Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former attorney and adviser, is set to testify over several days in an ongoing investigation into Trump’s business dealings.
However, Cohen’s credibility has been questioned given his history of lying to Congress, in court, and to federal prosecutors in the past.
“I’ve never seen a witness who’s lied to Congress, who’s lied in court, who’s lied to the IRS, who’s lied to the Southern District of New York, who lied to his banker,” CNN’s Elie Honig said. “The entire prosecution witness team has been lied to by Michael Cohen.”
Cohen previously pleaded guilty to charges related to his work for Trump, including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress about hush money payments.
Trump is now facing 34 charges for falsifying records to cover reimbursements to Cohen for payments to Stormy Daniels.
After a week of testimony from other former Trump aides, Trump criticized the trial and Judge Juan Merchan, saying the prosecution is unconstitutional and the trial a “scam.”
“If anything’s mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people, anything’s even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail,” Trump said. “That could happen one day and I’d be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution.”
“What he’s doing is so unconstitutional. There’s never been anything like it.” Trump said of Merchan.
“There is no gag order to Michael Cohen. What the judge did was amazing. Actually, it was amazing. Everybody can say … whatever they want, but I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody. It’s a disgrace,” Trump stated. “And you see it, the media sees it, and it’s really very sad. If you look at the legal experts and the legal scholars, every one of them say this trial is a scam.”
Cohen will provide firsthand testimony about his work with Trump.
