Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, is expected to testify Monday before a grand jury weighing whether the former president should be criminally charged over his role in hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
(Bloomberg) — Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, is expected to testify Monday before a grand jury weighing whether the former president should be criminally charged over his role in hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Cohen, who met with prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Friday, will be following several other witnesses who’ve already been questioned by the grand jury convened by Bragg’s office, said the person, who declined to be identified discussing a confidential matter. Trump has vehemently denied wrongdoing.
“I am allowed to say that we’re cooperating with the investigation and we are appreciative of the professionalism shown by Mr. Bragg and his office,” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a phone interview.
Davis said Cohen already has met with Bragg’s office five times and with prosecutors working under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., on 15 prior occasions.
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Cohen would be a crucial witness for prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to federal fraud and campaign finance charges in 2018, admitting that he arranged illegal hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024, said this week in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that he “did absolutely nothing wrong.”
“I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels,” he said.
The former president said on March 9 that Bragg’s office invited him to testify before the grand jury, which suggests that prosecutors are seriously considering filing charges. On Truth Social he blasted Bragg’s investigation as a “political Witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party.”
Cohen’s expected appearance before the grand jury was reported earlier by the New York Times.
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