Michael Cohen’s credibility as a witness in Donald Trump’s criminal case has been the topic of discussion since before Trump was charged last year. In recent days, it’s been an undercurrent of the trial, as prosecutors slowly and indirectly introduce him to the jury.
Given his prior life as Trump’s fixer and his own related legal problems, Cohen has been viewed by some as a vulnerability for the prosecution, which may need his testimony to cement its case.
But prosecutors may benefit from the preview of Cohen to the jury through the testimony of other witnesses.
Among those recent witnesses are banker Gary Farro, who testified about Cohen’s financial activity regarding the alleged hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, as well as lawyer Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels in the payoff ahead of Trump’s 2016 presidential election. The former president has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records (related to Cohen’s reimbursement), and he has denied having sex with the adult film star.
Both witnesses helped the jury understand that Cohen is not necessarily a heroic character in this story. Farro called him a “challenging client” and testified to the Trump fixer’s deception. Davidson said that no one wanted to deal with Cohen and recalled that Daniels’ manager called him an “a—hole.”
At first blush, you might think that prosecutors wouldn’t want to introduce a potential key witness to the jury that way, even implicitly. But the reality is that Cohen’s character will come out eventually, and the state would rather it come out on their terms than give defense lawyers more of an opportunity to undermine their case. Indeed, the state took the matter head-on in their opening statement, telling the jury: “You will learn, and we will be very upfront about it, the fact that Michael Cohen, like other witnesses in this trial, has made mistakes in his past.” The prosecution would surely dress him down on direct examination as well, before turning him over to the defense for a grueling cross. We don’t know the order of the remaining witnesses in the case that’s set to resume testimony Thursday. But when jurors ultimately see Cohen on the stand, they might feel like they know him already. All things considered, prosecutors may benefit from that. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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