates her life after the world learned of her suspected affair with the now-Republican presidential candidate. Despite some accusing her of being a gold digger, the entertainer said she did not get paid to appear in the film, and that she gained no money from speaking out about Trump's suspected affair. "What they don't know is that as a subject of a documentary or going on "60 Minutes" where I came out the first time, I made zero," she said. 'I didn't get paid anything, but it cost me everything.'

Stormy Daniels attended a screening of her documentary at a gay club in Brooklyn on Monday evening after a judge announced that she would testify at his forthcoming hush money trial. In the pending documents falsification lawsuit, Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan ruled on Monday that porn star Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will all testify. Merchan did not comment on a lawsuit about Daniels' documentary Stormy, where she discussed the hush money exchange, but Trump's lawyers said that it should be a basis for complete dismissal or postponement of trial.