As Michael Cohen takes the witness stand in former President Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial, another ex-trump attorney is laying out how he would handle the cross examination.
Cohen testified Monday morning that before the 2016 election, he learned that adult film actress Stormy Daniels was looking to sell the story of her alleged affair with Trump.
"[Trump] said to me, 'This is a disaster, a total disaster, women are going to hate me. This is really a disaster. Women will hate me. Guys, they think it's cool. But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,'" Cohen testified before jurors in the Manhattan courtroom.
Trump's one time-right hand man alleged that the former president told him "I want you to just push it out as long as you can, just get past the election, because if I win it will have no relevance because I'm president, and if I lose, I don't even care."
While Cohen is a key witness for the prosecution, he is also expected to face a grueling cross-examination. Trump's lawyers already described Cohen as an "admitted liar" who is obsessed with damaging the former president during their opening statements. Cohen is often described as volatile and spent three years in federal prison after he admitted to lying before Congress.
Tim Parlatore, one of Trump's former attorney's told Politico that the biggest theme of the defense's cross examination will likely be Cohen's past denials.
"To me, the biggest theme is his initial denials, even when it was in his best interest to cooperate right after the raid. He didn't change his tune until after Trump declined to pardon him," Parlatore said, adding that if it were him performing the questioning, he would, "dig into the facts that caused the U.S. attorney to reject him as a cooperator."
"Then examine whether [D.A. Alvin Bragg] asked him about the same issue," Parlatore finished.
Lanny Davis, an attorney and former friend of Cohen's, however, pointed out in a Politico interview that Cohen has a history of withstanding intense questioning. During his 2019 Congressional testimony, regarding Trump's alleged corruption, Cohen faced a slate of Republicans and had to apologize for lying during his previous appearances in the House.
A group of lawyers convened with Cohen, the night before that testimony, to test his ability to withstand criticism and harsh questioning.
"I took the lead," Davis told Politico. "I called him a f-ing liar, and I tried everything I could to get under his skin."
"He blew a gasket and almost walked out of the room. When we calmed him down, I said, 'Congratulations, Michael, all the Republicans on the platform tomorrow will be high-fiving if you do that.' And he smiled and he got my point."
