Michael Cohen finished his direct questioning by the prosecution. During that time he finally went face-to-face with the documents at the heart of Trump’s indictment, confirming that the scheme to reimburse his payment to Stormy Daniels was at Trump’s direction and with his ongoing knowledge.
It wasn’t spectacular testimony, but it was probably the key testimony of this trial.
Cohen also spent half a day being cross-examined by Trump’s lead attorney Todd Blanche, and the result was—surprisingly calm.
There were reasons to think it wouldn't go this way. Not only does Cohen have a reputation for being jumpy and easily agitated, he got so rattled during his cross-examination during Trump’s civil trial for fraud that he replied to questions by citing case law, raised his own objections from the witness stand, and replied to questions with a snappy “asked and answered, asked and answered.”
None of that happened today. By all accounts, Cohen held his composure and provided brief, to-the-point responses. When he did give something more than a yes or no, the answers were often humorous. If anything, jurors had to be thinking that this guy was a lot nicer than they had been told.
Blanche spent much of his time building a portrait of Cohen as a devoted Trump follower, one willing to suffer humiliation to gain approval from Trump, who became disillusioned after Trump won the election and set aside some of his more inconvenient acquaintances. Ultimately, an isolated and insecure Cohen flipped on Trump, provided information in the various investigations, and ended up obsessed with getting revenge on a guy he used to admire.
That’s a pretty accurate portrait. But it’s one that was already familiar to the jury.
Other than reading a few amusing monikers into the record (Cohen called Trump “Dictator Douchebag” and “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain”) Blanche provided little that was new.
And there was one thing notably missing from Blanche’s questions on Tuesday: anything to do with this case. 100% of time was spent trying to attack Cohen’s credibility, providing a motive for revenge, or painting him as a fame-driven hater. None of the time was spent questioning Cohen’s testimony in this case.
Presumably, Cohen will get around to that when the trial resumes on Thursday.