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Jury sees texts between Michael Cohen and teenager who he says harassed him over the phone
The jury is now seeing the text exchange Michael Cohen had with a 14-year-old who he says was harassing him by phone in 2016.
Cohen testified earlier that the teen had failed to block his number at one point, giving Cohen the ability to see who was calling him repeatedly.
The texts shown in court show Cohen telling the recipient that the number has been sent to the US Secret Service. The teen apologizes and says it wasn't them making the calls, and that their friend had told them to call.
"This number has just been sent to secret service for your ongoing and continuous harassing calls over the past 3 days," Cohen writes. "If you are a minor, I suggest you notify your parent or guardian."
"I DIDN'T DO IT," the other person texts back, adding "Im 14" and "Please don't."
Cohen wrote back for the teen's parent or guardian to contact him "before the secret service reaches out to them."
Why these messages are relevant: The defense has tried to show that Cohen's phone call to Donald Trump's bodyguard around this time was about helping Cohen deal with the harassment — not the Stormy Daniels payment, as Cohen has testified.
Cohen has said he spoke about both things with the bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
These messages were not displayed publicly before lunch because they needed to be redacted. Trump attorney Todd Blanche circled back to them now that they were redacted and accepted into evidence.
Cohen says he has no evidence that anybody in DA's office leaked the Trump indictment
Trump attorney Todd Blanche begins by asking Michael Cohen whether he has any evidence that "anyone at the DA improperly leaked or even leaked at all" the indictment before it was unsealed.
"No sir," Cohen says.
Blanche continues asking about the indictment and the judge asks the lawyers to briefly approach. He's back at the podium.
Blanche reminds Cohen that he went on TV that day.
"When you did those interviews, the indictment was unsealed by the court, correct?" Blanche asks.
"I had read through the New York Times article," Cohen says.
"By the time you went on CNN, it was public, correct?" Blanche asks.
"Yes," Cohen says.
Cohen is back on the stand
Michael Cohen is back on the stand. Trump attorney Todd Blanche is questioning him.
Judge says juror has an appointment next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET
Judge Juan Merchan just said a juror has told the court they have an appointment next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Merchan is going to inquire further with that juror and said he'd take one attorney from each side with him during the break.
Prosecutors ask judge to clarify the record over questions about the unsealing of Trump indictment
Prosecutors are asking Judge Juan Merchan to clarify the record over the questions about the unsealing of the Trump indictment, arguing that attorney Todd Blanche's questions had suggested there was an impropriety with the district attorney's office over an apparent leaking of the indictment.
Merchan says he's going to give Blanche the chance to clean up the potential for misunderstanding by the jury before deciding whether he needs to give a curative instruction.
Court is back in session
Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the court is in session.
Trump is back in the courtroom
Donald Trump has entered the courtroom after a fist bump and a wave on his way in at 2:08 pm ET.
Cohen discusses logistics of hush money payment as defense calls in question key call. Catch up on the latest
From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz
Michael Cohen delved into the role he wanted to have working for Trump and how the logistics played out in the hush money payment. The cross-examination continued until the court lunch break.
Here are the highlights of his testimony:
Which White House role: Cohen reiterated he wanted to be considered for Trump’s chief of staff for “ego” purposes, as he testified earlier, but he said that wasn’t the position he wanted. He said he asked Trump for a personal attorney to the president role, adding that he had wanted a hybrid role with access to Trump but also outside the government.
Using AI to make fake legal cases: Cohen admitted to submitting fake legal cases, generated by AI, to support his application for early termination of supervised release. The defense confirmed Cohen had been disbarred and was no longer a lawyer at the time he provided his attorneys with the fake cases.
Hush money payment and key 2016 call: The defense asked Cohen about the logistics of the hush money payment at the center of the case and pressed him on a key phone conversation that directly linked Trump to Daniels’ deal. Here are some key points in the exchange between Cohen and the defense:
- Cohen had testified that he told Trump in a 2016 call that the Stormy Daniels hush money payment was funded, and the issue was resolved.
- Cohen said he was receiving multiple harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old around the same time he testified before the grand jury.
- The defense showed call logs and text messages to show Cohen was asking Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller for help with harassment he was experiencing, as opposed to talking about the Stormy Daniels deal he testified about.
- On Monday, Cohen testified he called Schillerat 8:02 p.m. ET. Schiller was a conduit to speak with Trump and Cohen said he told Trump, using Schiller’s phone, that the Daniel deal was resolved and he was moving forward to fund the deal.
- However, in court today, Blanche showed a series of texts between Cohen and Schiller which showed Cohen wanted to speak to Schiller about a 14-year-old who was prank calling him, with no mention of Daniels.
- Cohen testified, "Part of it was the 14-year-old but I know that Keith was with Mr. Trump at the time and there was more potentially than this."
- Blanche challenged Cohen,"That was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump — you talked to Keith Schiller, you can admit it." Cohen calmly responded, "No sir, I don't know that it's accurate." Blanche, who paced back with forth with his arms flailing went after Cohen’s credibility, raising his voice to a high-pitched level as he continued to challenge him about the call.
- "A 1:36 phone call and you had enough time to update Schiller about all the problems you were having and also update President Trump about the status of the Stormy Daniels situation because you had to keep him informed," Blanche said.
- Cohen responded, maintaining his composure, "I alwaysran everything by the boss immediately and in this case, it would have been saying everything been taking care of, its been resolved.”
- Blanche then challenged Cohen to confirm that his trial testimony was based on the material prosecutors showed him in preparation for questioning, not his own recollection. "Yes, that refreshed my recollection," Cohen said.
CNN's Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb, and Lauren Dolan contributed reporting to this post.
Cohen's testimony about October 2016 call with Trump and Schiller gets to core of case, CNN analyst says
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
Michael Cohen's testimony about an October 2016 call with Keith Schiller and Donald Trump gets at the core of the case and could potentially be problematic for prosecutors, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.
"Michael Cohen on his direct testimony said, 'I had this phone call in late October of 2016, I called Keith Schiller and he patched me through to Trump, I don't remember if he put me on speaker but I was speaking to the two of them and I told them then that Stormy Daniels had been paid and the matter was resolved.' Right? We've been asking, 'When are they going to go with the core?' This is the core of the case," Honig explained.
He added that Trump's attorney Todd Blanche then raised two points regarding this testimony.
First, the texts leading up to the call that day show that Cohen texted Schiller nothing about Daniels, but about instead about a 14-year-old who was harassing him.
Second, Cohen never mentioned in previous testimony that this call was about Daniels, including a prior grand jury testimony and extensive statements he's given to the district attorney.
"If that's a the case, it's a big problem," Honig said.
