'He’d be a horrible witness': Cohen says Trump taking stand in trial would be 'perjury trap'

13 April 2024

Michael Cohen used to be the personal attorney and longtime "fixer" for former President Donald Trump. But next week, he'll be the star witness in his former employer's first criminal trial.

Jury selection will begin on Monday for Trump's trial in Manhattan, where the 45th president of the United States has been indicted on 34 felony counts. District Attorney Alvin Bragg has accused Trump of falsifying business records regarding payments to women in exchange for their silence prior to Election Day in 2016. The former president previously said he intended to take the stand in his own defense during trial proceedings, but in a recent interview with Politico, Cohen said that his lawyers would likely prevent him from doing so.

"Donald does not know how to tell the truth. He’s lied so many times that he cannot keep track of the lies. And one lie begets another lie. He would be putting himself into a perjury trap by taking the stand," Cohen said. "He’d be a horrible witness. You guys would all enjoy it because it would give you so much to talk about."

Cohen went on to state that he was a reluctant participant in the trial, despite the prosecution heavily relying on him to guide the jury through the alleged scheme. According to Cohen, he personally paid out the hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, with Trump reimbursing him after the fact. The payments were disguised as a retainer for legal services, though Cohen maintains there was no retainer agreement associated with those payments.

"I don’t want to testify. I have been extremely clear about it. I have already testified before the Mueller team. I’ve testified before seven congressional committees. I’ve testified to the New York attorney general. I’ve been part of grand jury indictments," Cohen said. "I’m not asking to be a witness, let alone be referred to as a 'key' witness. I am a non-party subpoenaed witness. My intention is to comply with this subpoena, though I would prefer not to."

Both Daniels and McDougal are expected to take the stand during the trial to corroborate Cohen's testimony and to state the payments themselves were made in order to prevent them from speaking to the media about their extramarital affairs with Trump while he was running for president. Former Trump confidant Hope Hicks, who was a senior adviser in Trump's White House, is also expected to testify against her old boss.

However, Cohen doesn't expect the process to be over quickly. He predicted the former president's attorneys would do all they could to change the venue by arguing their client couldn't get a fair trial in New York City, and to have Judge Juan Merchan recused from the case, but that those efforts would ultimately fail. Cohen also said he expected Trump's lawyers to keep him on the stand as long as possible in order to get him to say something that would result in his testimony being discredited and ultimately struck from the record.

"There’s no chance in the world that I’m testifying on Monday. The process starts with what’s called voir dire. That’s where they’re going to impanel the 12 jurors with the two alternates," he said. "Let’s say 30 days is what it will ultimately be before the jury gets impaneled. I’m not even expected to be one of the first witnesses. I’ll probably be more like in baseball: clean-up. I’ll be like a fourth or fifth batter."

Currently, Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee ahead of the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this summer. However, if he is convicted of a felony in Manhattan, it's possible that RNC delegates could be wary of officially nominating a convicted felon to represent their party on the ballot in November. A February poll of Republican voters found that roughly half would no longer back Trump if he were convicted in any of his four upcoming criminal trials.

Click here to read Cohen's full interview in Politico.

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