Anderson Cooper Says if He Was a Trump Juror, He Would Think Michael Cohen Is ‘Making This Up’ | Video
Anderson Cooper wasn’t impressed with Michael Cohen’s cross-examination testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday. Reporting his own account from the courthouse, the CNN journalist called it a “severely damaging” moment for the prosecution.
“This time, Michael Cohen was cornered in what appeared to be a lie I think to many in the room and had to adjust suddenly his memory he had just testified to on Tuesday,” Cooper told CNN while explaining Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s cross-examination of the witness.
The lie in question came when Blanche looked into the call Cohen previously said was to Trump about setting up the Stormy Daniels payment arrangement and was approved by Trump. Blanche found that prior to that call, Cohen had been getting prank calls and texts from an alleged 14-year-old and had reached out to Keith Schiller asking who he could talk to about being harassed and Schiller told Cohen to call him. That’s the call Cohen originally stated on Tuesday was to Trump about the arrangement.
Cooper was asked what his reaction would be if he was a juror in the case and had witnessed the cross-examination.
“If I was a juror in this case watching that, I would think, ‘This guy’s making this up as he’s going along, or he’s making this particular story up,'” Cooper said. “I think it’s severely damaging to Michael Cohen’s testimony.”
Just Wednesday, however, Cohen’s former attorney Lanny Davis argued to CNN’s Jake Tapper that the jury doesn’t need to believe Cohen’s testimony to find Trump guilty. He instead pointed to the “smoking gun” evidence in the form of a document from Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, which shows a handwritten financial plan that includes the $130,000 paid to Daniels.
“It’s a document that basically comes up with the amount that they are going to pay Michael Cohen, which is reimbursement for the payment to Stormy Daniels, according to the prosecutors and Michael Cohen, plus $50,000 more for this other thing having to do with like some bogus polling or whatever,” Tapper explained.
Watch Cooper’s breakdown of Cohen’s testimony above.
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