Long Island native Michael Cohen testifies of orchestrating hush money payments with Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election

Donald Trump worried about the damage to his election prospects when his then-personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen informed him that their plan to pay hush money to an adult film star to conceal a sexual encounter with the billionaire candidate was on the verge of collapse just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

“This is a disaster,” proclaimed Trump in an October 2016 phone call with Cohen, who took the stand Monday against his former boss at Trump's historic trial in Manhattan. “This is a total disaster. Women will hate me. Guys will think it’s cool but women will hate me. This is a total disaster for the campaign.”

Cohen, a Long Island native and the star witness in Trump's hush money trial because of his integral role in executing the payments and his near singular existence in Trump's pre-presidency orbit, said the damning “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women had been recently released and Trump was “really angry” the sexual encounter between himself and actress Stormy Daniels could go public.

“Just push it out past the election, because if I win, I’ll be president and it will no longer have any relevance and if I lose, I don’t care,” said Trump, according to Cohen, who for years was Trump's attorney.

Cohen, 57, now a disbarred lawyer who grew up in Lawrence, appeared steady as he answered questions from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger. Cohen briefly rose from his seat when Hoffinger asked Cohen to identify the ex-president, who Cohen noted was wearing a blue and white necktie.

Trump, 77, a former one-term president, closed his eyes at times as he listened to his once-loyal employee recount their private interactions from the witness stand.

Cohen's account of Trump's focus on how the Daniels' allegations would affect the election, coupled with a surreptitiously recorded phone conversation that was played for the jury Monday in which Trump and Cohen discuss a hush money payment to another woman, could prove damning evidence for the prosecution. According to Cohen's testimony, Trump was aware of the payments and directed Cohen to make them for the express purpose of impacting the presidential election in his favor.

The prosecutor played the 2 minute, 31 second voice recording, made on June 16, between Cohen and Trump during which they discussed paying off Playboy model Karen McDougal, another woman who claims to have had an affair with Trump.

Trump is heard suggesting paying in “cash,” said Cohen, who said he recorded the call with his then-client without his knowledge to convince then-former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker that he would be reimbursed if he made the $150,000 payment to McDougal.

“I wanted him to be loyal to Mr. Trump," Cohen explained to the jury. Paying in cash was not an option, Cohen said.

“To pay in green would be one way to avoid any type of paper trail for this transaction, but that was not the best way to do it,” Cohen said. “I believed the proper way to do it was by check, to make it appear to be a proper transaction.”

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

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

 Cohen's courtroom presence on Monday brought out some of Trump's political allies, including U.S. Sens. J.D. Vance, of Ohio, and Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama. Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis was also present.

Trump's son Eric Trump was also in court, as well as some of his campaign and legal aides, including Boris Epshteyn, Jason Miller and lawyer Alina Habba, who unsuccessfully defended Trump in his civil fraud trial in which he was hit with a $455 million penalty. 

When Cohen first approached Trump about Daniels' story of a sexual encounter, which he had been alerted to by then-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard, Trump didn't deny it, Cohen testified.

“He told me that he was playing golf with [former NFL player] 'Big' Ben Roethlisberger and they had met Stormy Daniels there,” Cohen said. “And he said women prefer Trump even over Big Ben. … He told me that she’s a beautiful woman.”

Daniels testified last week she had unprotected sex with Trump in his Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel suite after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 and later signed a nondisclosure agreement and was paid $130,000.

One person who Trump was not concerned about if the Daniels' sexual encounter became public, according to Cohen, was Melania Trump — a direct contradiction of Trump's defense, which has argued Trump was only concerned with protecting his wife and children.

“How’s things going to go upstairs?” Cohen said he asked Trump, referring to Trump's wife.

“He said, 'Don’t worry. How long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long.'”

Cohen testified: “He was not concerned. This was all about the campaign.”

Cohen detailed how for years before Trump announced his candidacy for president, he ran the legal operations at Trump's Manhattan-based real estate company with an iron fist, much to the satisfaction of Trump. Cohen described how he forced vendors to take an 80% loss when the penny-pinching Trump balked at paying his bills. Cohen also said he bullied journalists with threats to sue over unflattering stories.

And later, as Trump in 2015 launched his presidential campaign, Cohen testified how he helped hatch what prosecutors said was a “criminal conspiracy” with Trump and the National Enquirer editor, eventually paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep women quiet.

Cohen described how he began working for Trump. While living in Trump World Tower, Cohen said, he successfully settled co-op board issues and also assisted him with other legal matters.

After sending Trump a $100,000 bill for legal work he did for Trump Entertainment Resorts, Trump asked to meet with him and asked if he wanted to come work for him, Cohen testified.

“I was honored,” Cohen said. “I was taken by surprise. I agreed.”

Cohen was not to ask about the $100,000 bill again.

“He asked me if I wanted to get fired on the first day if I asked about the bill,” said Cohen, who said he was never paid.

Cohen was named executive vice president and special counsel at the Trump Organization, the Manhattan-based real estate company, and paid a base salary of $375,000 annually, plus a bonus. Cohen said it amounted to $525,000 annually.

His job responsibilities were “whatever he [Trump] wanted,” Cohen said.

He frequently negotiated bills presented to the Trump Organization by various companies and vendors, he said.

Cohen recalled Trump's now-failed Trump University being short on cash, with just $2 million in the bank, which exceeded the amount the company owed vendors. Cohen offered each of about 50 vendors to take about 20% of what they were owed. Two of the vendors were never paid, Cohen said.

“They just went away,” he said.

Trump was pleased with his work.

“That's fantastic,” Trump told Cohen, adding that it made him feel valued. “I was on top of the world.”
Cohen described his pit bull tactics in dealing with any entity that had angered Trump, acknowledging he sometimes threatened to sue various entities on Trump's behalf, including the press.

“I would reach out to them and ask them to redact or take the offending part down or threaten that we would sue them,” Cohen said of his dealings with members of the news media.

The two were close, speaking “multiple times a day, every day,” said Cohen, whose office, which formerly belonged to daughter Ivanka Trump, was right next to Trump's office.
“I would call him 'Boss,' Mr. Trump,” said Cohen, who recalled the glory days of working for Trump.

“It was fantastic,” Cohen said. “Working for him, especially during those 10 years was an amazing experience. There were great times, there were not so great times, but for the most part, I enjoyed the responsibility that was given to me. I enjoyed working with other executives. I enjoyed working with the Trump children.”

Asked about Pecker, Cohen said: “We had mutual friends and we met at a function in Long Island many, many years ago.”

At an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower after Trump announced his presidential candidacy, Cohen said the three discussed the “catch and kill” scheme.

“What was discussed was the power of the National Enquirer being located at the cash register of so many supermarkets and bodegas,” Cohen said. “If we could place positive stories about Mr. Trump, that would be beneficial. And if we could place negative stories, that would be beneficial.”

Cohen, who said he communicated with Pecker on an encrypted application, added: “Pecker said he would let us know in advance what was coming out and if he could stop it.”

Cohen noted Trump never used email.

“He knows too many people who have gone down as a result of email,” said Cohen, adding the prosecutors can get access to emails.

Cohen corroborated earlier testimony about his dealings with Pecker and Howard, whom he conversed with as part of the “catch and kill” schemes to silence Daniels and McDougal, as well as a door attendant who falsely said Trump had fathered a child outside of his marriage.

“I went to him immediately to advise him that there was a negative story about him and get his direction of what he wanted me to do,” Cohen said, referring to the door attendant story.

“Make sure the story doesn’t get out,” Cohen said Trump told him. “You handle it.”

Cohen worked with Pecker and Howard to squash the story and ultimately obtained the lifetime rights to the story, in exchange for $30,000, which was paid to the door attendant, Cohen said.

In what he said was an attempt to “get credit for accomplishing the task,” Cohen showed the signed agreement to Trump, he said.

Trump responded, according to Cohen: “That's great. That's great.”

Cohen said sometime later he got a call from Pecker and Howard alerting him to McDougal's allegations.

“She’s a Playboy playmate and there’s a story that’s looking to be sold to news outlets about a relationship that she had with Mr. Trump,” Cohen said, recounting the conversation.

Cohen, who said those allegations would have “significantly” impacted Trump's presidential campaign, said he summoned Trump, asking him if he knew McDougal.

“His response was, ‘She’s really beautiful,' “ Cohen said. “I said. OK, but there’s a story that’s being shopped.”

Trump replied: “Make sure that it doesn’t get released. We need to acquire the story.”

The prosecutor presented Cohen with a series of text messages in which he communicated with Pecker and Howard.

About a week later, Trump spoke to Pecker by phone, a conversation Cohen said he was present for.

Pecker told Trump that he would “take care of this,” but it would cost $150,000.

“To which Mr. Trump responded, 'No problem. I’ll take care of it,'” Cohen said.

 Cohen, confirming what Pecker testified to earlier in the trial, said they were concerned McDougal was going to tell her story publicly to ABC News.

“We were worried about the impact on the campaign,” Cohen said. “We were concerned that this story was going to find its way to ABC.”

Ultimately, McDougal inked the deal with the National Enquirer.

“It was locked down,” Cohen said. “We prevented it from being on ABC and that effectively the story was caught.” 

After the McDougal deal was finalized Trump said, according to Cohen: “Fantastic. Great job.”

Cohen, who acknowledged his title of Trump fixer is “fair,” said Trump talked to him about running for president as early as 2011.

 “I wasn’t going to be part of it, I was just going to be a surrogate, someone who defends him in the press, an outside person to give the impression that it's unbiased,” Cohen said of the campaign.

When asked if he was considered for various White House jobs, Cohen replied: “I would have liked to have been considered, again, It was solely for my ego.”

Cohen said he provided advice as well, reaching out to Black evangelical Christians when he noticed Trump's support was overwhelmingly white.
“While watching the rallies, I went to Mr. Trump and said, 'One thing that I notice is that it’s very white. We’re going to need diversity. If we’re going to win, we’re going to need diversity.' “ 

According to Cohen, Trump told him that once he announced his candidacy for president, it would open the floodgates for women claiming to have had affairs with Trump.

“You know that when this comes out, the announcement, just be prepared because there are going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Trump said, according to Cohen.