Does not matter if you are pres/rock star/billionaire/rich/famous/powerful.........at the end of the day ......you will be sold out....or jeffreyed/jeffrey epstein/iced/killed/clipped/rubbed/done in/strangled !!!!........for a price ......money buys silence....but it also buys rats in exchange for moneyand freedom...... ......look at the crime lords and mafia ....they squealed in the end ......for freedom .......they all squeal in the end .......that ,is why there is witness protection......
It's all fun and games .......parties/connections/money/hookers/cars/bling......all the trappings .......until someone gets nicked /hurt/killed/arrested.......and then the shits starts to fly .....for a price ......this is what is happenings to trump....... and all the others ........everyone is a bad ass ....until the shit starts...... then they start to run like rats on a sinking ship .........look at p diddy ......the rats are swarming ........ it's the game baby.....the game .........
Trump trial live updates: Michael Cohen testifies in hush money case, recounts arranging deal to silence Stormy Daniels
Donald Trump's former lawyer and "fixer" — and the prosecution’s key witness — is on the witness stand today.
Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to testify at former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan Monday. (Julia Nikhinson/AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumed Monday in Manhattan criminal court, where Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and so-called fixer, testified for several hours under direct questioning by the prosecution about his role in facilitating the $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal the sexual affair she says she had with the former president.
Daniels testified for more than six hours last week about the hush money deal she struck before the 2016 election to stay silent about her alleged tryst with Trump a decade earlier.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison at the end of 2018 for various crimes, including tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations related to the payment he made to Daniels.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payment to Daniels.
Below, get live updates on the case, including direct quotes and other details from media reports.
LIVE41 updates
Chanelle Chandler
Cohen says he was 'beyond angry' that Trump cut his bonus
Cohen said that he was “beyond angry” that Trump cut his bonus by two-thirds in 2016 after Cohen fronted “$130,000 on his behalf to protect him.”
He testified that he learned of his bonus cut after he opened an annual Christmas card given by Trump to his staff.
“Right after opening it, I actually had to take a double take,” Cohen said, according to CNN.
“I didn’t expect more, but I certainly didn’t expect less,” the New York Times added.
Cohen testified that he went to Trump CFO Alan Weisselberg's office “and in some colorful language expressed to him how truly pissed off and angry I really was.”
According to reporters in the room, Trump laughed to himself and nodded when Cohen described his anger.
Dylan Stableford
Cohen admits he was disappointed not to be considered for White House chief of staff
Cohen testified that he left the Trump Organization after Trump won the 2016 election “because my service was no longer necessary” and that he turned down the role of assistant general counsel in the White House.
Asked if he was disappointed that the chief of staff position wasn't offered to him, Cohen insisted he didn’t want the job but admitted he was disappointed that he wasn't considered.
“I would have liked to have been considered,” Cohen said, adding: “It was more about my ego than anything.”
📸 Big picture: Earlier in the trial, the jury heard testimony from Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels's lawyer, who said that Cohen was so despondent about the snub that Davidson “thought he was going to kill himself.” Cohen's own testimony here was much less dramatic, which may help him during cross-examination.
Dylan Stableford
Cohen says he coordinated Trump's response to the Karen McDougal story with Hope Hicks and David Pecker
Before the break, Cohen testified that he spoke with David Pecker, then the publisher of the National Enquirer, and Hope Hicks, then the Trump campaign's spokeswoman, to coordinate Trump's response to a Wall Street Journal story about Karen McDougal's hush money agreement with Enquirer publisher American Media.
Here is a link to the article, which was published on Nov. 4, 2016, just days before the election, with the headline:
National Enquirer Shielded Donald Trump From Playboy Model’s Affair Allegation
📸 Big picture: Both Hicks and Pecker testified earlier in the trial. Prosecutors appear to be using Cohen's testimony — as well as phone records — to corroborate their accounts.
Chanelle Chandler
Court is back in session
Court has resumed for today's final stretch with Cohen back on the witness stand.
Chanelle Chandler
Court takes an afternoon break
The court is taking an afternoon break. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger told Judge Merchan that her direct questioning of Michael Cohen will continue into tomorrow.
Dylan Stableford
'This matter is now completely under control and locked down'
— Michael Cohen to Trump on Oct. 28, 2016, after Stormy Daniels signed the nondisclosure agreement following Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels for her silence, according to Cohen's testimony
Chanelle Chandler
Cohen says he provided false documentation to open shell company
Michael Cohen testified that the documentation he gave to the bank to set up Essential Consultants LLC was false in order “to hide the intent of the reason for opening Essential Consultants, which is to pay for a nondisclosure agreement,” CNN reported.
Cohen said he believed the bank “probably would not” have opened the account if he had been truthful, which corroborates former banker Gary Farro's April testimony.
“If [the client] told me it was a shell corporation, it would not have been opened,” Farro said when he was on the witness stand. “It would give me pause, very frankly.”
Dylan Stableford
Cohen says he spoke twice with Trump on the day of the Stormy Daniels hush money payment to get his sign-off
Cohen testified that on the morning of Oct. 26, 2016 — the day he made the wire transfer of $130,000 from his newly established home equity line bank account to Stormy Daniels — he spoke with Trump twice to get his sign-off.
"I wanted to ensure that once again he approved what I was doing because I require approval from him on all of this," Cohen told the court, per CNN.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked whether Cohen would have gone forward with the payment without Trump's approval.
"No. Everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off," Cohen replied, adding: "On top of that, I wanted the money back."
Donnavan Smoot
Cohen asked David Pecker if he would make payment to Stormy Daniels
Cohen testified that he asked David Pecker in 2016 if he would make the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and was told "not a chance."
Dylan Stableford
Cohen says Trump instructed him to 'figure this whole thing out'
Michael Cohen testifies at Trump's hush money trial on Monday in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) (REUTERS / Reuters)
Cohen testified that during his efforts to delay the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels until after the 2016 election, Trump told him that friends of his advised him to just pay her — and instructed Cohen to take care of it.
"There’s no reason to keep this thing out there, so do it," Cohen recalled Trump telling him. "Just do it. Meet up with [Trump Organization chief financial officer] Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out."
📸 Big picture: The prosecution is trying to show that Trump not only knew about the payment Cohen made to Daniels — he orchestrated it.
Chanelle Chandler
Melania texted Cohen a day after Cohen found out Daniels was going to the Daily Mail
Cohen testified that Melania Trump texted him on Oct. 18, 2016, one day after Cohen tried calling Trump to inform him that Stormy Daniels was planning to tell her story to the Daily Mail. He said he got Trump's voicemail, so he left a message, CNN reported.
Cohen said that the next morning, he received a text message from Trump's wife, Melania, that read:
"Good morning Michael. Can you pls call DT on his cell. Thanks."
"Of course," Cohen reportedly texted back less than a minute later.
Cohen said that he ended up speaking to Trump.
Dylan Stableford
Cohen used Yom Kippur to delay paying Stormy Daniels
After a lunch break, Michael Cohen resumed his testimony, describing his efforts to delay paying hush money to Stormy Daniels.
Cohen testified that he used the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur as an excuse to delay paying Daniels.
The jury was shown an email exchange between Cohen and Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Daniels. Davidson wanted to speak to Cohen on Yom Kippur about the delay. Cohen replied that he could not because of the holiday.
Earlier in his testimony, Cohen said that Trump told him: "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."
Chanelle Chandler
Court is back from lunch break
Judge Juan Merchan has taken his seat on the bench, and Michael Cohen is back on the witness stand.
Chanelle Chandler
Court breaks for lunch
The trial will reconvene at 2 p.m. ET.
Dylan Stableford
Cohen says that Trump was not concerned about Melania: 'This was all about the campaign'
Under direct questioning from prosecutors, Cohen testified that when he raised the issue of Melania Trump with Donald Trump after learning that Stormy Daniels was shopping the story of her alleged sexual affair with him, Trump was unconcerned about his wife.
"How long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long," Cohen recalled Trump saying.
"He wasn’t thinking about Melania," Cohen added. "This was all about the campaign."
📸 Big picture: Trump's defense attorneys have argued that he entered into hush money deals with Daniels and Karen McDougal because he wanted to protect his family and had nothing to do with his presidential campaign. Cohen's testimony contradicts that defense.
Chanelle Chandler
Cohen said he believed Daniels's story would have 'catastrophic' impact on Trump's 2016 campaign
Cohen testified that he thought Stormy Daniels's story of her alleged affair with Trump could be potentially "catastrophic" for Trump's chances at the White House.
"This is horrible for the campaign," he said, describing his thinking at the time.
After learning of Daniels's story, Cohen said, he went to Trump's office and "told him that one of the things that we need to do is obviously take care of it." Cohen said that Trump replied, "Absolutely. Do it, take care o
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