Cohen says Trump told him to ‘handle’ love-child story
Michael Cohen says he learned that in fall 2016, he’d heard that a former Trump Tower doorman said that he had a “love-child.”
He told Donald Trump because he wanted to get his direction on what he wanted done. Cohen says:
He told me to make sure that the story doesn’t get out – you handle it.
As for the effected employees, Cohen says:
He asked me to speak to them and let me know it’s getting taken care of.
To prevent it from going public, “I worked with [the National Enquirer’s] Dylan Howard and David Pecker.”
He said that Pecker was going to buy the life rights to the doorman’s story. Along the way, Cohen testified, Pecker and/or Howard would give him updates.
In turn, Cohen said, he would update Trump “immediately” whenever he learned something.
Key events
Cohen says Trump said he would ‘take care’ of $150,000 hush-money payment to Karen McDougal
In June 2016, Michael Cohen said he was present when Donald Trump had a conversation with former American Media Inc chair David Pecker.
Trump “had the call put through and he had a speakerbox on his desk and instead of lifting up the phone, he used the speakerbox so I was able to hear,” Cohen testifies.
What did he recall from that conversation? Cohen says:
He asked him how things were going with the matter and David said, ‘we have this under control and we’ll take care of this.’
Cohen continues:
David had stated that it’s going to cost him $150,000 to control the [Karen McDougal] story to which Mr Trump replied, ‘no problem, I’ll take care of it.’
Cohen said that AMI as going to lay out the funds and as Mr Trump had stated to David, said ‘I’ll take care of it.’ It hadn’t been sorted out exactly how Trump would repay Pecker, he said.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now showing a log of calls between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump. There was one on 16 June 2016.
Hoffinger asks: “Did you have that call right after you contacted ‘[Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith] Schiller? Cohen says: “Yes.”
Hoffinger is now asking about texts on 20 June 2016. He got one from National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard.
I’m about to meet her…name is Karen McDougal, former Playboy playmate.
Cohen says:
I then respond to Mr Howard, ‘OK, we need to speak.’ He then responds to me, ‘Yes.’
In one text, Howard says, “spoke to DP (American Media Inc CEO David Pecker), I’m wrapping up with them, and then we will convene a three-way call between us …understand I’ve got this locked down for you, I won’t let it out of my grasp.
During the three-person call, Howard and Pecker said “that they believed they had this under control,” Cohen says.
Do you recognize these texts with Keith Schiller, Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks of Michael Cohen’s exchanges with Trump’s longtime bodyguard. Cohen says: “I do.”
She asks Cohen to read texts from 16 June 2016:
This is from me to Keith Schiller asking, ‘Can we speak? I need you.’ I didn’t receive a response back and so I followed it up with another that says, ‘you there?’ He then responds to me, ‘on Dallas,’ [he] meant in Dallas.
Cohen says he then responded to Schiller asking “Where’s the boss?” referencing Donald Trump.
He then responds to me, ‘next to me,’ and then I then ask, ‘is he free to speak?’
The prosecution asks: “Why were you trying to reach Mr Trump?” Cohen replies:
Regarding the Karen McDougal matter.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now bringing up text messages between former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Michael Cohen.
Hoffinger is asking Cohen to read texts from 16 June 2016. It states:
Meeting will be on Monday, per their terms, Dylan.
And what’s your response, Hoffinger asks.
My response back was: understood. Thank you for everything.
Cohen said this was about meeting with Karen McDougal and her people.
Cohen says Trump told him to make sure Karen McDougal story would not be made public
Now we’re on to Karen McDougal, the Playboy bunny who claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump.
When Michael Cohen was apprised by his American Media Inc pals that she was trying to tell her story, he went to Trump right away.
“I asked him if he knew who Karen McDougal was,” Cohen recalled.
His response to me was: She’s really beautiful. I said, OK but there’s a story that’s right now being shopped.
What did Trump tell him to do?
Make sure it doesn’t get released.
What did you take that to mean?
We need to acquire the story. I went ahead and reached back out to both Dylan Howard as well as David Pecker.
It remains to be seen just how problematic a witness Michael Cohen will be, considering his federal convictions, but so far, his answers on direct testimony are showing that he’d go out of his way to show Donald Trump legal documents, including ones that resolved issues for him.
Cohen did it to show that American Media Inc CEO David Pecker was upholding his end of the bargain.
And, there was a personal reason for him to do so. “Also, for credit.” What did Cohen mean by credit?
In order to get credit for accomplishing the task.
What was Mr Trump’s reaction when you told him that?
That’s great, that’s great.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now running through concrete aspects of the alleged catch-and-kill scheme the National Enquirer executed by paying the Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin for a story about Donald Trump allegedly fathering a child out of wedlock.
With the doorman, Michael Cohen says:
They were going to pay $30,000. They were executing an agreement with the doorman in order to obtain the life rights to the story.
This was to control the story, Cohen said, to not publish it, “to take it off the market.”
Asked if Trump was grateful, Cohen said, “absolutely.”
Cohen said he reviewed the agreement to make sure he was “fully protected” and provide it to his then-boss to show it was taken care of.
Cohen pushed for a clause in the agreement with the doorman – a $1m penalty – if he violated the terms of his deal. AMI agreed to amend the deal.
Cohen says Trump told him to ‘handle’ love-child story
Michael Cohen says he learned that in fall 2016, he’d heard that a former Trump Tower doorman said that he had a “love-child.”
He told Donald Trump because he wanted to get his direction on what he wanted done. Cohen says:
He told me to make sure that the story doesn’t get out – you handle it.
As for the effected employees, Cohen says:
He asked me to speak to them and let me know it’s getting taken care of.
To prevent it from going public, “I worked with [the National Enquirer’s] Dylan Howard and David Pecker.”
He said that Pecker was going to buy the life rights to the doorman’s story. Along the way, Cohen testified, Pecker and/or Howard would give him updates.
In turn, Cohen said, he would update Trump “immediately” whenever he learned something.
Michael Cohen says he received an email from a National Enquirer honcho.
As people “can’t get enough” of Trump, the top tabloid hand said, “We are repackaging and repurposing past material from our files.”
Cohen suggested some edits on a story and American Media Inc (AMI) agreed to make them. The headline of this story wound up being “WORLD EXCLUSIVE: THE DONALD TRUMP THAT NOBODY KNOWS!”
The email between Cohen and an AMI honcho was on 6 January. The Trump story ran on 13 January.
Now we’re going to the summer 2015 meeting with former CEO of American Media Inc David Pecker –where, prosecutors say, he and Michael Cohen and Donald Trump hatched a catch-and-kill plan to bury negative press about the then-candidate.
Cohen recalled:
What he said was that he could keep an eye out for anything negative about Mr Trump and that he would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out and try to stop it from coming out.
Pecker’s then-company, AMI, would do hit pieces on his opponents: Hillary Clinton with glasses to imply brain injury. A photo of Ted Cruz’s father with Lee Harvey Oswald to imply he’d a role in killing JFK.
AMI would even send Cohen covers with these pieces before they ran. Cohen said he’d show them to Trump “so he’d know that David was loyal, on board, was doing everything that he said he was going to do in that August meeting, and was actually doing it.”
Trump’s reaction to the scandal sheets?
That’s fantastic. That’s unbelievable.
Cohen says Trump warned ‘a lot of women’ would come forward after his presidential run announcement
The prosecution asks if Michael Cohen made public appearance for Donald Trump and his campaign. Cohen says he did.
While watching the rallies, I went to Mr Trump and I said, one of the things that I noticed is, it’s very white, and we really need diversity. If we’re going to win, we’re going to need diversity. And so I started a group called National Diversity Coalition for Trump along with pastor Darrell Scott.
Cohen said that Trump had expressed concern about negative press when he announced.
You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward.
The prosecution asks: “At any time, were you ever an official paid member of Mr Trump’s campaign?” Michael Cohen says no.
When Mr Trump decided to run, he actually promised that he was going to do it in the next election cycle. For years thereafter, we would talk about him running in 2015. When he ultimately said ‘I’m doing it’, there was a lot of back-and-forth about what day the announcement should be.
Was Cohen going to be part of the campaign? Cohen said no.
I wasn’t going to be a part of it, I was going to be a surrogate.
“Did there come a time in 2011 that Mr Trump was exploring a run for the presidency?” Yes. “In 2011,” Michael Cohen says:
I had come across, while reading the paper, a poll that stated 6% of all the people who had taken the poll thought Mr Trump should be president of the United States of America so I took that article and I brought it to Mr Trump and I said what do you think?
He thought it was interesting and looked into it, Cohen says.
I had created for him, on my own, a website called ‘shouldtrumprun.com‘ and many people came to that website and it was further proof that his name recognition, his popularity, especially because of his hit show, The Apprentice, was so strong.
Do you remember him giving some public speeches about his considering a candidacy in 2011? Cohen says Yes.
Why didn’t he go forward that year?
There were several … large real estate projects, that he had acquired as well as another season of The Apprentice. As Mr Trump told me, ‘you don’t leave Hollywood, Hollywood leaves you.’
