2023-10-25 03:03:59
Donald Trump’s former lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, admitted in testimony Tuesday that he manipulated the former U.S. president’s real estate values to match “whatever figure I said”.
In her witness testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against Trump, Cohen said the former president tasked him and other former Trump Organization executives with cooking financial statements. to increase the value of the company’s shares and secure better real estate premiums.
“He was saying, ‘I’m not actually worth $4.5 billion, I’m actually worth more like $6 (billion),'” Cohen said, adding that Trump arrived at his asset valuations “arbitrarily”. Tuesday’s testimony marked a long-awaited meeting of allies-turned-enemies.
Trump He initially leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and stared at Cohen while testifying, but spent most of the day hunched over the defendant’s table, occasionally observing a former collaborator and speaking with his attorneys.
Cohen is expected to return to the stand on Wednesday to be questioned by Trump’s lawyers.
The tycoon, a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has denied wrongdoing and defended his property valuations, saying the case is a “fraud” and a political witch hunt.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom as the trial ended for today, Trump called Cohen a “disgraceful guy.” “The witness is already totally discredited,” he added.
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COHEN SAID HE LIED ON TRUMP’S ORDER
Cohen, who once said that “I would take a bullet” for Trump, turned against his former boss in 2018, when he pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation and lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia.
In an apparent effort to preempt Trump’s lawyers’ expected attacks on Cohen’s credibility, Colleen Faherty, a lawyer with the attorney general’s office, began her questioning of Cohen by reviewing his criminal history. Cohen said she lied at Trump’s direction.
Cohen He began a three-year prison sentence in 2019, but was released to home release the following year, during the coronavirus pandemic.
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