Tops Top News Online Real News Portal 
Defense attorney Todd Blanche grew annoyed and raised his voice as he tried to press Michael Cohen into calling himself a liar and the former fixer to Donald Trump tried to skirt the question — it wasn’t quite the fireworks many had anticipated for the Tuesday cross-examination, but it did illustrate the tense questioning.
Cohen already testified that he had lied repeatedly for Trump.
“I regret doing things for him that I should not have — lying, bullying people in order to effectuate a goal,” Cohen said. “I violated my moral compass.”
But on cross-examination, Cohen became more recalcitrant.
“Was it a lie?” Blanche asked.
“It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t truthful. If you want to call it a lie, we can call it a lie. I believe the information I gave them is inaccurate,” Cohen dodged.
“But you are not testifying it’s a lie?” Blanche responded.
“Sure, I’ll say it’s a lie,” he finally conceded, still keeping his cool and defying his well-earned reputation as a hot head.
Here’s what else you missed during Day 17 of Trump’s hush money trial:
Cross-examination gets off to a bumpy start
Blanche drew an immediate objection as he launched his cross-examination, and was quickly admonished by the judge.
“Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche,” Blanche said to Cohen and then added, “you went on TikTok and called me a ‘crying little s—.’”
Judge Juan Merchan called the lawyers to the bench to for a discussion out of earshot of the jury and others in the courtroom.
“Why are you making this about yourself?” Merchan began. Blanche tried to argue he was seeking to show Cohen is bias.
“It doesn’t matter if he has bias towards you; it doesn’t matter,” Merchan said. “The issue is whether he has bias towards the defendant.”
He added, “Just don’t make it about yourself.”
Blanche resumed his questioning — which for about two hours bounced between topics and didn’t once address any of Cohen’s testimony during the direct examination by prosecutors.
Cohen can’t recall
Following hours of detailed, dispassionate testimony, Cohen became more combative on cross-examination.
Cohen could not recall being asked by his attorneys to stop talking about the case or that his conversations with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office would end up in the press. Asked about a 2021 television appearance in which Cohen discussed the investigation, he responded, “I go on TV often.”
“What was I talking about? I don’t know,” he added.
After initially sidestepping a question about whether he talks to the press, upon further questioning, Cohen responded, “It sounds correct,” then “it is correct.”
“Let me get this straight, you had very specific recollections yesterday,” including about telephone calls with Trump dating back to 2016, Blanche said. Yet Cohen cannot remember conversations with his own attorney last year, Blanche said, incredulously.
Defense probes Cohen’s motive
In a sprawling cross-examination, Blanche tore through many of the probes and public investigations that came to define Trump’s time in office: the Trump Moscow project, the Mueller report, and the Steele dossier. Even Anthony Scaramucci made an appearance, as Blanche asked Cohen about a visit where Scaramucci said Cohen told him that he was seeking to get out of jail early.
Earlier Blanche insinuated that Cohen began to change his story as he sought a path out of federal prison and began meeting with federal prosecutors.
Blanche worked to establish Cohen’s interest in cooperating with the prosecution as he sought an early release from his sentence, and wanted the district attorney’s office to publicly announce that he was cooperating.
“I was looking for a reduction in the home confinement portion, not just in this but in the work I was doing,” Cohen said. “I did want to be released, yes.”
Pressured to stay in the fold
Before cross-examination, Cohen spent the morning under direct examination by prosecutors.
Cohen recalled the FBI raid of his home and office in 2018, where they packed up his tax books and other documents and seized his phones, including one that contained the audio recording of Trump.
Asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger how he felt, Cohen says he was frightened and despondent. “How to understand your life being turned upside down?” turning to face the jury when he said this, “I was scared … I wanted some reassurance that Mr. Trump had my back, especially with issues that related to him.”
He felt reassured by Trump’s response. “Don’t worry; I’m the president of the United States. There’s nothing here. Stay tough. You’re going to be OK.”
“I had the president of the United States protecting me … I remained in the camp,” Cohen said.
He was still part of a joint defense agreement as Trump tweeted about Cohen being “a fine lawyer with a wonderful family.”
But Trump was also musing publicly about how “most people will flip if the government lets them out of trouble.” The message from Trump was “Stay loyal. Don’t flip,” Cohen told the court. He said he understood the tweet as meaning Trump did not want him to cooperate with the government.
But that sentiment seemed to quickly evaporate.
Cohen said he was inundated with calls from a lawyer with ties to Rudy Giuliani, who was then representing Trump. Cohen told him he was considering hiring a different lawyer, who would not be part of the joint defense agreement.
“He was angry that I would sit down with the other attorney and not sit down with him and I’d had enough and I told him,” Cohen testified.
Cohen soon decided to cooperate with prosecutors, saying he made a decision with his family not to lie for Trump anymore.
My family “said to me, ‘Why are you holding on to this loyalty? What are you doing? We’re supposed to be your first loyalty.’” Cohen testified. He added that he decided ” it was about time to listen to them.”
