{"id":50651,"date":"2024-05-14T23:50:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T23:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/michael-cohen-tells-trial-he-lied-and-bullied-for-ex-president-and-was-knee-deep-in-trump-cult\/"},"modified":"2024-05-14T23:50:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T23:50:32","slug":"michael-cohen-tells-trial-he-lied-and-bullied-for-ex-president-and-was-knee-deep-in-trump-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/michael-cohen-tells-trial-he-lied-and-bullied-for-ex-president-and-was-knee-deep-in-trump-cult\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Cohen tells trial he lied and bullied for ex-president and was ‘knee deep’ in Trump ‘cult’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael<\/div>


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Michael Cohen said he had been “knee deep into the cult of Donald Trump” as he testified for a second day in the ex-president’s trial.<\/p>\n

As Trump<\/a>‘s <\/strong>defence tried to paint the former lawyer and ‘fixer’ as a bitter and fame-hungry former acolyte, he denied being obsessed by his former boss but said he had once “admired him tremendously”.<\/p>\n

He is testifying in the case about hush money payments to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to cover up an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.<\/p>\n

Trump trial – Day 17 as it happened<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such payouts aren’t illegal, but Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide it – a claim he denies.<\/p>\n

He told the court on Tuesday that loyalty was the reason he kept lying about the payment when it came out in the media.<\/p>\n

In 2016 he described Trump as kind, humble, honest and genuine.<\/p>\n

The defence asked whether he had believed what he was saying.<\/p>\n

“At the time, I was knee-deep into the cult of Donald Trump,” he responded, adding: “I was not lying, no, that’s how I felt.”<\/p>\n

Mr Cohen admitted he “missed Trump” at times after he became president.<\/p>\n

They have also pointed to hundreds of media appearances, podcasts and interviews in which the disgraced lawyer has mentioned him.<\/p>\n

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\n Image:<\/span>
\n Michael Cohen (right) was once a fiercely loyal confidant of the ex-president. Pic: AP
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His credibility was under attack as Mr Cohen has previously admitted lying under oath.<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old was jailed after pleading guilty in 2018 to charges relating to the hush money payment and other unrelated offences.<\/p>\n

He said that after a FBI raid on his home the same year, Trump had messaged him: “I am the president of the United States, everything is going to be okay, stay tough”.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Porn stars, sex scandals and zzzs: A to Z of Trump trial<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Donald Trump denies the liaison with Stormy Daniels and says Mr Cohen acted on his own initiative when he made the payment.<\/p>\n

The former lawyer denied that claim in earlier evidence, saying “everything required Trump’s sign-off”.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Donald\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Trump, who denies the charges, faces several other trials. Pic: Reuters
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

‘I violated my moral compass’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Cohen – who once said he would take a bullet for his boss – admitted at the end of questioning on Tuesday that he “violated my moral compass” while working for Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

“I regret doing things for him that I should not have,” he told the New York court. “Lying, bullying people in order to effectuate the goal.<\/p>\n

“I don’t regret working for the Trump Organisation – as I expressed before, [those were] some very interesting, great times,” he added.<\/p>\n

“But to keep the loyalty and to do things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as did my family. That is my failure.”<\/p>\n

On Monday, the court heard him testify about setting up a shell company to make the $130,000 hush money<\/a><\/strong> out of his own money.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Stormy\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Stormy Daniels has also testified in the case. AP\/DeeCee Carter\/MediaPunch \/IPX
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Trump later paid the money back and covered it up by recording it as a legal retainer fee.<\/p>\n

He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over the claims.<\/p>\n

Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.<\/p>\n

His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.<\/p>\n

They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Cohen said he had been “knee deep into the cult of Donald Trump” as he testified for a second day in the ex-president’s trial. As Trump‘s defence tried to paint the former lawyer and ‘fixer’ as a bitter and fame-hungry former acolyte, he denied being obsessed by his former boss but said he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/05\/768x432\/skynews-michael-cohen-trump-trial_6554350.jpg?20240514212958","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50722,25130,20700,2481,6135,34229,50721,151,2312,6230,52],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50653,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50651\/revisions\/50653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}