Donald Trump’s legal team has portrayed Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, as an unreliable witness who acted independently in his trial over payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. But legal experts say prosecutors bolstered Cohen’s testimony with substantial evidence, including phone records and corroborating testimony from other witnesses.
Despite this, shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) rose slightly at the market open on Friday.
Cohen said this week that Trump ordered him to pay Daniels $130,000 to ensure her silence about the alleged 2006 affair before the 2016 election. He alleged that the then-former US president approved a plan to falsify documents to hide the deal.
Prosecutors presented significant circumstantial evidence implicating Trump in the scheme, highlighting his penchant for micromanaging. Remarkable testimony from people such as David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, and recordings of discussions about hush money payments further strengthened the prosecution’s case.
Cohen’s credibility was bolstered by evidence that he frequently communicated with Trump and campaign officials during critical periods. Moreover, prosecutors presented emails and text messages illustrating Cohen’s role in arranging the payments and discussing their cover-up, providing key digital evidence that further strengthens the case that Trump was directly involved and aware of the transactions.
“Part of what the prosecution succeeded in doing was completely corroborating other parts of Michael Cohen’s testimony,” said New York Law School professor Rebecca Roiphe.
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“There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that Trump was involved in the payments,” she added.
Despite these efforts, some key conversations between Cohen and Trump remain unconfirmed. Trump’s defense team has argued that he delegated business details to associates such as Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the latter of whom is not testifying in this trial.
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, claims the case is a politically motivated attack on his presidential campaign.