Conversations between attorney and client are supposed to be privileged, but that apparently meant very little to Michael Cohen.
The big shocker this week at the trial was recordings of conversations between Cohen and Trump being played for the court.
Talking Points…
- Cohen recorded Trump conversations
- Stormy Daniels attorney
- Analysis
Donald Trump has had some interesting business relationships over the years, but the one that has always baffled me is Cohen. He was never considered a very good lawyer, only that he would do whatever Trump wanted him to do to get the job done. This is a relationship that Trump surely regrets at this point, especially after this latest revelation.
Michael Cohen was recording private conversations that he had with Trump, which we can only presume was to create leverage for himself in the future to use against Trump. Things did not quite work out that way for Cohen, but those tapes are now coming to light at the Trump hush-money trial. One of those conversations involved transactions regarding Trump’s hush-money payments, where Cohen tells Trump:
“I need to open up a company regarding the transfer for our friend David…I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg…I’m all over that, I’ve spoken to Allen, when it comes to financing…”
Trump replied, “What financing?” As the conversation continues, Trump tells Cohen to “pay cash,” but that payment was never reportedly made. That particular tidbit was regarding David Pecker, who, at the time, was the publisher of the National Enquirer. This was all regarding a “catch and kill” for the Karen McDougal alleged affair with Trump.
Also, on Thursday, attorney Keith Davidson was on the stand. Davidson allegedly made a career of shaking down stars for hush-money payments, or at least that is how Trump’s attorneys tried to portray him. They did their best to make him look like a professional blackmailer, but Davidson got hit by both sides while testifying, especially after he threw a bit of a wrench into Alan Bragg’s gameplan.
Defense attorney Emil Bove was firing away at Davidson, who admitted that he had brushed up on all aspects of extortion law at this point in his career. Bove asked Davidson, “You did everything you could to get as close to that line as possible without crossing it, right?” Davidson then replied:
“I did everything I could to make sure that my activities were lawful.”
However, the real twist in the case was when Davidson pushed back on the idea of the payment to Daniels being considered a hush-money payment, classifying it as a “consideration in a civil settlement.” Davidson also pushed back on the narrative that whatever allegedly happened between Trump and Daniels was “romantic” in any way. He more or less took the path that this was being treated as a business transaction, nothing more.
Legal experts had mixed reviews on the day. While it was clearly damaging to Trump to have these phone calls and texts shown to the jury, Davidson far from gave Bragg what he needed to nail Trump in this case. Quite the opposite, actually.
Davidson calling this a civil settlement rather than a hush-money payment was a game changer for some legal experts, possibly explaining why the ledger entries were made the way they were by Trump’s accountants. This was supposed to be a nail in Trump’s coffin, but I doubt anyone would consider it that at this point. I would call the day a push, with a slight lean toward Trump for the day.
