The long-anticipated, brutal cross-examination of Michael Cohen started Tuesday afternoon with pure fire and fury, as Donald Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, prepared for battle.
Blanche approached the podium, adjusted the microphone by pulling it down, and leaned forward with both hands forcefully gripping the edges of the wooden tabletop.
“Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche. You and I have never spoken or met before, have we?” he began, his usual satiny voice replaced by a slight grittiness.
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“We have not,” Cohen responded coolly.
“But you know who I am, don’t you?” Blanche continued.
“I do,” Cohen replied.
“You went on TikTok and called me a crying little shit, didn’t you?” Blanche growled.
Cohen started to answer before being interrupted.
“Sounds like something I would–”
“Objection!” a prosecutor said.
“Sustained,” Justice Juan Merchan snapped, calling all the attorneys to the bench for a sidebar.
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The showdown is a long time coming. The former president views Cohen as his mortal enemy, a thorn in his side ever since the one-time consigliere to the business mogul flipped on him and began assisting congressional investigators and law enforcement across the country to inquire about Trump’s lengthy string of alleged crimes.
From the get-go, the questioning session forewent any core issues about the case and focused squarely on Cohen’s character—as well as his public attacks against his former boss.
“You referred to Trump as a ‘dictator douchebag,’ didn’t you?” Blanche asked, later quoting a Cohen social media post where the disbarred lawyer said Trump should be sent “where he belongs, in a fucking cage.”
The tactic is one meant to direct the 18-person jury’s attention to the man who has been heralded as the Manhattan District Attorney’s star witness while prosecutors pursue 34 felony counts of falsifying business records against Trump.
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Source Agencies
