Michael Cohen Reveals How Donald Trump Avoids Leaving a Paper Trail
Donald Trump doesn’t have an email address—because they’re just like a paper trail, says his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
Cohen was called to the witness stand Monday morning in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan, and he quickly revealed the damaging details about how Trump viewed emails.
“Mr. Trump never had an email address,” Cohen said. He quoted Trump saying to him that “emails are like written papers. There are too many people who have gone down” because “prosecutors” had access to their emails.
Words like these are not how innocent people speak regularly, and this kind of revelation does not portend well for Trump for the rest of Cohen’s testimony, which has been eagerly awaited by Trump critics for its potential to be some of the most damaging to the former president.
Cohen allegedly made payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf to cover up their affair so it wouldn’t damage his run for president in 2016. Cohen has since cooperated with prosecutors not just in the hush-money trial but also spent more than 50 hours talking to investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation. Earlier in the hush-money trial, Cohen provided evidence that possibly destroyed Trump’s defense in the form of secretly recorded conversations of the former president showing that he had detailed knowledge of the payments to Daniels. Trump faces 34 felony charges in the hush-money case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime for the payments, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Cohen has made no secret of now holding disdain for his ex-boss, calling him “Von ShitzInPantz”and a “racist jackass who referred to African nations as ‘shithole countries.’” Trump is stewing over a gag order preventing him from attacking Cohen and other witnesses in the case, as well as court staff and their families.