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Michael Cohen admits to Trump Org. theft as testimony continues in hush money trial


Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumed Monday in Manhattan criminal court, where Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and so-called fixer, has returned to the witness stand for his fourth day of testimony about his role in facilitating the $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal the sexual affair she says she had with the former president.

Cohen testified on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday last week about the hush money agreement he struck with Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election for her to stay silent about her alleged tryst with Trump a decade earlier. During cross- and redirect examination on Monday, Cohen testified that he stole money from the Trump Organization that was meant to be used to pay RedFinch, a tech company hired to rig online polls in favor of Trump.

As has been the case over the past few weeks of the trial, Trump was joined in court today by a number of high-profile supporters, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz and a former leader of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in New York.

Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payment to Daniels. Judge Juan Merchan told attorneys this morning that closing arguments in the hush money trial will begin Tuesday, May 28, the day after Memorial Day.

Below, get live updates on the case, including direct quotes and other details from media reports.

Live26 updates

  • Court is back in session

    Cohen is back on the witness stand.

  • What to know about the C-SPAN photo the prosecution and defense are arguing over

    Before the lunch break, the prosecution asked to present evidence that showed Trump with his bodyguard, Keith Schiller, on Oct. 24, 2016 around the same time Cohen testified that he had called Schiller to talk about the Stormy Daniels payment.

    The evidence is a series of stills from a C-SPAN video from a Trump rally.

    Last week, the defense had tried to argue that Cohen may have spoken directly to Schiller that night instead of Trump.

    After the break, Judge Merchan said he would not allow the video stills to be entered as evidence through a paralegal, which is what the prosecution is trying to do.

    The prosecution announced it could get C-SPAN archivist, Robert Browning, who testified in April, to come to tomorrow’s court session. But ultimately, the prosecution and defense allowed the images in as evidence.

    This is the second time the defense has allowed in new evidence — the first being two weeks ago with old Trump tweets.

  • Court takes a break to reach C-SPAN archivist

    Judge Juan Merchan calls for a brief break to see if the DA’s office can get a hold of Robert Browning, the C-SPAN archivist, so he can testify again.

  • Defense to judge: ‘There is a likelihood that we will rest today’

    Trump attorney Todd Blanche indicated to the judge that the prosecution and the defense may rest their cases today.

    “There is a likelihood that we will rest today,” he said, according to a Politico reporter.

    This seems to shut down speculation that Trump will testify in his own defense.

  • Court is back in session

    Court is back in session after a lunch break. Michael Cohen will return to the stand and answer questions from the prosecution.

  • What is RedFinch, and how does it relate to Cohen’s testimony?

    Under redirect examination, Michael Cohen gave prosecutor Susan Hoffinger some background on the $30,000 he admitted to stealing from the Trump Organization during his earlier cross-examination by Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche. Cohen was paid a total of $420,000 by Trump in 2017, with $50,000 of those funds reimbursed to him for services provided by technology company RedFinch, which he’d asked to assist in a CNBC poll that ranked famous businessmen.

    “Mr. Trump’s name was on that list, and at the beginning of this poll he was polling toward the very bottom,” Cohen explained on the witness stand. “It upset him, so he had me come to his office and he provided me with a sheet of paper.”

    Cohen testified that he contacted RedFinch, which said it would “create an algorithm” to boost Trump’s rank. Trump wanted to be No. 1 in the poll, Cohen said. However, he ended up in ninth place, despite RedFinch’s work. Cohen said that RedFinch wanted the full payment of $50,000. However, he said he paid the person who helped manipulate the algorithm only $20,000.

  • Court breaks for lunch

    Judge Juan Merchan has called for a 90-minute lunch break. Michael Cohen will return to the witness stand for more questioning from the prosecution when court resumes at 2:15 p.m. ET.

  • Cohen testifies about invoices at the center of the hush money case

    As they did with Stormy Daniels, prosecutors used their redirect of Michael Cohen to rebut some of the questions surrounding the witness’s credibility raised by the defense during cross-examination — and to highlight key parts of his direct testimony.

    Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen about the $420,000 in invoices he submitted to the Trump Organization in 2017, which he testified were for the reimbursement of the hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels a year earlier.

    “Did 420,000 have anything to do with legal services?” Hoffinger asked.

    “No,” Cohen replied.

    📸 Big picture: Trump is charged with falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payment to Daniels, and Cohen’s testimony here that they were falsified is at the center of the prosecution’s case.

  • Cohen says he talked to Trump to get approval for Daniels’s payoff in October 2016

    Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger on re-directon May 20, 2024. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

    Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger on re-directon May 20, 2024. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

    Cohen testified to prosecutor Susan Hoffinger that although he was busy all the time in October 2016, he wasn’t too busy to communicate with Trump about Daniels’s payment on Oct. 24 of that year, as Hoffinger noted that Blanche brought up how busy he was at the time.

    “Is it possible that other matters may have been discussed on those calls, but you are sure the Stormy Daniels matter was discussed?” Hoffinger asked.

    Cohen answered, “Yes.”

    “Were you too busy in October 2016 to finalize the Stormy Daniels payoff with Mr. Trump?” Hoffinger questioned, according to CNN.

    “No ma’am,” said Cohen.

    “Were you too busy to get his approval to make that payoff?” Hoffinger asked.

    “No ma’am,” Cohen testified.

  • Cohen says he’s considering a run for Congress

    Cohen testified that he is mulling a run for Congress because he has the “best name recognition out there,” drawing a smile from Trump.

    “My name recognition is because of the journey that I’ve been on, is it affiliated with Mr. Trump, yes — not because of Mr. Trump,” Cohen said.

    “Your journey has been near daily attacks on President Trump, at least since 2020?” Blanche questioned, per reporters in the room.

    Cohen answered “yes sir,” when Blanche pressed him to answer yes or no.

    Cohen also testified that he worked for three months to help pitch a show about his life called The Fixer and is considering writing a third book.

  • Defense concludes its cross-examination of Michael Cohen

    Trump lawyer Todd Blanche concluded the defense’s cross-examination of Michael Cohen by highlighting his history of lying, even under oath.

    “It’s true that you will lie out of loyalty, correct?” Blanche asked.

    “Yes, sir,” Cohen replied.

    The prosecution will now have a chance to ask Cohen additional questions in its redirect.

  • What Cohen’s cross-examination looks like in a courtroom sketch

    A courtroom sketch of Donald Trump and Judge Juan Merchan looking on during defense attorney Todd Blanche's cross-examination of Michael Cohen.

    Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

    Because no cameras are allowed in the courtroom during testimony, news outlets and the public must rely on courtroom sketch artists for images of former President Donald Trump’s historic criminal hush money trial.

    Noted sketch artist Jane Rosenberg’s latest image portrays defense lawyer Todd Blanche cross-examining Michael Cohen as Judge Juan Merchan and Trump look on.

    In Rosenberg’s drawings, Trump is often depicted with his eyes closed. In this sketch from this morning, at least one eye appears to be open.

  • Court is back in session

    After a brief midmorning break, the court is back in session. The defense will pick up its questioning of Cohen.

  • Trump sends out fundraising email claiming he could be sent to prison ‘for life’

    Trump sent out a fundraising email to subscribers at 11:18 a.m. that incorrectly claims his “rigged Biden Trial” could result in him being thrown into “PRISON FOR LIFE!” if he’s found guilty. In reality, Trump is facing 34 Class E felonies, each one carrying a maximum prison sentence of four years. It’s likely that, should Trump be convicted, he would serve the sentences concurrently, meaning he would go to prison for, at most, four years. Judge Merchan could also sentence him to probation instead.

  • Court takes midmorning break

    The court is taking its midmorning break. The defense is expected to continue its cross-examination of Cohen when court resumes.

  • Cohen acknowledges he said Trump knew nothing about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

    Michael Cohen leaves his apartment on Monday morning as he heads back to testify at Trump's criminal hush money trial. (Seth Wenig/AP)

    Michael Cohen leaves his apartment on Monday morning as he heads back to testify at Trump’s criminal hush money trial. (Seth Wenig/AP)

    During cross-examination, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche pressed Cohen on comments he made to reporters and members of the Trump family in 2018 after news of the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels became public.

    “You told multiple people when it first leaked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment, correct?” Blanche asked Cohen. “You even called Melania, the first lady, and told her that President Trump didn’t know about it.”

    Cohen said he could not recall specific conversations, but confirmed he said publicly that Trump was unaware of the payment at the time.

    📸 Big picture: The defense is trying to chip away at Cohen’s previous testimony that Trump not only knew about the hush money payment but directed it. Expect the prosecution to argue that Cohen, who testified that he would often lie to protect Trump, was doing exactly that when he said Trump was unaware of the payment.

  • Lawyer argues Cohen did legal work for Trump family throughout 2017

    Defense lawyer Todd Blanche is attempting to establish that Cohen did legal work for the Trump family several times in 2017 — including an instance where Cohen worked with Melania Trump and her agreement with Madame Tussauds, a wax figure museum.

  • Eric Trump reacts to Cohen’s admission from inside the courtroom

    Eric Trump, who is in court today to support his father, posted his reaction on X to Cohen’s admission during his testimony that he stole from the Trump Organization.

  • Defense presses Cohen on stealing from Trump Organization

    Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche walked Cohen through a series of payments the Trump Organization paid him in 2017, which totaled $420,000.

    Under Blanche’s questioning, Cohen testified that Redinch, the tech company hired to rig online polls in favor of Trump, was owed $50,000 but Cohen paid them only $20,000. Still, Cohen asked for the full $50,000 reimbursement, which ended up being $100,000, after the money was doubled for tax purposes.

  • Alan Dershowitz is in court to support Trump

    Alan Dershowitz's face is visible among a half dozen other people.

    Alan Dershowitz, second from right, and Chuck Zitom, third from right, watch as former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the Manhattan criminal courthouse on Monday. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool via AP)

    Among those in former President Donald Trump’s court entourage Monday is Alan Dershowitz, his former attorney and a vocal critic of Michael Cohen, who is testifying for the fourth straight day.

    Also in court to support Trump: Chuck Zito, who according to the New York Times “helped found in the early 1980s the New York Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels,” the infamous outlaw motorcycle gang.

    Per the Times, Zito later left the biker group to “try become a movie star in Hollywood.”



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