Trump’s legal team continued its trial-long assault on Cohen’s credibility Friday, going after everything from the way he handled his cell phones to how he would go “rogue” during 2016 campaign.
During cross-examination, Trump’s attorneys asked Hicks to confirm that Cohen was not looped in on campaign strategy and did things that were not authorized by the campaign.
“He liked to call himself a fixer, or ‘Mr. Fix it’ – and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to then fix it,” Hicks said, laughing.
Trump’s team also used its cross-examination of the digital forensics expert, Douglas Daus, who examined Cohen’s cell phones to cast doubt on the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer.
Before the trial began, Trump’s team tried to subpoena the Manhattan district attorney’s employee who was responsible for the phones during the four-day lapse between when the phones were obtained to when it was brought to Daus’ department.
Trump’s lawyers indicated in the letter they wanted to “challenge the integrity of evidence DANY (District Attorney of New York) will seek to offer from Cohen’s phones, for use in cross-examination of Cohen” and “regarding the bias and hostility toward President Trump to attack the lack of integrity of DANY’s investigation.”
Daus, who introduced a key September 2016 recording of Trump and Cohen that was on Cohen’s phone, agreed that he did not know what Cohen had done with his phone when it had been synced with a laptop in 2017 and turned on and used in 2020.
Prosecutors sought to push back on this angle from the defense in court.
“Did you see any evidence of tampering or manipulation on any of the data that you pulled related to the recording that’s in evidence?” prosecutor Chris Conroy asked.
“I did not,” Daus testified.
Judge reminds Trump the gag order doesn’t mean he can’t testify
Trump continues to rail against the gag order issued by Judge Juan Merchan that blocks the defendant from speaking out about potential witnesses and most people in or associated with the court or the New York district attorney’s office. (The judge himself and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg are not covered.)
Trump has repeatedly made the gag order sound far broader than it is, CNN fact checker Daniel Dale wrote. For instance, Trump claimed at a Wednesday campaign rally in Michigan that “I’m not even supposed to be, I would say, talking to you, because he gagged me” – though the gag order actually says nothing to prevent him from making a campaign speech.
He’s also said previously it would prevent him from taking the stand. But while Trump acknowledged to reporters Friday morning that the gag order doesn’t impact his ability to testify if he chose to do so, the judge made clear there was no doubt.
“The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way,” Merchan said in court Friday. “It does not prohibit you from taking the stand and it does not limit or minimize what you can say.”
Trump has paid the $9,000 fine he was assessed for previously breaking the gag order, using two cashier’s checks.
Merchan did not, however, rule on the additional alleged gag order violations brought against Trump.
