In August 2018, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to causing the American Media to make an illegal campaign contribution to Trump and illegally contributing through the payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, respectively.
And during it separation of claim — the process by which an alleged defendant takes responsibility for his crimes — Cohen said he acted not only in “coordination” but “at the behest” of one Donald Trump.
And that’s the crux of what the prosecution needs from Cohen and can’t get from anyone else, as they wrap up the case this week: How, when and why Trump publicly instructed Cohen to ensure that McDougal and Daniels’ stories remain buried.
And there’s one more thing they need: the testimony that Trump knowingly and intentionally caused Cohen and Trump Organization employees to falsely document the payment to Cohen (and then some).
By now, we’ve seen plenty of evidence that the business records were, in fact, false — and that top Trump executives, including the ever-faithful, all-hands-on-deck Allen Weisselberg, masterminded the payback scheme.
But missing so far? Direct evidence — other than the checks he signed — led to Trump himself or others concealing distributions such as monthly payments for legal services that never existed under a retainer agreement that never existed.
This is Cohen’s sole purpose and function as a witness: to fill in the gaps in the existing evidentiary record with direct evidence of what Trump said or did, thus weaving the disparate pieces into a single, comprehensible narrative.
Starting today, nearly six years after he first pleaded guilty, we’ll see if Cohen can keep that promise.