Star witness Michael Cohen directly implicates Donald Trump in testimony at hush money trial

Donald Trump’s one-time fixer Michael Cohen gave his long-awaited testimony in Trump’s hush money trial

Trump is charged with falsifying business records to conceal a US$130,000 pay-off to a porn star

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Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Donald Trump, testified on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:22am, 14 May 2024Updated: 3:40pm, 14 May 2024

Donald Trump was intimately involved with all aspects of a scheme to stifle stories about sex that threatened to torpedo his 2016 campaign, his former lawyer said on Monday in matter-of-fact testimony that went to the heart of the former president’s hush money trial.

“Everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off,” said Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-foe and the prosecution’s star witness in a case now entering its final, pivotal stretch.

In hours of highly anticipated testimony, Cohen placed Trump at the centre of the hush money plot, saying the then-presidential candidate had promised to reimburse the lawyer for the money he fronted and was constantly updated about behind-the-scenes efforts to bury stories feared to be harmful to the campaign.

“We need to stop this from getting out,” Cohen quoted Trump as telling him in reference to porn actor Stormy Daniels’ account of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.

Donald Trump in court on Monday. Photo: Reuters

A similar episode took place when Cohen alerted Trump that a Playboy model alleged that she and Trump had an extramarital affair. “Make sure it doesn’t get released,” Cohen said Trump told him.

The woman, Karen McDougal, was paid US$150,000 in a hush money arrangement that was made after Trump was given a “complete and total update on everything that transpired”.