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Trump attorney Todd Blanche pulled up an email from Allen Weisselberg to Jeff McConney, noting that the checks were signed off by Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. He asked why they signed them and not former President Donald Trump.

"Because they were the trustees," Cohen said.

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The jury is being shown Michael Cohen's goodbye email to the Trump Organization dated January 27, 2017.
In the email, Cohen announces his new role as Trump's personal attorney and notes he'd no longer be working with them at Trump Tower.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked whether Cohen continued representing Trump in legal matters after moving into his new role.
"You had a matter with Marc Kasowitz representing President Trump?" Blanche asked.
"Yes sir," Cohen said.

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Attorney Todd Blanche confirmed with Michael Cohen that his email signature after Trump took office announced his title in every message he sent. "It always said personal attorney to President Donald J Trump."
Blanche continued, "His job changed meaning President Trump's job changed your job didn't."
"Correct," Cohen confirmed.
"You told everybody that was happening, Correct?" Blanche asked.
"Not everybody, but I was certainly proud of the role and I announced it," Cohen said, confirming on follow-up questions that he told TMZ, the New York Times, and when he went on Sean Hannity's show to announce it.

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Casual Cynic said:

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So Cohen is now both a thief and a liar?

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TexAg1987 said:

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Casual Cynic said:

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So Cohen is now both a thief and a liar?

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Can Trump go back and sue him now?

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking whether Michael Cohen helped figure out how to serve subpoenas on government agencies, like the State Department.
He showed Cohen an email that Trump leaned in to look at.
Blanche noted that Trump initially appointed Marc Kasowitz as his attorney to handle the Mueller investigation. Blanche asked if Cohen played a role in that?
"No sir," Cohen says.
Blanche asked if Cohen was "happy, sad or indifferent" about the initial Kasowitz hire. Cohen said probably happy because he had a good relationship with him.

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Michael Cohen is being asked about the work he's done for Melania Trump.
Cohen says he met with Melania Trump in New York in March and April of 2017 over legal matters.
Attorney Todd Blanche confirms with Cohen that he helped Melania Trump with her Madame Tussauds' negotiation in February, March and April of 2017.
Blanche says that these were all things that lawyers would do for a client.

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"Your job was being President Trump's lawyer, correct?" Blanche asks.
"Yes sir," Cohen says

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aggiehawg said:

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If the jury kinda thinks he done it, that's good enough to attach this felony to it.

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Clear 6th Amendment violation there.

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AggieUSMC said:

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aggiehawg said:

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If the jury kinda thinks he done it, that's good enough to attach this felony to it.

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Clear 6th Amendment violation there.

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5th and 6th. The defense should be raising Holy Hell over this.
Is there any way to file an interlocutory appeal on this?

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Attorney Todd Blanche is moving on to Michael Cohen's other consulting work.
Cohen said he made $4 million in 2017 from six other clients.
Cohen confirms that he was paid $50,000 monthly for a year by AT&T, while they were trying to acquire Time Warner.
Blanche confirms Cohen received $600,000 in all from AT&T. "And there's nothing wrong with that, correct?" Blanche asks. Cohen stops for a moment, before saying, "I don't believe so."

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche walked through the payments Michael Cohen received again, asking "How much were you paid" directly by Trump in 2017.
"Nine checks," Cohen says, $35,000 apiece.
Cohen confirms the other two checks came from the trust."
"You continued to get paid all 12 months?" Blanche asks.
"Yes sir," Cohen says.

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"It was Mr. Trump who introduced the CEO of AT&T to me, that's how I ended up retaining them as a client," Michael Cohen said.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche said that's not what he asked, he wanted to know if Cohen ever told Trump about the six consulting clients.
"I did not specifically tell President Trump that, no," Cohen says.

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CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a "bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecutions' case."
During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.
"You can see what the defense spent their weekend doing," said CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
CNN's Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen's testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to "take the sting out" when it had a chance during direct examination.
"We're talking about 420,000 it's not 15 bucks," Coates said.

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Coates said the stealing evidence goes to the heart of the case, arguing that if the defense "can establish Michael Cohen as somebody who is not to be trusted about the amount of money as well, then they might be able to establish that Donald Trump had no idea about what he was truly paying."

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Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.
RedFinch is a political organization that Cohen said helped the Republican party goose bogus internet polls about which candidate was in the lead, and provided fans for Trump's announcement of his candidacy in June 2015.

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aggiehawg said:

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Attorney Todd Blanche is moving on to Michael Cohen's other consulting work.
Cohen said he made $4 million in 2017 from six other clients.
Cohen confirms that he was paid $50,000 monthly for a year by AT&T, while they were trying to acquire Time Warner.
Blanche confirms Cohen received $600,000 in all from AT&T. "And there's nothing wrong with that, correct?" Blanche asks. Cohen stops for a moment, before saying, "I don't believe so."

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Whoa! Ask that again, Blanche. We are seeing an embezzlement pattern of Cohen's now.

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche is now asking about 2018 and when the Stormy Daniels payment became public.
"You told multiple people when it first leaked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment, correct?" he asks
Michael Cohen confirmed.
Blanche asked, "You even called Melania, the first lady, and told her that President Trump didn't know about it." Cohen says he told The New York Times' Maggie Haberman on the record that Trump was not aware of the payment at the time.

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Cohen admitting from questioning by Blanche that he was paid $4 million in 2017 from 6 consulting clients.

AT&T was one of his clients

TB:What is Consulting & advisory work
MC:I advised them on the issue where they wanted to aquire Time Warner.

TB: What time period?
MC:…

— Andrew H. Giuliani (@AndrewHGiuliani) May 20, 2024

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going through a conversation Michael Cohen had with a friend who was in jail in New York, asking whether he insisted to the friend that Trump knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels.
"I don't recall specifically saying that, but it would have been what I would have said at that time," Cohen said.
Cohen agreed that he recorded multiple conversations with reporters telling them that Trump knew nothing about the payment.
"You said it to family?" Blanche asks. "Correct," Cohen said.
Blanche asked if Cohen recalled telling one reporter, "your wife and kids had just found out two weeks earlier."
Cohen said he doesn't remember but he wouldn't be surprised if he said that at the time.

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche continues to review Michael Cohen's other legal work.
Cohen said that he was paid $1.2 million from Novartis. Cohen agreed he spoke with them about 6 times.
Blanche asked if that's "$200,000 a communication?"
"Correct," Cohen said.
"Were there clients that you started talking to but ultimately didn't agree to work with?" Blanche asked.
"Yes sir," Cohen said, adding that "happened quite often."
Blanche also asked about KAI, Korean Airspace Industries, where Cohen had a deal to be paid $100,000 a month for a year.
Cohen said it ended after six or seven months. He added that he had "approximately a dozen" communications with the company.
Blanche also walked Cohen through the other companies he consulted for in 2017, including BTA Bank, who paid him for two to three months, he says, and a client he met through Trump at Mar-a-Lago looking for help to restart a nuclear facility.

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Former Federal Prosecutor Alyse Adamson said she was "quite frankly shocked" when she heard the revelations that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen had stolen from the Trump account.
Adamson said now the prosecution will have to work extra hard to change the narrative for the jury.

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"They're going to need to spin it so that it isn't stealing."

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"If this were my case I would be feverishly writing my ideas for rehabilitation and redirection," she said.
Adamson added that she didn't understand why the prosecution hadn't addressed the issues earlier in the case, especially when they had been meticulous with their explanation of some of Cohen's other lies.
"I think here, there has been so much damage that they are going to have to go in."

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm he then met with Bob Costello on April 17 to discuss representing him.
Cohen pushed back and said, "I received communications from Jeffrey Citron asking to set up a meeting with him and Bob Costello in order to discuss possible representation of me."
Blanche asked him to confirm though that they met on April 17 at Cohen's hotel where he was living at the time.
"Yes they came to me," Cohen said.
Cohen said he spoke with Costello 10 times on the phone, "maybe a few more."

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Blanche entered into evidence an email Costello sent Cohen on April 23, 2018: "Michael, I spoke with the person you asked me to and he said that he would find out exactly how the matter ended up in the SDNY and in particular who in Main Justice approved this."

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Cohen said the person he wanted him to speak to was Rudy Giuliani. Blanche pointed out that it was Cohen who was asking Costello to go to Giuliani for information.
More context: Blanche appears to be getting at the point that Cohen voluntarily was working with Costello more than Cohen is letting on (as was referenced in defense arguments over the Citron email about Costello this morning).

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aggiehawg said:

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Former Federal Prosecutor Alyse Adamson said she was "quite frankly shocked" when she heard the revelations that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen had stolen from the Trump account.
Adamson said now the prosecution will have to work extra hard to change the narrative for the jury.

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"They're going to need to spin it so that it isn't stealing."

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"If this were my case I would be feverishly writing my ideas for rehabilitation and redirection," she said.
Adamson added that she didn't understand why the prosecution hadn't addressed the issues earlier in the case, especially when they had been meticulous with their explanation of some of Cohen's other lies.
"I think here, there has been so much damage that they are going to have to go in."

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drcrinum said:

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Cohen admitting from questioning by Blanche that he was paid $4 million in 2017 from 6 consulting clients.

AT&T was one of his clients

TB:What is Consulting & advisory work
MC:I advised them on the issue where they wanted to aquire Time Warner.

TB: What time period?
MC:…

— Andrew H. Giuliani (@AndrewHGiuliani) May 20, 2024

$4 million bucks!

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche is bringing up more emails Michael Cohen exchanged with Bob Costello. He wrote to Costello on May 15, 2018:

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"As I have sated in the past, when the right time comes and now is not the right time, we will advance our conversations regarding this issue. Here are too many hands right now all with varying view points and ideas," Cohen wrote. "You can always reach out to me directly but under no circumstances, do I want anyone communication on my behalf with anyone else," the email continued.

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Costello responded to Cohen on May 16 and concluded his email, saying, "I will not pester you. If you want to talk, you know how to reach Jeff or myself."

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche asks whether it would surprise Michael Cohen that he spoke to Bob Costello for more than nine hours over the course of a few months.
"No sir," Cohen said.
"So would it surprise you to learn that you actually communicated on the phone either you calling Mr Costello or Mr Costello calling you 75 times?" Blanche asked.
"Seems excessive but (long pause) possible," Cohen said.
Blanche asked Cohen who initiated more phone calls at the time, Costello or himself.
Cohen said "to the best of [his] recollection," Costello reached out more than he did.
Cohen said he also met with Costello, "I believe once or twice" in person.
Trump slapped his attorney Emil Bove on the arm to lean in to talk to him.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm even though he didn't sign a retainer agreement with Bob Costello, it didn't mean that those phone calls and meetings weren't privileged.
"Correct," Cohen says.
Cohen agreed the communications were privileged because of "anticipation of potential representation."
Blanche showed more emails between Costello and Rudy Giuliani, including from April 2018 when Costello wrote that Giuliani had joined Trump's legal team and he said his relationship with him "could be very very useful for you."
In response to Costello, Cohen wrote, "Great news for Rudy. I know I owe you a call. I have been working with lawyers all day and just now coming up for air. I will try you tomorrow."

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Attorney Todd Blanche turns to the YouTube video Bob Costello shared with Michael Cohen, which prosecutors focused on last week. Blanche turns to another email Cohen sent in response to Costello.
On June 14, 2018, Cohen wrote to Costello: "Since we are sharing this morning...they are again on a bad path."
Blanche follows up and asks Cohen in court, "You were talking about President Trump and his team trying to discredit you correct?"
"Correct," Cohen says.
The article Cohen was sharing in the email to Costello was headlined: "Trump's campaign to discredit Michael Cohen is already underway."

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche is walking Michael Cohen through a series of messages he exchanged with Bob Costello.
Here are some of those messages:

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Email from Costello to Cohen on June 28, 2018: "The answer about why they haven't brought an action challenging (Robert) Mueller, His investigation and the Michael Cohen referral and investigation based upon the findings of the IG (Horowitz) report.
I just saw your Tweet and then the outrageous response from Tom Arnold. You should buy that guy's credibility with his own text messages. How dare he say TWO LINES REDACTED."

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Blanche asks whether these were the types of messages consistent with his interactions with Costello. Cohen agrees that's fair.

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On the same day Costello wrote to Cohen: "I've met with my friend and I have one answer of you and have conveyed all of your expressed concern to him for transmission to his client. My friend is traveling to Europe at 5pm tonight so I cannot tell you exactly when your concerns will be relayed. If you want you can give me a call." Cohen responded later that day, "Not sure what concerns other than non-payment I expressed to you. But I thank you either way for your assistance in speaking to your friend."

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche has shown the jury another email from Michael Cohen to Bob Costello asking him to talk to Rudy Giuliani about the Trump Organization not paying his current attorneys at McDermott Will & Emery.

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"There was significant invoices that were being sent by McDermott Will & Emery to the Trump Org. for the payment and the payment was not being made in accordance with the invoices," Cohen explains.

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Cohen confirms to Blanche that this is around the time that his relationship with Costello ends.

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The court is taking a short break this morning. Michael Cohen's testimony will resume after the break.

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"Did you stop making money when you plead guilty in 2018?" Trump attorney Todd Blanched asked
Cohen confirmed this.
Referring to the time he was Trump's personal attorney and when he made money consulting, Blanche asked if that was the most money he's ever made in an 18-month period.
Cohen said no, and after a pause, he said there was a time he made more than $5 million in a similar timeframe.
In between the time he pled guilty and the time he wrote his book, Blanche asked if Cohen didn't have any income.
Correct, Cohen said.

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Michael Cohen says since the fall of 2020, he has made about $4.4 million from podcasts and books.

Cohen says he's made about $1 million in total from his two podcasts. He added that he earned about $3.4 million from the two books which he's testified to previously.

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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, testified under cross-examination Monday morning, his fourth day on the stand. Here are the key points from his testimony.
Cohen stole from the Trump Organization: Cohen was paid $420,000 by Trump over the course of 2017, bank records show. According to Cohen and several handwritten notes, the money broke down to $130,000 to reimburse him for the payment to Stormy Daniels, $50,000 to reimburse him for unrelated tech services to a company called Red Finch, $180,000 to account for estimated taxes and a $60,000 bonus.
However, Cohen testified Monday he only paid back Red Finch $20,000 in cash in a brown paper bag and kept the rest for himself.
"So you stole from the Trump Organization?" Blanche asked.
"Yes, sir," Cohen said.
He said he has told the district attorney's office about the theft but did not face criminal charges.
He previously said Trump didn't know about hush money: Cohen admitted that when the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels became public in 2018, he repeatedly told reporters and others that Trump was not aware of the payments at the time the opposite of his testimony in this trial.
Lots of meetings with prosecutors: Cohen testified he met with prosecutors about 20 times this year, most recently the weekend before he took the stand.
Business is good: Cohen testified he's made about $4.4 million since the fall of 2020, including $3.4 million from books and about $1 million from podcasts.
Cohen-Costello chats: Defense attorney Todd Blanche walked Cohen through messages, emails and phone calls he exchanged with attorney Bob Costello. Costello testified last week in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee that "virtually every statement" Cohen made on the stand about Costello was a lie, and he could be a defense witness.

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Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the court is in session.

Michael Cohen walked past Donald Trump's table without glancing over. Trump was speaking with his attorney Todd Blanche when he passed by them.

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After returning from a short break, Trump attorney Todd Blanche continued to ask Michael Cohen about a TV show pitch about his own life.
Cohen said he worked about three months to help pitch the show "The Fixer."
Cohen added that he worked on the show seven to eight months ago after it was shot.

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