Reports: Trump’s Defense Lawyer Accuses Cohen of Lying About ‘Hush Money’ Phone Call
Former President Donald Trump’s defense on Thursday accused disgraced former attorney Michael Cohen of lying about an October 2016 phone call he claimed was about a payment to Stormy Daniels, per reports.
During cross-examination of Cohen in Trump’s business records trial, one of Trump’s defense attorneys, Todd Blanche, pressed Cohen about the call, which occurred just after 8:00 p.m. that autumn evening and was to Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, reports say. The Hill notes Cohen claimed he spoke to Trump on the call about a payment to Daniels. Blanche was apparently suggesting he contacted Schiller about harassing calls from a teenage prankster.
The New York Times reported that Blanche was implying that “it is ridiculous that Michael Cohen might have simultaneously reported a prankster to Keith Schiller and talked to Trump about the hush-money payment.”
Trump's lawyer Blanche: Show this to the jury but not to the courtroom
Justice Merchan: We can do that.
Prosecutor: It has numbers on it.
Blanche: Not to the courtroom… At 8:14 pm you texted Keith Schiller the number that had been harassing you.
Cohen: Yes.— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 16, 2024
The Inner City Press’s Matthew Russell Lee reports the call lasted less than two minutes, with more specifics of the exchange:
Blanche turned the clock back a quarter of an hour. He got Cohen to acknowledge or remember – depending on one’s perspective; maybe just, he got Cohen to say – that Cohen had been receiving harassing calls for three days and finally the harasser forgot to block their number.
Cohen texted the number, that he would be turning it over to the Secret Service. He said he learned, or was told, that it was a 14 year-old. And then he texted Keith Schiller, asking him to act on it.
Blanche: You did not talk to President Trump on that night. You talked to Keith Schiller.
Cohen: I’m not certain that’s accurate.
Blanche: Now you’re saying you’re not certain it was accurate?
Cohen: I believe that I also spoke to Mr. Trump.
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 16, 2024
(Read more from “Reports: Trump’s Defense Lawyer Accuses Cohen of Lying About ‘Hush Money’ Phone Call” HERE)
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
