Donald Trump’s lawyer on Monday portrayed Michael Cohen, the ex-lawyer who sent the $130,000 hush-money to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, as having concocted an illicit repayment plan for the money with Trump’s lieutenants – but not with the former president himself.
The lawyer, Todd Blanche, suggested that Cohen and the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg between themselves devised a complicated scheme to repay Cohen of the Daniels hush money and other expenses that came from his own pocket.
Related: Trump’s hush-money trial: Here’s what’s happened in the case so far
Blanche also suggested that Cohen concocted the idea to “gross up” the repayment, which prosecutors have said Trump approved and violated state tax law, in order to increase the amount of money he got from the Trump Organization in 2016, after his bonus was lower than in 2015.
The defense ran through the scheme whereby Cohen billed the Trump Organization for $50,000 for money he had supposedly fronted for RedFinch, an IT company. But Cohen admitted on the stand he only paid RedFinch $20,000, meaning he kept $30,000, which was then “grossed up” to $60,000.
In doing so, Cohen’s bonus for 2016 would have ultimately totaled $120,000, after adding the $60,000 RedFinch money to his $60,000 bonus. That meant his remuneration for 2016 – which Cohen had complained was too low – came close to his 2016 bonus of $150,000.
“So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asked, his voice reaching a crescendo. “Yes sir,” Cohen conceded.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of felony falsification of business records. Prosecutors must prove Trump authorized what he knew to be hush-money repayments to be falsely labelled as “legal expenses” in the Trump Organization’s records, with an intent to commit a second crime.
The criminal case against Trump – the first against a US president – stems from his attempts to suppress negative stories about alleged sexual encounters he had with Daniels and others for fear that they could negatively affect his campaign just weeks before the 2016 election.
Trump’s lawyers had already taken several steps to undercut Cohen’s credibility last week over days of cross-examination.
Blanche previously had Cohen affirm that the hush money was part of a bona fide settlement agreement, in an attempt to counter the prosecution’s claim that it was fraudulent to record the payment as legal expenses.
And Cohen was confronted with accusations that he had lied whenever it had suited his needs: lying to Congress about a Trump real estate deal in Moscow, to a federal judge in 2018, and in his testimony to prosecutors about Trump’s involvement in the hush-money deal – the latter of which he denied.
Whether Trump will take the stand in his own defense remains uncertain, even if Trump has suggested he wants to. Legal experts have widely suggested Trump testifying would almost certainly be a mistake, given his track record of making self-incriminating comments.
Trump’s lawyers are separately considering whether to call a federal elections law witness, Bradley Smith, as they seek to make the case that campaign contribution rules are complex and that Trump did not have the necessary intent to violate the contribution limits when he allegedly falsified business records.
The presiding judge, Juan Merchan, still needs to decide whether he will issue jury instructions, and what form they might take. As a result, even if Trump does not testify, closing arguments are not expected to come until Tuesday 28 May.
Cohen has been perhaps the most crucial witness for the prosecution, as he remains the only person to have tied Trump directly to the hush-money deal. But he is a far from ideal person to provide evidence, because of the fertile ground for the defense to question his honesty and motivations.
The motivation for Cohen to lie in his trial testimony, Trump’s lead defense lawyer Todd Blanche suggested, was to see Trump go to jail after the then president abandoned him when federal prosecutors charged him with felony tax evasion and false statements six years ago.
Blanche suggested that Cohen lied at trial about several things from the time of the hush-money deal: that he didn’t want a White House job, which they said contradicts his private messages at the time, and that he didn’t want a pardon, when he asked his lawyers to look into such a possibility.
Blanche also accused Cohen of lying about a key bit of testimony: Cohen’s assertion that when he called Trump’s then bodyguard Keith Schiller on 24 October 2016, it was to apprise Trump that he was moving forward with paying hush money to Daniels.
But Blanche offered an alternative explanation. Relying on Cohen’s texts to Schiller, Blanche suggested Cohen actually dialed Schiller to complain about prank calls from a 14-year-old, and that the phone was too short – one minute and 30 seconds – for him to have told Trump about the deal.
“You can admit” that you lied, Blanche said, raising his voice. “No sir, I can’t,” Cohen responded.
