(New York) He was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, boasted of being his “pit bull”, before becoming his sworn enemy: Michael Cohen and the former American president meet Tuesday in New York at the civil trial which threatens the real estate empire of the Republican billionaire.
Long at the heart of the close guard of the former President of the United States, sentenced to three years in prison at the end of 2018 in a case of payments to protect the reputation of his ex-boss, Michael Cohen, 57, is called to the witness stand on the fifteenth day of this civil trial.
“He’s a liar. He’s trying to sort out his affairs, but it’s not going to work,” attacked Donald Trump upon his arrival at the Manhattan court, a reference to the conviction of Michael Cohen, for lying, before the US Congress, as part of the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election.
“My credibility should not be in question,” replied Donald Trump’s former lawyer to the American media, on his way to court.
PHOTO ALEX KENT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Donald Trump upon his arrival at Manhattan court, October 24, 2023.
Since he was caught by the courts, Michael Cohen has cooperated with the authorities in several cases and his testimony is eagerly awaited at the civil trial where the 77-year-old Republican billionaire is accused along with two of his children, Eric and Donald Jr, and two executives of the Trump Organization, of having overvalued its New York golf courses, residences and skyscrapers by several billion dollars in the 2010s to obtain more advantageous loans from banks.
The two men now have a tenacious hatred for each other. In a publication on “.
Credibility
Michael Cohen is behind the current civil lawsuit. During a spectacular and vitriolic hearing in the American Congress in February 2019, he claimed that Donald Trump “inflated his assets when it served his interests”, in particular to climb the magazine’s list of the greatest fortunes Forbes.
The Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, opened an investigation, and, after three years of investigation, filed a lawsuit demanding in particular $250 million in financial reparations.
During the investigation, Michael Cohen testified about his role, confiding that he had revised upwards the values of certain real estate assets with the former financial director of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, at the request of Donald Trump.
But the defense intends to rely on the lack of credibility of this witness with a sulphurous reputation, by asserting his convictions in court.
Fine
The former lawyer, who describes himself as a repentant, is also one of the main prosecution witnesses in one of Donald Trump’s four future criminal trials, in New York in March 2024, on payments to cover up embarrassing affairs during the 2016 presidential election.
He himself had paid $130,000 to a porn star, actress Stormy Daniels, so that she would keep quiet about an alleged relationship with Donald Trump. Michael Cohen has already been convicted in this case and claims to have acted on the orders of his former boss.
If he cannot be sentenced to prison, Donald Trump still plays big during the civil trial in New York.
Even before the opening of the debates, Judge Arthur Engoron decided that repeated fraud had been established and that Donald Trump’s assets had been overvalued between 812 million and 2.2 billion dollars per year between 2014 and 2021. He consequently taken measures to confiscate and liquidate companies which could lead to the dismantling of the Trump real estate empire. The application of these measures was suspended on appeal.
The former president attended the debates for several days, and continued to virulently attack Letitia James, a Democratic and African-American elected official whom he describes as “racist” and “corrupt”, and her judge, Arthur Engoron, whom he called a “thug”.
The magistrate fined him $5,000 on Friday for a publication insulting his clerk, threatening the former president to put him in prison if he did it again.