Cohen: Hiding Stormy Daniels Story Linked to Campaign

Michael Cohen testified on Monday in New York about the hush money agreement he reached with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, claiming the underlying motivation for the agreement was to help former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Cohen, Trump’s then-attorney, said the former president “wasn’t even thinking about Melania,” his wife, according to reports from the courtroom by CNN.

“This was all about the campaign,” Cohen added.

Cohen’s remarks came a couple hours into his testimony in Trump’s criminal trial. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, has accused Trump of falsifying records of a payment Cohen made to Daniels as part of the hush money agreement.

However, to prove Trump committed felonies, Bragg must convince the jury that Trump conspired with Cohen to issue the payment and that Trump knowingly violated election laws. While Cohen saying Trump was concerned with his campaign bolsters Bragg’s case, defense attorneys have continued to garner testimony from witnesses who spoke to how concerned Trump also was with his wife Melania’s opinion.

Cohen, who became known as Trump’s “fixer,” was the one to negotiate a settlement agreement with Daniels’s then-attorney Keith Davidson. The agreement involved Cohen paying Daniels $130,000 so that Daniels would stay quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump 10 years prior.

Cohen’s testimony provided the jury with the most direct account of what Trump’s intentions were when the Daniels scandal threatened to emerge weeks before the election.

Cohen said Trump was mad at him when Cohen first informed him that Daniels was threatening to go public with her story.

“Just take care of it,” Cohen recalled Trump telling him.

“Women are going to hate me. … Guys may think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

Cohen later recalled Trump urging him to delay paying Daniels while Cohen was working out the settlement agreement.

“I want you to just push it out as long as you can. Just get past the election, because if I win, it will have no relevance because I’m president. And if I lose, I don’t even care,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

Cohen wired Daniels’s attorney Davidson the payment less than two weeks before the election, and the payment included a description: “retainer.” Trump reimbursed Cohen through a payment plan beginning in January. The plan, according to evidence submitted during the trial, was crafted by Trump Organization former CFO Allen Weisselberg.

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Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to several crimes, including violating campaign finance laws by making the payment to Daniels. The Department of Justice declined to prosecute Trump over the matter.

Defense attorneys have not yet cross-examined Cohen, who has been billed as Bragg’s star witness. Trump’s attorneys are expected to challenge Cohen’s credibility aggressively because of his criminal history, and they are also expected to zero in on how disgruntled Cohen became with Trump after his 2018 prosecution.