Cohen claims Trump was thinking about election, not Melania
Cohen alleges Trump told him to be prepared for “a lot of women” who could come forward when he entered the presidential race
Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 (£104,300) to stay quiet before the 2016 election about claims that she and Trump had sex in 2006
Key witness Michael Cohen is testifying today about paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with then-candidate Donald Trump.
Prosecutors have been preparing Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, for this moment for more than a year.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment he made to Daniels. Trump has denied the charges and the alleged affair
Cohen testified that the voice that cuts off the recording of him and Trump is his own, as he was answering a different “important” call.
Cohen said was recording his conversation with Trump to gather proof for Pecker that Trump would pay him back $150,000. He testified that the recording ended because he thought he had enough proof and needed to take the new call.
“I didn’t want to record more,” Cohen testified.
“I already had enough that I would have been able to show David Pecker as to convince him that he was going to receive the $150,000 back,” he added.
The call Cohen said he answered was from Kathy Battle at Capital One Bank, which, at that point, was where Trump did at least some of his banking and kept a checking account.
