Michael Cohen testifies in Trump civil fraud trial

Michael Cohen said he had a "heck of a reunion" Tuesday with his former boss Donald Trump when he testified against the former president at his New York civil fraud trial.

Here are the key takeaways:

• With Trump sitting feet away, Trump's one-time lawyer and fixer described how he manipulated Trump's financial statements -- "reverse-engineering" them to hit an arbitrary net worth.
• Things quickly got heated when cross-examination began as Cohen sneered at the questions and loudly objected to one line of questioning.
• Judge Arthur Engoron said trial testimony and financial documents about Trump's $1 billion bid to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 could be included as evidence because they support the attorney general's claims that Trump had a fraudulent pattern and practice when reporting his worth.
• While Trump spent the entire day in the courtroom, both for Cohen's testimony and the appearance of Mazars general counsel Bill Kelly, he also worked to scuttle the short-lived House speakership candidacy of Republican Rep. Tom Emmer.

The trial will resume with Cohen still on the stand Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.

The judge overseeing Trump’s trial said testimony and financial documents about Trump's $1 billion bid to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 could be included as evidence because they support the attorney general's claims that Trump had a fraudulent pattern and practice when reporting his worth. 

In the July 2014 letter submitting a bid to buy the Bills, Trump claimed his net worth was $8 billion.

The financial documents with claims in them that Trump had an $8 billion net worth at the time “arguably tends to show pattern and practice of fraud, to use a loaded term," Judge Arthur Engoron said, overruling the objection from Trump’s attorneys who said the document is not relevant to the case.

Before the judge's ruling, the AG’s attorneys and Trump’s lawyers clashed over Michael Cohen’s testimony about the letter. Trump attorney Chris Kise objected to the line of questioning regarding internal preparations for Trump to bid on the Bills, arguing there was no transaction to buy the team, and it wasn’t the basis for any claims in the complaint. 

Engoron allowed the testimony involving the Bills documents to be admitted.

During a break in the trial, Trump said there was “absolutely nothing wrong” with his bid to by the Bills. 

“I was going to buy it, but the team sold for a lot more money than I offered. I offered a billion dollars. The team sold for $1.4 billion as I understand it,” Trump said. “I was a bidder on the team. I had it all financed and everything else that you needed. There was absolutely nothing wrong, and we didn’t even make the deal. It was many years ago.” 

“I’m trying to figure out what relevance does this have to this scam case,” Trump continued “It’s a scam. It’s political interference. It’s a fight against a political opponent that’s leading him the polls. This is a scam case.”

The New York attorney general's office wrapped up its questions of Michael Cohen just after 4 p.m. ET, and Trump attorney Alina Habba is now questioning Cohen.

Her cross-examination is expected to continue on Wednesday. Habba first asked Cohen if he had any medical conditions that would inhibit his ability to testify truthfully today.

Cohen responded, "Asked and answered."

Habba told him his job is to answer questions, and the judge told him to answer the question even if it was asked on direct.

Habba then asked Cohen if he was taking any medications that would affect his ability to testify honestly. He said no. She then asked if any medication was altering his thinking at the present time. He said no.

Michael Cohen’s demeanor in the courtroom completely changed from deliberate answers to questions from the attorney general's office, and he took taken issue with questions at several points throughout cross-examination.

Cohen and Trump lawyer Alina Habba got into a heated exchange over Habba’s questioning about Cohen’s tax evasion charges, after she asked Cohen whether he told his wife about his tax crimes.

“Did you ever tell your wife that you were committing tax evasion?" Habba asked.

Cohen loudly objected, raising his voice at Habba over the direction of her questions.

Lawyers from both sides also got involved as Trump lawyer Chris Kise objected to Cohen’s outburst and the New York attorney general’s office objected to the question, saying it covered spousal privilege.

"This witness is completely out of control," Kise said, prompting a laugh from the gallery.

Kise argued the question was relevant to impeach Cohen’s character as a serial liar, part of the Trump team’s strategy to discredit Cohen.

“Asked and answered,” Cohen sneered in response to a question about losing his law license.

Habba at one point told him to stop making speeches and answer her questions.

Michael Cohen directly implicated Donald Trump in the inflation of asset valuations to reflect a higher net worth Trump would want to report. 

“I would receive a phone call,” generally from Trump’s executive assistant, Cohen said, and he and Allen Weisselberg, then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer, would go to Trump’s office.

“The topic was the statement of financial condition. He would look at the total assets and he would say ‘I’m actually not worth 4.5 billion, I’m really worth more like six.’ He would then direct Allen and I to go back to Allen’s office and return after we achieved the desired goal,” Cohen said.

Cohen testified that they would look at numbers “being achieved elsewhere” in New York and recalculate valuations using real estate as "comparables” that were achieving the highest prices per square foot in the city, even though those properties had different amenities from Trump's assets.

The other properties would have different ceiling heights, unobstructed views, and were not inhibited by rent control, Cohen explained.

“You could call them comparable, but comparable would imply that they are similar," Cohen said. "No, they were not comparables. They were just different."

Looking at Trump’s 2012 statement of financial condition, Cohen said he recalled inflating assets including: Trump Tower, Trump Park Ave., Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza, the commercial side of 100 Central Park South, the Mansion at Seven Springs, the Miss Universe Pageants and "possibly others."

Cohen said that they would return to Trump “demonstrating that we achieved or close to the number he was seeking.”

“He was the only one who could accept them," Cohen said.

Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys in his New York civil fraud case are appealing the judge’s sanctions against them, which were handed down in late September for repeatedly making legal arguments against the New York attorney general’s lawsuit that were already denied by the judge.

In his order finding Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud, Engoron also took issue with the defense attorneys continuing to argue the New York attorney general lacked standing, saying their arguments “invoke the time-loop in the film ‘Groundhog Day.’”

“Exacerbating defendants’ obstreperous conduct is their continued reliance on bogus arguments, in papers and oral argument,” Engoron wrote. “Unfortunately, sanctions are the only way to impress upon defendants’ attorneys the consequences of engaging in repetitive, frivolous motion practice after this court.”

Trump’s attorneys have also filed a notice of appeal to reverse Engoron’s ruling that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud, which came before the trial kicked off.

Donald Trump's former attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen testified Tuesday he and former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg would manipulate the statements of financial conditions, the documents at the center of the civil fraud trial, based on what Trump wanted his net worth to reflect.

Cohen testified that Trump would tell him and Weisselberg what he wanted his total net worth to be. Then Cohen and Weisselberg would reverse engineer the asset valuations in his statements of financial condition to achieve that number.

The net worth amount they’d back into on the statements was: "Whatever number Mr. Trump told us to,” Cohen said.

Weisselberg testified earlier at trial that he doesn’t remember any meetings with Cohen and Trump to discuss Trump’s net worth or financial statements.

"I don't believe it ever happened, no,” the former CFO testified.

Former President Donald Trump said he is not worried about his former attorney’s testimony at his civil fraud trial, saying he’s not a credible witness. 

“He has a horrible record,” Trump said outside the courtroom as he exited for a lunch break. “It’s not going to end up very good for him. We’re not worried at all about his testimony.”

Trump again said his assets are far above what his financial statements indicated, as he has done many times during the trial, which is in its fourth week.

Cohen, meanwhile, walking out for the lunch break, told reporters that his appearance is a “heck of a reunion."

He will return to the stand when the hearing resumes.

Michael Cohen began his testimony with questions from Colleen Faherty of the New York attorney general's office about the crimes he pleaded guilty to in 2018, including tax crimes, campaign violations and lying to Congress.

Cohen gave a lengthy answer about those crimes why he made public statements about the legitimacy of his conviction. 

Cohen previously testified before Congress in 2019 about Trump’s involvement in the hush-money scheme involving both former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged having affairs with Trump (Trump has denied the affairs).

"I acknowledge my complicity in the Stormy Daniels matter, but I never paid Karen McDougal," Cohen said, explaining the payments to McDougal were made through AMI, the former owner of the National Enquirer. 

Trump did not react when Cohen raised the hush-money payments and stared straight ahead at Cohen.

Cohen also said he lied to Congress when he testified in 2017 about how many times he spoke to Donald Trump about a Trump Tower Moscow project, when he said it was only three discussions and it was actually 10.

He said that statement was drafted in discussions with a list of people in Trump's camp including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Trump Org. legal counsel Alan Garten and others. Trump attorney Chris Kise objected to that statement, which was overruled by Judge Arthur Engoron.

Cohen said he felt he had to address the public information. 

"When all of this started, it was overwhelming. The amount of disinformation misinformation, mal-information about me. It was overwhelming and enormous," he said.

Despite public statements pushing back on the federal charges against him over the years, Cohen confirmed he eventually pleaded guilty and served a sentence taking responsibility for each of the counts he pleaded guilty to.