Trump Criminal Trials, page-9697

Interesting article that lays out some of the events that have led to the Cohen/Trump split and Cohen's pending testimony in this case.

Lucky for Trump he was president at the time and had the power to sway investigations for his part in crimes he and Cohen were involved.

"Federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman revealed that, under pressure from Washington, his office had stopped investigating the president for fraud and campaign finance violations."

"behind the scenes....There were forces at work to protect the president."


Michael Cohen, the man who destroyed his own life to try to put Donald Trump in jail
Posted 2h ago


The hush-money payments

After Donald Trump was elected president, news stories started to appear about Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump.

Michael Cohen was not worried.

He was the president's personal lawyer, Donald Trump had his back, and nothing was going to happen to him.

That was what he thought, right up to the day the FBI knocked on his door at 7 o'clock one morning.


The flip

He was increasingly suspicious about things Trump was saying in the media.

For example, when he was asked about the Stormy Daniels payments, Trump would say: "You'll have to ask Michael."

Cohen thought that this suggested the raid had been ordered by Trump to throw him under the bus — to make him a scapegoat.

Then, Trump stopped paying for Cohen's defence lawyers. Cohen suddenly was faced with a bill of more than a million dollars in legal fees.

Michael Cohen decided if the bus was coming for him, he wanted to make sure it hit Trump too.


The guilty plea

Then the prosecutors threatened to indict Cohen's wife for tax fraud if he didn't plead guilty. Michael Cohen cracked.

Five months after the raid, he said he was willing to plead guilty to all crimes and prosecutors prepared a document for Cohen to sign.

It said Cohen had worked "in concert with" and "coordinated with" Trump to buy the silence of Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, intending to help Trump's presidential campaign.

At first, it seemed like Michael Cohen's plan had come together, but something was going on behind the scenes.

There were forces at work to protect the president.


The Trump allegations

It turns out that Trump-appointed officials at the top of the Justice Department were allegedly ordering prosecutors to cut out as many references to Trump as possible.

The following day, Cohen was presented with a 21-page document. Nineteen pages had been cut out, including key sections implicating the president.

It was Cohen's worst nightmare. Trump was going to get away with it, and Cohen was going to jail for three years.

The gloves were off. Cohen and his lawyers told anyone who would answer their phone that he was ready to tell the world everything he knew about Donald Trump.

Cohen brought all the receipts. He handed over everything he had on Trump.

He testified to the US Congress that Trump was "a racist, a con man and a cheat." He did every interview he could. He wrote two books from jail.

We now know that what he was doing was actually crucial to getting a case against Trump going.

Federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman revealed that, under pressure from Washington, his office had stopped investigating the president for fraud and campaign finance violations.

But Cohen's constant waves of allegations and evidence against Trump were too powerful to ignore.

By the end of Trump's term in office, he had issued presidential pardons to all of his imprisoned cronies — except Michael Cohen.


The case

Earlier this year, Trump was fined half a billion dollars for bank fraud and tax fraud, in a case which relied heavily on evidence given by Cohen.

And now, Trump faces a criminal trial in relation to the Stormy Daniels payment.

Michael Cohen's entire life for the last six years has been leading up to his testimony in this trial.

He's hardly a perfect witness. He is a liar and a criminal. He is not at all impartial.The question is — will his story be compelling enough for a jury to find Donald Trump guilty for a crime that Cohen has already served time for?

We will find out soon in that dusty, stinky old New York courtroom.



Full article:-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-11/the-man-trying-to-take-down-trump/103819174