Cohen says he was ‘very concerned’ after email from Stormy Daniels’ lawyer
Cohen read aloud an Oct. 17, 2016, email he received from Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, that he said made him “very concerned” that he and Trump were losing control over the deal that would bury his story.
“My intention was to continue to delay it as Mr. Trump demanded,” Cohen testified about the payment to Daniels. “And I did not send funds to Mr. Davidson’s IOLTA” on this date, Cohen said.
An IOLTA is an account that lawyers maintain to hold client funds in escrow.
Cohen Details Emails Trying to Delay Stormy Daniels Payment
Cohen is now testifying about his email exchange with Keith Davidson in October 2016, in which Cohen attempted to keep Davidson in check and delay payment to Stormy Daniels.
Cohen admits that he even used the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur to delay, on Trump’s instructions, the payment.
In short, Cohen is testifying about the delays to say: Trump told him to tie up Stormy Daniels as long as possible – preferably until after the election. Because if he could keep it going for that long, the story would remain secret and if he won, then it wouldn’t matter because the election was over. And if he lost, he wouldn’t mind if the story became public.
The prosecution is focusing on this to make a key part of its case – that this was all done to influence the election, not to hide Trump’s wife or avoid family problems, something the defense suggested they could argue.
Cohen’s testimony resumes
Everyone is back in court and testimony is resuming.
LISTEN: Michael Cohen audio recording reveals Trump talking about Karen McDougal payment
Jurors heard this recording Cohen made of Trump discussing paying the National Enquirer for buying the Karen McDougal story.
Court break for lunch
The trial proceedings were interrupted for a lunch break. The court will reconvene at 2pm ET.
Cohen: ‘I was following instructions’
Cohen expressed that although Keith Davidson wanted an immediate bank transfer, he was trying to take the transaction beyond the election, as Trump had instructed him to do.
“I was following instructions,” Cohen said when asked if he could finance it first.
Cohen also said he would not have funded the deal after the expected 10 days, but would have continued to try to delay it.
Cohen Recalls What Trump Thought His Wife Melania Would Feel About Stormy Daniels’ Story
Cohen recalled what Trump thought his wife Melania would feel about the Stormy Daniels story resurfacing.
Cohen asked Trump: “How are things up there?” referring to Melania Trump.
“Don’t worry. How long do you think I’ll be in business? Not long,” Trump said, according to Cohen.
Cohen took this to mean he wasn’t worried about Melania, but rather the campaign.
Cohen says Trump was angry when Daniels’ story resurfaced: ‘I thought you took care of that!’
Cohen testified that Trump was angered to learn that Daniels’ story had resurfaced with just weeks left in the 2016 campaign.
“I thought you took care of that,” Cohen recalled Trump saying when he briefed the then-GOP presidential candidate. “I thought this was under control.”
“Just take care of it,” Cohen said Trump told him.
“This is a disaster, a total disaster,” Trump said, according to Cohen’s testimony. “The women will hate me. The guys will think it’s cool, but it will be a disaster for the campaign.”
Cohen says he and Keith Davidson spoke several times
Cohen testified that he spoke several times with Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, in October 2016.
The prosecution asked Cohen about text messages between Davidson and Cohen that began after the National Enquirer’s Dylan Howard connected the two men about Daniels.
Cohen said the messages were about Cohen and Trump trying to buy Stormy Daniels’ life rights to her story.
Cohen says Trump instructed him to ‘take care of it’ when he told him about the Stormy Daniels story in 2011
Cohen said that when he first heard Stormy Daniels’ story about Trump in 2011, he went to Trump’s office and told him about the conversation he had with Dylan Howard and asked Trump if he knew who she was.
Cohen said Trump told him he knew Daniels, and Cohen told the story about the 2006 golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Cohen said Trump instructed him to “take care of it.”
Trump also told Cohen that he and Ben Roethlisberger had met her and that she preferred Trump to “Big Ben,” Cohen testified. Although Cohen asked Trump if he had a date with Daniels, Trump did not respond directly, saying only that she was “a beautiful woman.”
