Michael Cohen testifies, House Speaker Johnson watches | Wilnesh News

Michael Cohen is set to resume testimony against his former boss and now-turned-enemy Donald Trump on Tuesday over his role in payments to a porn star and a Playboy model during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hush money was denounced.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican politicians will attend Trump’s criminal trial, NBC reported. The Louisiana congressman is the latest in a series of Republican members of Congress to go to a lower Manhattan courthouse to express solidarity with the party’s 2024 presidential candidate.

Trump’s former lawyer and fixer told jurors on Monday that Trump complained: “This is a disaster!” when he learned that adult film actress Stormy Daniels wanted to release a 2006 sex act she had made on the eve of Election Day 2016. The experience of having sex with Trump at night.

Eight years later, the same story could prove disastrous for Trump again.

A prosecutor used Cohen’s testimony on Monday to provide jurors with a trove of direct evidence that, for the first time, Trump was allegedly aware that the $130,000 he reimbursed Cohen to Daniels was not payment for “legal services.” Rather, it was retaliation for Cohen’s elimination of a threat to his 2016 electoral chances.

Cohen testified that Trump told him to “just do it” to keep Daniels quiet. As Cohen spoke, the former president sat just feet away from him at the defense table.

According to Cohen, Trump said: “Meet with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out.”

Weisselberg was the longtime financial officer of the Trump Organization, the real estate company that is the foundation of the Trump empire.

Cohen also testified that he told Trump that the publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer paid Playboy model Karen McDougal to stay silent about her alleged affair with Trump. efforts made.

Cohen testified that Trump said it was “awesome” after learning of the success of the effort to silence another woman over comments that could have hurt his 2016 campaign.

Trump has been indicted on nearly three dozen felony counts of falsifying business records for the Trump Organization, which claims Daniels payments he and the company reimbursed Cohen were legal expenses.

Legal commentators were impressed Monday with how the often excitable and talkative Cohen kept his cool under direct cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger, but Trump’s defense attorney Todd Branch was sure to In an attempt to provoke Cohen, cross-examination may begin later Tuesday.

Cohen has a record of lying, as well as a federal criminal record related in part to his involvement in the payments to Daniels and McDougal.

Trump, who has denied having sex with Daniels or McDougall or committing any crimes, was harshly critical of the case after jurors were dismissed Monday afternoon, while Cohen remains under direct scrutiny from Hoffinger.

“There’s no crime here,” Trump told reporters. “These four weeks took me away from the campaign trail.”

The former president called trial judge Juan Merchant “corrupt” and said Merchant “should allow us to start a movement to get rid of this scam.”

Trump has been furious for weeks that Murchin forced him to appear in court every day during the trial, which usually only rests on Wednesdays. He claims Murchin, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and others are trying to hurt his chances of defeating President Joe Biden in the November election.

In addition to House Speaker Johnson, other Republicans who attended Tuesday’s trial session to support Trump include North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Reps. Byron Donald and Corey Mills, as well as Republican President Vivek Ramaswamy in the primaries.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.