Has a 14-year-old caller gone viral by misrepresenting Michael Cohen’s testimony during Trump’s hush money trial?
In October of 2016, while Michael Cohen was frantically working to arrange a deal to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence, he was inundated with hoax calls.
Cohen texted the hoax caller on October 24, 2016, saying, “This number has just been sent to Secret Service for your ongoing and continuous harassment to both my cell as well as the organization’s main line.” The caller had neglected to disguise their number.
“I didn’t do it,” the practical joker shot back.
Another text said, “I’m 14.” I beg you not to do this.
That evening, Donald Trump’s go-between called the bodyguard for his employer and texted him the phone number of the purported 14-year-old practical joker to handle the situation.
Defense lawyers used that moment to undermine Cohen’s earlier evidence over the call to Mr. Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, during the former president’s hush money trial on Thursday in a Manhattan courtroom.
Cohen informed Mr. Trump during the conversation, according to Cohen’s testimony earlier this week, that he had arranged the hush money agreement in order to conceal Ms. Daniels’ claim that she had sex with Mr. Trump in 2006.
The defense team for Mr. Trump has repeatedly questioned the prosecution’s key witnesses in a cross-examination that has been caustic and frequently antagonistic in an effort to raise doubts in the minds of the jurors throughout the trial.
Cohen is the only witness with the capacity to directly link Mr. Trump to a scheme to buy Ms. Daniels’ silence and Mr. Trump’s support for the notion of returning $130,000 to Cohen after he paid her.
Cohen’s invoices for those reimbursements and the cheques that Mr. Trump signed are among the 34 allegedly falsified business documents at the center of the probe.
In a case that the prosecution has described as his criminal attempt to hide the true nature of his reimbursements—hiding facts from voters to increase his prospects of winning the presidency—Mr. Trump is accused of 34 counts of manipulating corporate documents.
He entered a not guilty plea.
On October 24, 2016, Cohen and the hoax caller exchanged texts between 7:10 and 7:24 p.m. Text messages and telephone logs shown in court indicate that he texted Mr. Schiller at 7:48 p.m. and they spoke over the phone at about 8 p.m.
It was a minute and thirty-six seconds long call.
While defense lawyer Todd Blanche cried out claims that Cohen was lying to the jury, Cohen stayed composed and unconcerned. He said he thought he had spoken to Mr. Trump and Mr. Schiller regarding the prank call as well as the hush money.
He declared on Thursday that “I think I was telling the truth.”
“We’re not requesting your faith,” Mr. Blanche shot back. “Your version of events is not what this jury wants to hear.”
Cohen claimed that Mr. Schiller gave Mr. Trump the phone during the conversation to provide him with an update on Ms. Daniels. Cohen had previously admitted that this was all part of his own ego-stroking plan to maintain his boss’s good graces by receiving “credit” for his allegiance.
He declared, “I always run everything by the boss right away.” “I could have just told them that everything had been handled and that the issue had been resolved.”
On October 27, 2016, three days later, Cohen used a shell corporation to send $130,000 to Ms. Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson.
Ms. Daniels pledged her silence by signing a nondisclosure agreement the next day.
Cohen then informed Mr. Trump that “the matter was completely locked down and under control” during a call that lasted more than five minutes, according to Cohen’s previous testimony.
Less than two weeks later, Mr. Trump emerged victorious in the presidential race.
Monday is Cohen’s last day of cross-examination and further questions from Manhattan prosecutors, who want to wrap up their case early the next week.
Arguments for closure might start as early as Tuesday.
