Long Island native Michael Cohen faces grilling by defense at former President Donald Trump's historic trial

Ex-President Donald Trump's lead defense attorney attempted to paint star prosecution witness Michael Cohen as a vengeful liar who has used his prior business relationship with the 45th president to stay relevant and enrich himself during a biting but slow-moving cross-examination at Trump's hush money trial Tuesday.

Cohen, a Lawrence native who prosecutors say helped broker his real estate tycoon boss' hush money payments to women to help ensure he would win the 2016 presidential election, admitted on the stand during cross-examination by lead Trump attorney Todd Blanche that he wanted to see Trump convicted, had called him a “boorish cartoon misogynist” and a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain” and had made $3.2 million by writing books that trashed Trump.

“He goes right into that little cage where he belongs, in a little cage like a [expletive] animal — did you say that on TikTok?” Blanche asked Cohen, who responded: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Cohen, 57, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer and current anti-Trump provocateur, who prosecutors say paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money weeks before the 2016 presidential election, maintained a calm demeanor as Blanche attempted to draw the jury's attention to the witness' prior criminal convictions and negative statements about his client.

Trump, for his part, appeared attentive during the cross-examination of Cohen, sometimes writing notes to his team of lawyers as Blanche questioned his once-loyal soldier, whose testimony could determine whether Trump is the first ex-president in history to be convicted of a crime, or if he walks free.

Trump, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is on trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the $130,000 payment made to Daniels, who testified earlier last week that she had a sexual encounter with Trump and later signed a nondisclosure agreement that prohibited her from speaking about it.

Prosecutors have said Trump, 77, directed the hush money payment to Daniels just weeks before the 2016 presidential election in order to prevent the story of their liaison from going public — and hurting his chances at becoming president.

The payment was made to Daniels, as well as a $150,000 payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Trump following the October 2016 release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” recording, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals. A $30,000 payment was also made to a door attendant who falsely said Trump had fathered a child outside his marriage.

Prosecutors say Trump, Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker formed a “criminal conspiracy” to “catch and kill” negative stories about Trump as he ran for president, and to publish unfavorable pieces about his opponents, all in an effort to help his presidential campaign.

Cohen will be the prosecution's final witness, a prosecutor told State Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan during a side bar conference Tuesday.

Admiring Trump

During a several-hourslong cross-examination that is expected to continue for much of Thursday when Trump's trial resumes, Blanche tried to paint Cohen as being obsessed with Trump, who was then a reality show star with his hits “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“I don’t know if I would use the word ‘obsessed,’” said Cohen. “I admired him tremendously.”

Cohen admitting admiring Trump before he went to work for him, having read Trump's “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” twice and calling it “excellent” and a “masterpiece.”

He confirmed he had called Trump “a man who cares deeply about this country” and “a man who tells it straight” but with language that Blanche was probably not keen to hear.

“At that time I was knee-deep in the cult of Donald Trump, yes,” said Cohen.

Cohen is the prosecution's star witness because of his direct line to Trump, including conversations in which the ex-president expressed knowledge of the hush money scheme — in a recorded conversation played for the jury, Trump directs Cohen to pay in cash — and Trump's $420,000 reimbursement of the payments to Cohen, he testified.

Cohen testified earlier that Trump never denied bedding the women, but called them “beautiful” when he inquired about their allegations. Cohen testified that Trump directed him to “take care of it” when he was negotiating the payment with a lawyer for the women.

Earlier Tuesday on direct examination by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Cohen recalled taking a trip to the White House soon after Trump was inaugurated as president in January 2017.

“He asked me if I was OK, he asked me if I needed money,” said Cohen, who added that Trump told him: “Make sure that you deal with Allen. He said there would be a check for January and February.”

Trump was referring to Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, the Manhattan-based real estate company where Cohen was employed before Trump became president, Cohen said.

So, Cohen testified, on Feb. 14, 2017, he created an invoice requesting that Weisselberg “kindly remit payment for services rendered … pursuant to the retainer agreement.”

Cohen admitted from the stand that there was no retainer agreement.

“The reimbursement to me of the hush money fee as well as the redfinch and the bonus,” said Cohen.

Hoffinger presented Cohen with each of the invoices he created and the check stubs resulting from the payments and Cohen said they were false, a key statement to the charges facing Trump.

Hoffinger also talked Cohen through his myriad legal troubles, including pleading guilty to federal tax crimes, lying to Congress and being sentenced to 36 months in an upstate prison; topics Blanche is sure to emphasize when he resumes his cross-examination Thursday.

The trial, which began on April 15, is off on Wednesdays.

'Really sketchy and wrong'

Cohen told the jury how in July 2018, the FBI raided his home and office, and he called Trump.

“I received a phone call from President Donald Trump in response to a message I left for him,” said Cohen. “He said to me, ‘Don’t worry, I’m the president of the United States. There’s nothing here. Stay tough, you’re going to be OK.’”

Why did he call the president?

“I was scared and I wanted some reassurance that Mr. Trump had my back, especially since this dealt with issues that concerned him,” said Cohen.

That was the last time he spoke to Trump, Cohen testified.

Cohen testified that defense attorney Robert Costello, a close friend of former New York City mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani, gave him a high-pressure pitch to become his lawyer so he could maintain a back channel to Trump.

“There was something really sketchy and wrong,” Cohen said about Costello, who he said came ready with a retainer agreement. “I told him that I was still speaking with other lawyers.”

Cohen told the jury that he felt the president was communicating with him via Twitter when he posted messages days after the raid.

“Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!” one post from 2018 read.

“It let me know that I was still important to the team. To stay the course and the president still had my back,” Cohen said.

But Cohen’s mistrust grew the harder Costello pushed. At one point, Giuliani suggested Cohen had already decided to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I was also concerned when he started talking about his incredibly close relationship with Rudy Giuliani. I felt that anything that I said would get back to Rudy Giuliani. And considering the proximity of Rudy Giuliani to the president that it would get back to him,” Cohen testified 

At that point, Cohen said he began to question his loyalty to the president. He also sat down with his family, who had confronted him over where his allegiance should be.

“My wife, my family, my son, asked me: ‘Why are you holding onto this loyalty? We’re supposed to be your first loyalty,’” Cohen said on the witness stand.

He said that he had made up his mind to break from the president.

“I made a decision based on the conversation I had with my family that I would not lie on behalf of Mr. Trump anymore,” he said.

A parade of Republican Congressmen and Vivek Ramaswamy made their loyalty to the former president known on Tuesday, by showing up to sit in on the testimony.

Florida representatives Cory Mills and Byron Donalds sat through both the morning and afternoon testimony. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson heard testimony in the morning and held a press conference across the street from the courthouse, calling Cohen a man “clearly on a mission for personal revenge.” North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum sat in the front row next to Laura and Eric Trump.