The criminal trial of former President Trump is nearing an end in New York (2024)

Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen will take the stand once more in the hush money trial of the former president. The jury could begin deliberating this week.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Today is likely the final day of testimony in Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York City.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen returns to the stand. The defense continues its cross-examination of him, then prosecutors get a chance to ask another round of their questions.

INSKEEP: NPR'S Andrea Bernstein has been covering the trial all along. Andrea, welcome back.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN, BYLINE: Good morning.

INSKEEP: How much damage has the defense already done to Michael Cohen in cross-examination?

BERNSTEIN: Well, they definitely shook him some on Thursday. Trump attorney Todd Blanche was questioning Cohen about a series of lies that Cohen had made. He'd pleaded guilty to lying to Congress during the Russia investigation about a Trump Tower Moscow project. He'd lied to banks on loan applications and pleaded guilty to that. He said during testimony last week, he'd misled the Federal Elections Commission on Trump's behalf. And then Blanche got to a phone call Cohen had testified about earlier in the week. Cohen had said he'd called Keith Schiller, Trump's bodyguard, in late October 2016, so he could pass the phone to Trump so they could discuss Stormy Daniels.

INSKEEP: Discussing the actress, the actor who received this payment that is at the center of the trial. Did that phone call happen the way that Michael Cohen had testified that it did?

BERNSTEIN: Well, there's something that Cohen didn't say. Blanche introduced text messages between Cohen and Shiller that the jury hadn't seen before, about a 14-year-old who'd been harassing Cohen. Then Blanche said, when you told the jury you were calling to say you'd finalized the deal with Stormy Daniels, that was a lie, and he was raising his voice to punctuate the point. Cohen said it wasn't a lie, but he seemed a little shaken, saying, I believe I also spoke to Mr. Trump about the hush money payoff.

INSKEEP: I grant that that must have been dramatic to watch. But what does that exchange add to all the other testimony the jury has heard?

BERNSTEIN: Yeah, so this was something different from all the previous prevications the defense brought up. This was a fresh alleged lie. The Defense noted this was only a 96-second call, and Cohen maintained he discussed both. It's possible. It's just a little shorter than you and I've been speaking this morning. But the defense clearly thought it had made major headway in its strategy to get the jury to disbelieve everything that Cohen testified to. That said, there's a lot the defense hasn't discussed, including other longer calls with Trump on the same day that documents show Cohen sent the payment to Stormy Daniels.

INSKEEP: Let's remember that this payment or rather the falsification of business records relating to this payment is the big picture of the trial, what the trial is about. Did they get to the reimbursem*nt plan?

BERNSTEIN: They did not. They have yet to question Trump about the testimony that Trump knew of and approved the reimbursem*nt scheme as it was being planned and about the time when he was in the White House signing those $35,000 checks to Cohen every month. The defense could get into that today, but the defense says they only have about an hour and a half of cross-examination to go.

INSKEEP: Will Donald Trump testify in his own defense?

BERNSTEIN: Defense hasn't said. Defense attorneys have said - I've spoken to said that would be foolish because it would put the focus on Trump's lies, not Cohen's. But from previous trials, it's clear Donald Trump believes no one can make his case as well as he can. All he needs is one juror to get to a hung jury, and we are facing summations...

INSKEEP: Yeah.

BERNSTEIN: ...And jury instructions and a possible deliberation and maybe a verdict this week.

INSKEEP: NPR's Andrea Bernstein. Thanks so much.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

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