After breaking with the former president, Donald Trump, amid his own legal troubles, Michael Cohen, the fixer-turned-foe is poised to testify against his old boss on Tuesday as a key witness at the civil fraud trial that threatens to upend Trump’s real estate empire and wealthy image.
Trump is expected to be in court for the highly anticipated testimony, detouring from his usual campaign haunts to the Manhattan courtroom for a sixth day this month. Cohen scrapped their expected showdown last week, citing a health issue. Cohen has said it will be his first time seeing Trump in five years.
Trump attended the trial for two days last week — having planned the trip when it was expected that Cohen would be testifying. Trump was also in court for the trial’s first three days in early October. The trial wasn’t held Monday because of issues related to an apparent COVID-19 exposure. Trump is expected to testify later in the trial. All of his trips to the case so far have been voluntary.
Each time, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has complained to TV cameras in the courthouse hallway about a case he’s derided as a “sham,” a “scam” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleges that Trump and top executives at his company, the Trump Organization, conspired to pad the business mogul-turned-politician’s net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks, insurers and others to make deals and secure loans.
The judge, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.
As punishment, Engoron ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies, putting the future oversight of Trump Tower and other marquee properties in question, but an appeals court has blocked that for now.
Trump denies any wrongdoing. He says his assets were actually undervalued and maintains that disclaimers on his financial statements essentially told banks and other recipients to check the numbers out for themselves.
Cohen spent a decade as Trump’s fiercely loyal personal lawyer before famously turning on him in 2018 amid a federal investigation that sent Cohen to federal prison. He is also a major prosecution witness in Trump’s separate Manhattan hush-money criminal case, which is scheduled to go to trial next spring.
