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Michael Cohen's evidence against Donald Trump in a New York fraud trial caps a difficult week for the former president, in which three of his election campaign attorneys have agreed to testify in the Georgia election tampering case.
Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, ABC News reported on Tuesday.
In his testimony, Meadows allegedly said that he had told Trump there was no substance to his claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He also told the federal investigators Trump was being "dishonest" when he claimed to have won the election before the final results were in, unnamed sources told ABC.
Trump was indicted in August in Washington, D.C., and charged with four counts related to alleged attempts to obstruct the 2020 election: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's attorneys via email for comment.
The news came as Michael Cohen was testifying in the $250 million civil trial taken by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, his two eldest sons, and their businesses, accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his properties for years. Trump has pleaded not guilty and called the James' investigation a "witch hunt."
During his testimony, Cohen said that he was tasked with listing the value of Trump's assets based on figures that the former president had "arbitrarily" decided on and then worked with the Trump Organization's longtime chief finance officer, Allen Weisselberg to "reverse engineer" the financial statements to achieve these valuations.
When asked what numbers they would work on, Cohen replied: "Whatever number Mr. Trump told us to."
Cohen added that Trump would also look at the total assets, and "he would say 'I'm actually not worth 4.5 billion [dollars], I'm really worth more like six.' He would then direct Allen and I to go back to Allen's office and return after we achieved the desired goal."
The former president and his legal team argued the testimony of Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2018 regarding hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, cannot be relied upon.
"Michael Cohen was a complete and total disaster in the Biden Inspired Trial today. Lie after lie, and getting caught each time," Trump posted on Truth Social.
On Tuesday, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis became the fourth defendant to plead guilty in Georgia over her role in the effort to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election and promises to testify in the trials of the others charged.
Her plea comes days after lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election interference charges in Georgia and agreed to testify against other defendants.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges," Ellis said while fighting back tears at Tuesday's court hearing.
Ellis admitted that she had spread lies about election fraud in 2020 in multiple states to help Trump remain in power.
"What I did not do, but should have done, Your Honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were, in fact, true," she said.
As with Chesebro and Powell, the terms of the plea deal will spare her from going to prison. Instead, she must pay a $5,000 fine, serve five years probation, write a letter of apology to Georgia residents and cooperate in the prosecution of others in the case.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more