Hush Money judge says Michael Cohen needs to stop talking about Trump

The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan has asked prosecutors to tell Michael Cohen to stop talking about the case and the former president.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly urged New York Judge Juan Merchan to find a way to muzzle the former president’s former “fixer” who has become a sworn enemy and outspoken critic.

Cohen, who paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to silence her history of sexual relations with Mr Trump in 2006, is a key witness in the case against the former president. Mr. Trump is accused of repaying his former lawyer the $130,000 in a series of payments falsely characterized as “legal fees.” He is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty.

Cohen is now expected to testify at the trial on Monday. He is one of two final prosecution witnesses in a trial that stretches into a fourth week of testimony.

In court Friday, defense lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge that Mr. Trump’s former lawyer was “becoming a real problem” throughout the trial.

Cohen “continues to speak publicly about this trial and President Trump,” including in a recent TikTok video “wearing a white T-shirt with a photo of President Trump behind bars” and “announcing that he is running for Congress,” Mr. Blanche told the judge. Merchant.

Mr. Blanche said he wanted to “ban Cohen from speaking” about the affair, just “like Trump.”

“It becomes a problem every day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness, but this witness is allowed to continue speaking,” Mr. Blanche said.

Deputy Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass rejected the defense argument, arguing that prosecutors “have no control over what they do, and we have repeatedly asked witnesses to do so.”

“Not just Mr. Cohen. All the witnesses,” he added. “If Mr. Blanche asks the court to order people not to do something, we have already done that.”

The judge reached a compromise: Prosecutors should tell Cohen that the judge is telling him to keep quiet.

“I will ask the People to let Mr. Cohen know that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any further statements about Mr. Trump or anything else related to this case,” Judge Merchan said. “It’s coming from the bench.”

While Cohen has been asked to stop commenting on the case, Mr. Trump continues to face a ban on publicly attacking trial witnesses, the jury, court staff and their families.

To date, the former president has been fined $10,000 for regularly violating the order by taking to social media, posting links on his campaign website, and making comments during interviews with the media.

On Monday, while handing down a tenth sentence, Judge Merchan warned the former president that imposing a $1,000 fine for each offense was not a strong enough deterrent – ​​and that any future violations could result in a prison sentence.

“The magnitude of such a decision does not escape me,” the judge told him. “But at the end of the day, I have a job to do, and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the justice system.

“Your continued violations…threaten to interfere with the administration of justice and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law.” »

The warning came just days before Cohen’s scheduled testimony Monday, after years of arguments between the former president and his former lawyer on social media and in person.

Several of Mr. Trump’s violations of the silence order involved his apparent threats toward Cohen, who had previously testified against the former president at his civil fraud trial, where he compared Mr. Trump to a “leader of the mafia” who asked him to grossly inflate the value of his net worth. and assets.

Cohen has already pleaded guilty to crimes central to the New York financial secrecy case; in 2018, he admitted sending monthly invoices to Mr. Trump under a “service contract” that did not exist, and that “the monthly invoices (he) submitted were not related to no legal services he provided in 2017.” ” but for reimbursements from a hush money scheme with Ms. Daniels.

Mr. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the scheme in an alleged attempt to hide politically damaging stories about his businesses in order to keep his chances of winning the 2016 election afloat.

In opening statements to the trial, Mr. Blanche claimed that the payments made to Cohen were simply “for legal services rendered.” The invoices were processed, “someone at Trump Tower” signed them and they were recorded as such in a ledger, he argued.

“What is a crime? What is a crime in what I have just described? » Mr. Blanche said it last month. “The 34 counts… are really just 34 pieces of paper. »

These 34 accounts include not only the checks, but also the accounting entries and invoices that created them.

Cohen submitted each invoice “in accordance with the service agreement,” according to documents presented in court. Cohen’s pay stubs described each check as a payment for his “advance.” Invoices entered into the company’s accounting software list each payment as a “legal expense.”

Records from Mr Trump’s personal checking account and the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust – which managed the former president’s assets while he was in office – recorded the payments to Cohen as “legal fees”, according to court documents.