Former U.S. President Donald Trump watches as his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen is questioned by a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, before Judge Arthur F. Engoron during the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, October 24, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney and fixer for Donald Trump, is facing a barrage of attacks on his credibility as he prepares to resume testifying Wednesday in the $250 million business fraud trial of the former president and his company.
Trump, who will be in the courtroom, and his lawyers spent much of the previous trial day targeting Cohen’s criminal history, attempting to paint him as a “serial liar” whose word could not be trusted.
Cohen is “totally discredited already,” Trump claimed after the court adjourned Tuesday afternoon.
On the stand, Cohen had accused Trump of directing him and another Trump Organization executive to falsely inflate the values of his assets on financial statements.
Trump “would look at the total assets and say, ‘I’m actually not worth $4.5 billion. I am really worth more like $6 billion,'” Cohen testified under oath.
But Trump’s attorney Alina Habba grilled Cohen on cross-examination, highlighting his 2018 guilty plea on charges including lying to Congress. Habba asked him if he lied to the judge in that case during his plea hearing, and Cohen replied that he had.
Cohen has implicated his former boss in the crimes that he himself pleaded guilty to, including making secret hush-money payments to women who said they had extramarital affairs with Trump, and lying about his business dealings with Russia. Trump has pleaded not guilty in a separate New York criminal case charging him with falsifying business records related to the hush-money payments.
Cohen, Trump’s once-loyal aide, is now a star witness against him in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. Cohen’s 2019 testimony to Congress about Trump’s allegedly fraudulent business practices is what led James to open her sweeping investigation.
The AG’s case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and top executives of engaging in a decade-long pattern of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.
James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from ever running a business in New York.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who will deliver verdicts in the no-jury trial, has already found Trump liable for fraud and ordered the cancellation of the defendants’ New York business certificates. The trial, which is expected to stretch into late December, will resolve James’ six remaining claims.
Trump, who stared down Cohen in court on Tuesday, repeatedly attacked his former lawyer in between the proceedings. He called Cohen a “proven liar,” a “felon” and a “disgrace” outside the courtroom.
He launched more attacks on social media, writing Tuesday evening that Cohen “was a complete and total disaster” in the trial.
“Lie after lie, and getting caught each time,” claimed Trump.
Cohen declined CNBC’s request for comment ahead of his testimony Wednesday, noting in an email that Engoron has directed him not to discuss the case while he is a witness.
An attorney for Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
