Trump put the “don” in Donald when he ordered Michael Cohen to commit financial crimes, the former president’s longtime consigliere turned chief antagonist testified in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“He did not specifically state, ‘Michael, go inflate the numbers,” Cohen testified. “Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss, and what he does is he tells you what he wants without specifically telling you.”
After facing a grilling from Trump’s lawyers, Cohen said when his boss gave him a number to assign to one of his eponymous properties, he knew not to question it.
“So when he said to me, ‘I’m worth more than 5 million. I’m actually worth maybe 6, maybe 7, could be 8,’ we understood what he wanted,” Cohen said.
The comments evoked former FBI Director James Comey’s famous statement that the 45th president gave him “flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob.”
Under questioning by Trump lawyer Cliff Robert, Cohen initially conceded Trump never explicitly directed him to inflate the real estate values. Earlier, Cohen told another Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, that he’d lied to Congress in 2019 when he said under oath he couldn’t recall Trump ordering him to balloon property values.
“So Mr. Trump then never directed you to inflate the numbers on his personal statement, correct — yes or no?” Robert asked.
“Correct,” Cohen replied.
That exchange prompted the former president’s lawyers to ask Judge Arthur Engoron for a directed verdict throwing out the case. When the judge flatly denied it, Trump got out of his seat and remarked it was “unbelievable” before storming out of the courtroom with his Secret Service entourage and son, Eric.
It was when he was later questioned by a lawyer for New York Attorney General Tish James that Cohen spelled out Trump’s “mob-boss” manner of giving instructions.
After Cohen finished on the stand Robert asked Engoron again for a directed verdict on the basis Cohen was untrustworthy — requesting he “end this case once and for all.”
“Absolutely denied,” Engoron said, noting the case didn’t hinge on Cohen’s credibility as he wasn’t a key witness. “There’s enough evidence in this case to fill this courtroom.”
Cohen’s second day of testifying came on the trial’s most dramatic day yet.
Before Trump hit the road, Engoron spontaneously summoned him to the witness stand to question him about his inflammatory Wednesday comments about his law clerk to reporters outside. In less than three minutes, the judge rejected Trump’s explanation of his own remarks — claiming he’d been talking about Cohen, not the clerk — and fined him $10,000.