NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is expected to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments he arranged and made. in the name of the former president.
Cohen’s upcoming grand jury appearance was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly about grand jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity.
Cohen’s closed testimony comes at a critical time while the Manhattan district attorney’s office is closing in on a decision on whether to seek charges against Trump.
A Trump loyalist turned adversary, Cohen is likely to provide critical details about any involvement the Republican presidential candidate may have had in the payments, made in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, to both woman who accuses him of affairs or intercourse.
Trump has denied being involved with any of the women, pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal.
Cohen provided evidence to prosecutors, including audio recordings of conversations he had with a lawyer for one of the women, as well as emails and text messages. He also has recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump discussed an arrangement to pay another woman through the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.
Prosecutors appear to be looking into whether Trump committed crimes over how the payments were made or how they were accounted for within Trump’s company, the Trump Organization.
One possible charge is falsifying business records, a misdemeanor unless prosecutors can prove it was done to cover up another crime. No former US president has ever been charged with a crime.
Appearing Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina said it is unlikely the former president will accept an invitation, which prosecutors extended last week, to testify before the grand jury. jury.
“We have no plans to participate in this proceeding,” Tacopina said. “It’s a decision that needs to be made anyway. There’s no set deadline, so we’ll wait and see.”
He portrayed Trump as a victim, saying he was forced to pay Daniels.
“It’s a simple extortion and I don’t know since when we decided to start going after the victims of extortion,” said Tacopina. “He denied – strongly denied – this activity. But he has to pay because there is an allegation that will embarrass him in public, regardless of the campaign.
Daniels and the lawyer who helped arrange the payment on her behalf, Keith Davidson, both denied extorting anyone.
Tacopina also accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of prosecutorial misconduct, writing in a letter to the New York City inspector general that prosecutors are trying to hinder Trump’s chances in the 2024 presidential election.. Tacopina asked the city’s Department of Investigation to investigate a “fair political prosecution.”
A message seeking comment was left with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Trump’s lawyers have tried several times to get judges in New York and Florida to intervene or stop the investigations into Trump and the Trump Organization, arguing that they are politically motivated. All attempts failed.
Cohen is serving time in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging payments to Daniels and McDougal to keep them from going public. He was disbarred again.
Trump’s lawyers could point to factors at trial to undermine Cohen’s credibility, if the former president is indicted and Cohen ends up testifying at trial.
Cohen has been meeting frequently with prosecutors in Manhattan in recent weeks, including a one-day session on Friday to prepare for his grand jury appearance.
The panel has heard evidence since January in what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, called his office’s “next chapter” in the long-running Trump investigation. But hush money payments — perhaps the poorest of Trump’s questioning methods — are familiar ground.
Federal prosecutors and Bragg’s predecessor in the DA’s office, Cyrus Vance Jr., each investigated the payments but did not charge Trump.
Cohen declined to comment to reporters as he left the meeting, saying he was “going to take some time now to be quiet and let the DA build their case.”
Trump continued to attack the investigation on social media Friday, calling the case a “Scam, Injustice, Mockery, and a Complete and Total Weapon of Law Enforcement to Influence a Presidential Election!”
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as “legal expenses.”
McDougal’s $150,000 payment was made through the publisher of the National Enquirer, which suppressed his story in a journalistically dubious practice. known as “catch-and-kill.”
According to federal prosecutors indicting Cohen, the Trump Organization then “grossed” Cohen’s payment for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” giving him $360,000 plus a $60,000 bonus, in total. of $420,000.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
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