NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating cash payments made to the former president, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. He was not authorized to speak publicly about the grand jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity.
Cohen is a key witness in Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg’s investigation and his testimony will come at a critical time, as prosecutors have decided to seek charges against Trump. Prosecutors sometimes save the most important witnesses until the final stages of a grand jury investigation.
Cohen has been meeting regularly with Manhattan prosecutors in recent weeks, including a session on Friday to prepare for his appearance before the grand jury, which has been hearing evidence in the case since January.
Cohen declined to comment to reporters as he left the meeting, saying he would “take some time now to be quiet and let the DA build their case.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has so far declined to comment on the investigation, also declined to address whether Cohen would testify before the grand jury.
Trump continued to attack the probe on social media on Friday, calling the case “Scam, Injustice, Mockery, and the Full and Total Weapons of Law Enforcement to Influence the Presidential Election!”
Prosecutors appear to be looking into whether Trump committed a crime when he arranged the payments, or how internal calculations were made at Trump’s company, the Trump Organization. One of the charges is falsifying business records, a misdemeanor unless prosecutors can prove it was done to conceal another crime.
No former US president has ever been charged with a crime.
Prosecutors this week subpoenaed Trump to testify in front of a grand jury — another sign that the investigation phase has stalled. Summoning the subject of an investigation to appear before a grand jury is one of the last steps before a potential indictment.
Trump has the right to testify under New York law, though legal experts say he is unlikely to do so because it would not benefit his defense and he would have to give up the mantle of immunity granted automatically to grand jury witnesses in the state. the law.
Cohen was jailed after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal to keep them from going public. Trump has denied the affair.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company listed the reimbursement as “legal fees.” McDougal’s $150,000 payment was made through supermarket tabloid publisher the National Enquirer, which planted the story in a dubious journalistic practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
The Trump Organization “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payments for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against lawyers in connection with the payments in 2018. Cohen earned $360,000 plus a $60,000 bonus, for a total of $420,000.
Federal prosecutors said during Cohen’s criminal case that Trump knew about the payments to the women. The US attorney’s office in New York, however, declined at the time to seek criminal charges against the sitting president.
Cohen, now estranged from Trump, has met with prosecutors 20 times over several iterations of the hush-money probe. In January, he gave his cell phone to Manhattan prosecutors so they could extract evidence, including audio recordings of conversations with Daniels’ lawyer – identified as Stephanie Clifford – as well as emails and text messages.
Other members of Trump’s inner circle have met with Manhattan prosecutors in recent weeks, including former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
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