The prosecution in the New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is expected to call Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, to the witness stand on Monday, according to live updates from the courthouse.
Following the conclusion of Friday’s trial, prosecutors requested that Allen Weisselberg’s severance agreement from the Trump Organization be submitted into evidence. Weisselberg was an executive at the company but is currently incarcerated for tax evasion.
The defense rejected the request, noting that he is “an uncalled government witness.”
“Mr. Weisselberg’s absence from this trial is a very complicated issue,” stated Trump’s attorney Emil Bove.
Acting Justice Juan Merchan responded, “I think it would be helpful to me in making my decision if I could see that some efforts were taken to compel his appearance.”
The “whole case is fake,” Trump said.
Prosecutors admitted that they had not attempted to compel Weisselberg to provide testimony.
The defense asked Merchan to place a gag order on Cohen, who regularly posts on social media. Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, cited a recent TikTok post from Cohen in which he was wearing a T-shirt with an illustrated picture of Trump behind bars.
Blanche asked the court to “order the government to instruct the witness to not talk about President Trump or this case until the case is over.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued they have “no control” over witnesses’ actions.
“We have repeatedly — repeatedly — asked the witnesses not to do that,” he stated.
Merchan instructed the prosecution to remind Cohen that he is “to refrain from making any more statements” regarding the case or Trump.
Last week, Trump’s former White House communications director and campaign aide, Hope Hicks, told the jury that Cohen told her the $130,000 so-called “hush money” payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels was not true, Blaze News previously reported. She claimed it “would be out of character” for Cohen to make such a payment himself.
The corporate media has repeatedly referred to Cohen as Trump’s former “fixer,” but Hicks explained that Cohen coined the name for himself. She noted he would “insert himself” into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and go “rogue,” much to the frustration of the campaign team.
“He would try to insert himself at certain moments, but he wasn’t supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity,” Hicks told the jury. “He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It, and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to then fix it.”
Trump told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday that the “whole case is fake” and “the judge is corrupt.” He said the entire case is about “somebody paid a lawyer,” referring to himself. He added that the payments were made to his lawyer and “not a fixer.”
“There is no crime,” Trump remarked.
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