The criminal trial against former President Donald Trump took a shocking turn this week as his longtime fixer Michael Cohen admitted under oath to actually stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization – delivering a major credibility blow to the star witness against Trump.
Cohen’s stunning confession came during intense cross-examination by Trump’s defense lawyers, who have zeroed in on the witness’s long history of lies and misdeeds in an effort to discredit his testimony about Trump’s alleged involvement in a hush-money scheme.
“You stole from the Trump Org, right?” defense attorney Todd Blanche directly asked Cohen.
“Yes, sir,” the former Trump attorney responded, confirming he pocketed around $30,000 of the Trump Organization’s money.
The theft involves funds Cohen claimed to pay to a tech firm called “Red Finch” for services like promoting pro-Trump online polls.
While Cohen testified last week that he withdrew $50,000 in cash to pay Red Finch, he admitted on Monday that he actually only paid the company $20,000, keeping the other $30,000 for himself after lying about the full amount to Trump’s money man Allen Weisselberg.
“You lied to Weisselberg about how much you needed for Red Finch?” Blanche pressed, with Cohen confirming the deception.
The revelation left legal analysts stunned.
“It’s fascinating stuff. And I have to say, I’m still kind of reeling from the revelation that Michael Cohen stole money from the Trump Organization,” Jack Tapper remarked on CNN.
“I’m shocked that we are hearing it for the first time on day three of cross-examination of Michael Cohen, that the prosecution did not take the sting out, did not front it because it goes to the heart of the actual case,” co-anchor Laura Coates said.
Cohen’s felony theft confession made his already tarnished credibility even more suspect for prosecutors building their case that Trump falsified business records to cover up his reimbursement of the $130,000 hush payment to Daniels in 2016.
Cohen has admitted to a multitude of crimes, from lying to Congress and federal authorities to violating campaign finance laws with that very payment to Daniels. But the new theft allegations open fresh credibility wounds.
Prosecutors had portrayed Cohen’s $420,000 reimbursement from Trump as covering the principal $130,000 payment to Daniels, getting “grossed up” to defray tax impacts, plus the inflated $50,000 fee to Red Finch. But his admission to skimming that $30,000 Red Finch payment casts doubt on the accounting.
The defense has repeatedly branded Cohen as a pathological liar carrying out a “revenge tour” against his former boss Trump. Blanche stressed the breadth of Cohen’s misdeeds in questioning.
“Have you paid back the Trump Organization for the money you stole from them?” Blanche asked directly.
“No, sir,” Cohen admitted.
Robert Costello, an advisor who had represented Cohen and grand jury witness against Trump, testified that Cohen is simply “a serial liar.” He may have helped inflict serious damage to the government’s central witness.
With closing arguments beginning next week, prosecutors must now try to recover from this self-inflicted wound and convince the jury that Cohen’s testimony directly tying Trump to the hush money cover-up is still credible. The defense, meanwhile, has new ammunition to argue this case is just the latest con from the “shady” Michael Cohen.