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By Graham Kates, Shawna Mizelle, Katrina Kaufman
/ CBS News
Michael Cohen is back on the witness stand in former President Donald Trump’s New York trial for his second day of testimony against his longtime boss.
Cohen served as Trump’s personal attorney for nearly a decade before he entered the White House in 2017. Cohen testified on Monday that Trump directly approved of a plan to reimburse him for a $130,000 payment he made before the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who was selling her story of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.Â
Those reimbursements were made over the course of a year and were characterized as payments for Cohen’s legal services in the Trump Organization’s records. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, one charge for each invoice, check and voucher created in connection with the payments to Cohen. He has pleaded not guilty and denies having sex with Daniels.
On the stand Monday, Cohen said Trump signed off on the plan to reimburse him during a meeting at Trump Tower. He told jurors that Trump was shown notes from a Trump Organization executive tallying the total amount he was owed: $420,000, which included enough to cover taxes and a bonus for Cohen.
Trump’s attorneys have not yet had their chance to question Cohen. They are expected to zero in on Cohen’s extensive credibility issues. The former attorney previously pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and has admitted to lying under oath several other times.Â
The defense is also likely to question Cohen’s motivations for testifying. Since falling out of favor with Trump in 2018, Cohen has become a vocal critic of his former boss, using his books, podcasts and media appearances to cheerlead the cases against him.
Trump is being joined at the courthouse on Tuesday by a number of prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is set to speak about the trial later in the morning.
Cohen takes the stand to resume testimony
After a lengthy sidebar at the bench, Cohen entered the courtroom wearing a dark gray suit, light blue tie and white shirt.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger picked up where they left off on Monday, asking Cohen about the plans to reimburse him for the Daniels payment in the beginning of 2017.
Trump arrives at court with allies, including Johnson and Ramaswamy
Trump spoke to reporters outside the courthouse as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy and other surrogates looked on. Holding a stack of papers, he read quotes from conservative commentators and others criticizing the trial as politically motivated.
“This has never happened in our country before. There’s never been anything like this,” Trump said.
“I paid a lawyer a certain amount of money. We marked it down as a legal expense. So I had a legal expense, and I marked it down as a legal expense,” he continued. “I didn’t mark it down as construction of a wall, construction of a building. I didn’t mark it down as electricity costs. I took a legal expense and — I didn’t do it, a bookkeeper did it, and she did it exactly right — took a legal expense and called it a legal expense. This is their whole case.”
Trump thanked Johnson and his other allies for attending, and reiterated his complaint about the temperature inside the courtroom.
“And now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go into the icebox and sit for a long time. Thank you very much,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, potential running mates to attend trial
Several top Republican officials, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and a couple of Republicans on Trump’s shortlist to be Trump’s running mate, are expected to attend his trial today to show their support for the presumptive GOP nominee.Â
North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum, former primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills are expected to be at the trial Tuesday.
Most of them are also expected to attend the closed-door fundraiser in New York City this evening. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — a top vice presidential possibility — will be in New York today, but he will not be at the court, though he’ll be attending the fundraiser.
Fin Gómez and Olivia Rinaldi
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com
