When Michael Cohen took the stand in Manhattan court on Monday morning for Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial, his appearance was poised to mark a watershed moment: a showdown between the ex-president and his former fixer-turned-prosecution witness.
Anyone expecting a courtroom dust-up, however, would leave day one of Cohen’s testimony sorely disappointed. Cohen comported himself with civility rather than snark, and calm rather than outrage, with a hint of wistfulness sprinkled in. He sported a tie that could be described as blush pink or pale salmon, perhaps the most conflict-averse color one could wear.
“I was honored,” Cohen said of his reaction when Trump offered him a full-time job in the early 2000s, sometime after he had helped the real estate mogul overcome an ornery co-op board at one of his namesake properties. Cohen would occupy the role of Trump’s problem-solver, telling jurors: “I would only answer to him.”
“It was fantastic. Working for him, especially during those 10 years, was an amazing experience in many, many ways,” Cohen recalled. “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.”
As Cohen’s testimony progressed, what emerged was a twisted psychodrama. Cohen relished Trump’s praise and cowered under his criticism – all it took was the word “fantastic” to soften the blow of his explosive rage – and he played as dirty as the reality TV star, dealing in deception to appease him.
Under prosecutor Susan Hoffinger’s questioning, Cohen said that he lied and bullied for Trump. She asked: why?
“To accomplish a task”, Cohen said. “The only thing on my mind was to accomplish the task to make him happy.”
“When he tasked you with something, he would say: ‘Keep me informed,’” Cohen said at one point. “You would [go] straight back and tell him, especially if it was a matter that was upsetting to him.”
Cohen talked about how controlling media narratives about Trump was among his key duties: he described helping catch and kill negative press that could have tanked his then boss’s chances in the 2016 election. This came to include fronting $130,000 of his own money to pay off the adult film actor Stormy Daniels – who, weeks before election day, had been trying to peddle a story that she and the then candidate had a sexual encounter in 2006.
Cohen told jurors that he and Daniels’s attorney, Keith Davidson, had coordinated in 2011 to remove her story about Trump from a gossip website. Daniels, at that time, did not want the account out there; the removal effort was a success.
On 8 October 2016, shortly after the Washington Post published a hot mic recording in which Trump boasted that he could grab women “by the pussy” without consent, Cohen caught word that Daniels’s story was in effect up for grabs. So, Cohen told Trump.
“He was really angry with me,” Cohen said, recalling Trump saying: “I thought you had this under control. I thought you took care of this.”
“We did, in 2011,” Cohen remembered telling Trump. “I have no control over what she goes out and does.”
“Just take care of it, there’s a lot going on,” Trump responded. Pressed to recount what else Trump said, Cohen told jurors Trump said: “This was a disaster, a fucking disaster.
“Women will hate me.”
Cohen said Trump wanted him to take care of the Daniels matter, but also told him to “push it out as long as you can, past the election, because if I win, I’ll be president, and if I lose, I won’t really care.”
Cohen said he asked whether that might cause a rift with his wife. “I said to him, how’s things going to go upstairs?” he said. “Don’t worry, he goes. He goes: how long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long.”
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Cohen said. “This was all about the campaign.”
Cohen, who said that Trump described Daniels and another alleged paramour, the Playboy bunny Karen McDougal, as “beautiful”, told jurors that in the end, he felt snubbed by the boss he’d worked so hard to protect.
When Trump wound up winning the election, Cohen felt left behind. “My service was no longer necessary, as I was special counsel to Mr Trump and he was now president-elect,” Cohen said.
Cohen was offered assistant general counsel, but he didn’t want the gig.
“I didn’t believe the role was right for me – that I was even competent to be chief of staff,” Cohen said, expressing that he was disappointed. “I just wanted my name to be included.”
Come late 2016, Cohen was dealt another insult: his annual bonus had been gutted.
“After all I had gone through in terms of the campaign, as well as things at Trump Organization, laying out $130,000 on his behalf, it was insulting that the gratitude shown back to me was to cut the bonus by two-thirds,” Cohen said, in what was seemingly the angriest part of his testimony.
It seemed that Cohen’s fortune would change in early 2017. Trump’s longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, had promised that all would be made right.
It was determined that Cohen was owed $420,000, so that he wouldn’t lose money on a high tax bill, and a little on top to make up for his anemic 2016 bonus. And Trump appointed Cohen to be his personal counsel – a role he actually wanted.
Did you have any expectation that you’d be paid?
“None at all,” Cohen said. The only way to get paid, he said, would be “by monetizing the role of personal attorney”.
