Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen took the stand during the New York hush money trial Monday, where he calmly recalled his former boss directing him to make payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
ABC News reported the former Trump lawyer "recalled then-Trump Organization CFO [Alan] Weisselberg saying the monthly payments to reimburse him for the Stormy Daniels nondisclosure payment would be recorded 'as a legal service render since I was going to be given the title as personal attorney to the president.'"
New York criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala, speaking with CNN's Abby Phillip, Anderson Cooper, Laura Coates, Kaitlan Collins, and former prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin, played devil's advocate by arguing that the reimbursements could be considered legal fees.
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Phillip asked, "Is there a defense in Trump attorney saying, 'Well, he was advised by Allen Weisselberg, but this is the best way to do it, and he agreed."
Aidala replied, "That's definitely a piece of it. And also, it's not that a veterinarian laid out the money, and he's giving it to Michael Cohen and legal fee and then Michael Cohen is going to give him. His lawyer did lay out the money. The money is going to Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is his lawyer.
“So writing 'legal fee' down is not so far-fetched. If I'm doing the closing argument, I would say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, do you think when Donald Trump had construction done on one of his buildings, and he wrote a check to the construction firm, do you think he broke it down like, 'Well, this much was for concrete, this much was for rebar, and this much is for window,' or do you say, 'Here's the big check; you deal with it from here. Here Michael Cohen, here's the big check. If some of it is money that you earn, it's yours. If some of it is money you laid out, it's yours. But in my mind, it all goes under legal fees."
Coates replied, "The prosecution has different information, right? That's why they have book excerpts that talk about how meticulously he managed his money. He knew where his money was going."
Cooper added, "He was telling Michael Cohen to pay $0.20 on the dollar."
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Coates said, "Exactly, part of his testimony today was about Michael Cohen's job being to renegotiate invoices that he didn't like."
Aidala replied, "The argument isn't he's not a paying Michael Cohen. The argument you make as defending Donald Trump is, it's money going to his lawyer."
Coates replied, "Not for legal services. That's the point."
Aidala said, "I think you could argue to a jury that this is minutia, and it is a political hit job on this guy because that guy sitting in the front row, Alvin Bragg, who is not sitting in a murder trial right now, who's not sitting in a robbery trial right now. He's sitting here because he doesn't want him to be president of the United States. It's called selective prosecutions, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and your justice in this courtroom, and justice dictates that you walk him right out."
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Coates replied, As a trial attorney, "I would then say, think about us sitting in different rooms. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the president of the United States is in the Oval Office, not managing the free world. He wasn't talking about diplomacy, he wasn't talking about congressional action. He was thinking about writing checks to Michael Cohen because of Stormy Daniels. So you want to talk about the rooms that we're in, and why we're there and how long we stay there, are you telling me that the person who is now the president of the United States was doing this?"
Phillip then said, "But do words not mean anything? I mean, they weren't legal services. That's a fact."
Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin chimed in, saying, "What you're leaving out, Arthur, understandably, because you're making the case for the defense, is this is not an ordinary legal fee because, as Donald Trump knows, this lawyer laid out $130,000 of his own money for the campaign.
That's what he did well, today is i think he made it clear that this if you believe is thesauri that nothing to do with Melania, there's nothing to do with his family. This had everything to do with the campaign.
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Cooper emphasized, "That was one of the most brutal moments of Michael Cohen's testimony."
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