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Michael Cohen to face former boss Trump in New York courtroom Michael Cohen says he inflated assets to ‘whatever number Trump told us to’
(about 13 hours later)
Trump’s one-time fixer, who pleaded guilty over hush-money payments and lying to Congress, ‘looking forward to the reunion’ Trump’s ex-fixer takes stand at New York fraud trial as former president, in attendance in court, attacks Cohen as ‘proven liar’
Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen is set to deliver highly anticipated testimony on Tuesday against his former boss at the former president’s fraud trial in New York. Donald Trump’s ex-fixer inflated the valuation of the former president’s assets to “whatever number Mr Trump told us to”, he has testified.
Trump is expected to be in attendance for the testimony, which Cohen said will be the first time he has seen Trump in five years. Michael Cohen made the allegation as he took the stand at Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York. His highly anticipated testimony is at the heart of the prosecutors’ case against his former boss.
“I look forward to the reunion,” Cohen, once Trump’s lawyer, said. “I hope Donald does as well.” Cohen – the trial’s star witness – claimed he was “tasked, by Mr Trump, to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrary selected”, in an effort to magnify his net worth and “obtain better insurance premiums”.
Now in its fourth week, Trump, his adult sons and their family business have been found liable for inflating the value of Trump’s assets to routinely and repeatedly deceive banks, insurers and others. Judge Arthur Engoron is using the hearings to decide on punishment, which could include a huge fine and probably means the dissolution of the Trump’s New York property empire. Trump, who attended the trial on Tuesday, dismissed Cohen as a “proven liar” and told reporters he was “not worried at all” about his former lawyer’s testimony.
Over a dozen witnesses, many former Trump Organization employees, have testified in the trial so far. But Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the case. Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled Trump and his family business committed fraud. Engoron is using this trial – focused on remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records – to decide on punishment.
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump, said that Cohen’s 2019 congressional testimony led her office to pursue this fraud case against Trump. Cohen had told Congress that Trump “inflated his assets when it served his purposes”. “This is not about Donald Trump v Michael Cohen, or Michael Cohen v Donald Trump,” Cohen said as he arrived at court in Manhattan. “This is about accountability, plain and simple.”
In a video clip briefly shown during prosecutors’ opening argument earlier this month, Cohen told investigators that Trump “wanted to be higher on the Forbes list” and had directed him to increase the value of assets to “accommodate” a higher net worth. Cohen will probably be questioned at length over specific incidents of this on the witness stand. The two men have not been in the same room since Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney for more than a decade, turned on his boss. The former executive vice-president at the Trump Organization ultimately pleaded guilty in 2018 to felony charges, including tax evasion and lying to Congress during an investigation of Trump’s ties with Russia.
Once a staunchly loyal Trump employee, Cohen broke away from Trump in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to federal charges – including lying to Congress and facilitating illegal hush-money payments – that led to a three-year prison sentence, mostly spent in home confinement. Trump continued to attack Cohen before entering the courtroom on Tuesday. “He’s a proven liar, as you know, a felon,” the former president told reporters. “We did nothing wrong and that’s the truth.”
Since his release in November 2021, Cohen has been a vocal critic of Trump, who he described in his 2020 memoir as “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator and a conman”. Cohen’s congressional testimony in 2019 – during which he alleged that Trump “inflated his assets when it served his purposes” – led the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, to pursue its fraud case against the former president.
In return, Trump has called Cohen a “rat” and tried to sue Cohen for $500m for “spreading falsehoods” “with malicious intent”, though Trump has since dropped the lawsuit. As prosecutors laid out their case during opening arguments earlier this month, a video clip was briefly shown in court which showed Cohen telling investigators that Trump “wanted to be higher on the Forbes list”, and had directed him to increase the value of assets to “accommodate” a higher net worth.
Cohen, 57, was once a staunchly loyal Trump employee before breaking away from his former boss in 2018, and pleading guilty to federal charges. These included lying to Congress and facilitating illegal hush-money payments. He was sentenced to three years in prison, mostly spent in home confinement.
Since his release in November 2021, Cohen has been a vocal critic of Trump. “It appears that I will be reunited with my old client,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of his appearance. He posted a meme featuring both himself and the former president, with the caption: “Let’s get you back to your cell.”
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Because this is a civil case, Trump will not be sent to prison if found guilty. It is also a bench trial, meaning there is no jury, and the judge is the sole decider of the trial. He has already released one book, Disloyal, in which he brands his former boss “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator and a conman”, and is preparing to release a second which accuses Trump of having “weaponized the Department of Justice” to pursue his critics.
Cohen has been a key witness in two of the six cases, including this fraud trial, against the former president. Trump has been incensed by Cohen’s decision to break with his business empire, describing his former fixer as a “rat” and even trying to sue him for $500m for “spreading falsehoods” with “malicious intent”, before dropping the lawsuit.
In May, Cohen testified in front of a grand jury for the Manhattan district attorney’s office over hush-money payments he made on behalf of Trump to the adult film star Stormy Daniels to quash her story about an affair with the former president. The trial over the hush-money payments is set to start in March. The trial is a bench trial, with no jury. Engoron is presiding over the case, and will be the sole decider. Because this is a civil trial, Trump will not be sent to prison if found guilty. He is not required to appear in court.
Trump, 77, has repeatedly and vehemently protested his innocence, claiming that the case against him amounts to a “fraud” and a political witch-hunt.
The trial has been shrouded by acrimony, and early on Trump shared a social media post attacking Engoron’s clerk and identifying her by name. The judge subsequently barred the parties from speaking publicly about court staff.
While Trump deleted the post, last week Engoron said that a screenshot had remained live on the former president’s campaign site for weeks. The judge, who acknowledged that the lapse seemed “inadvertent”, fined Trump $5,000 and warned that future violations would bring “far more severe” sanctions, such as imprisonment.