‘This Guy’s Making This Up’: Anderson Cooper Says He’d ‘Absolutely’ Doubt Michael Cohen’s Testimony If He We Were a Juror
CNN’s Anderson Cooper admitted he would “absolutely” have doubts in Michael Cohen as a witness after witnessing an “extraordinary cross-examination” by Donald Trump’s lawyer at his Manhattan hush money trial.
After attending the trial, Cooper joined CNN to recall the “dramatic” moment where Trump’s lawyer “appeared” to catch Cohen in a lie.
Cohen alleges he fronted hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels with the knowledge and endorsement of Trump. The payments were to conceal an alleged affair that the former president has denied. He’s also denied any knowledge of hush money payments as he faces more than 30 felony counts for falsifying business records.
Cooper called Trump lawyer Todd Blanche’s cross-examination of Cohen on Thursday “devastating,” saying Blanche appeared to save the juiciest bits in the 20 minutes before he asked for a lunch break.
At issue is a phone call made on Oct. 24, 2016. Cohen testified on Tuesday that this call was where he directly told Trump he was moving ahead with the alleged plan to pay off Daniels. Cooper said on Thursday Cohen was “cornered in what appeared to be a lie.”
Blanche referred to text messages from the prosecution’s phone log that Cohen said he had not seen when reviewing information they’d given him. The text messages were between Cohen and Trump ally Keith Schiller and they regarded a 14-year-old who was prank-calling Cohen. Schiller told Cohen to call him right before the call allegedly involving Trump took place.
“There had been this series of, I guess, crank calls that Michael Cohen had received. It turned out to be some 14-year-old. There was an exchange of messages between the alleged 14 year old and Michael Cohen, and then Michael Cohen texted Keith Schiller at like 7:50-something or or 7:48 p.m., saying, hey, I’ve got some dope who has been harassing me,'” Cooper explained.
The reporter said Cohen had to “adjust” his story and he then claimed the phone call was about both topics.
“You could tell the import of the moment and everyone in the courtroom could tell and if you were unaware of it, the clicking of every of every reporters’ in the room typewriters, it was like a crescendo because the drama of the moment was so clear to everybody in the room,” Cooper said about the cross-examination.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig later asked Cooper if he would have doubts in Cohen’s testimony if he were in the jury box.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it’s devastating for Michael Cohen’s credibility on this one particular topic,” he said.
Cooper added if he were a juror, he would be thinking Cohen is at least lying about this one detail.
“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,” he said.
Watch above via CNN.
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