The credibility of Alvin Bragg’s star witness Michael Cohen is in shreds ahead of his testimony in the Manhattan district attorney’s “hush money” trial against President Donald Trump.
Pundits and legal gurus across the political spectrum have openly questioned Cohen’s credibility as a witness.
Many have pointed to the wisdom of Cohen’s brazen social media presence, which includes anti-Trump video rants.
Cohen, once a loyal employee of Trump but now a sworn enemy, has come under fire for speaking out about the case on TikTok.
It comes as Trump is silenced due to Judge Juan Merchan’s controversial gag order.
“His lack of impulse control in all of this is remarkable,” New York Times reporter Susanne Craig told MSNBC on Friday.
“He went out on Twitter and said I’m not going to say anything else … then was out on a TikTok live video with a shirt of Donald Trump behind bars.”
Cohen, a convicted perjuror, has been labeled a “grifter” in some circles.
However, Democrats celebrate him as a reformed sinner who truly regrets his past fixer work for Trump.
He is expected to explain his role in arranging a $130,000 payment in 2016 to adult actress Stormy Daniels.
Cohen claims the alleged “hush money” payment was to supposedly silence her claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Whether the jury believes Cohen’s account should be central to the case’s success.
As Cohen’s legal woes mounted, Trump and Cohen turned on another beginning in 2018.
To save himself, Cohen started claiming he had spent years doing what he called the future president’s “dirty deeds.”
“This week, convicted perjurer and disbarred attorney Michael Cohen will take a break from getting paid to trash Trump on TikTok — to trash Trump in the courtroom,” attorney Mike Davis, an outspoken Trump supporter who served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, said of the issues.
In court Friday, Judge Merchan directed New York prosecutors to instruct Cohen to stop making comments about the case and Trump ahead of taking the witness stand.
However, he did not impose a gag order and he did to Trump.
The state’s lawyers said they would relay the message.
However, that hasn’t stopped Cohen from doing TikTok live videos about the case.
In the videos, Cohen has been speculating about Trump going to prison.
As Slay News reported, Cohen is fundraising from his anti-Trump rants through viewer donations during the trial.
“Trump 2024?” Cohen said on one last month.
“More like Trump 20-24 years.”
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley called him a “serial perjurer” who is making money off the case by soliciting cash and selling merchandise on social media.
“Cohen has always been open as a grifter,” Turley wrote.
“He continues to act to his nature.
“The problem is a political and legal system that enables him as a serial liar,” Turley continued.
Imprisoned attorney Michael Avenatti, who first represented Daniels in her lawsuits against Trump, doesn’t believe the state can win the case without the jury believing and liking Cohen.
However, Avenatti said he thinks Cohen winning over a jury is a “tall task.”
“They have to call him because there’s nobody that links Trump to these reimbursements and this supposed conspiracy other than Cohen,” Avenatti told Fox News from his California prison.
“There’s no witness that could carry the water on these critical points other than Michael Cohen.”
“If I’m the state, I’m incredibly nervous about that because at this point you don’t want to stake anything on Michael Cohen,” Avenatti continued.
“The guy is a complete disaster of a witness.”
Several media outlets that are reliably hostile to Trump, along with longtime Trump critics, have also pointed out the former fixer’s flaws.
The Washington Post recently published a piece headlined, “One thing is already clear at Trump’s N.Y. trial: Nobody liked Michael Cohen.”
The report details ongoing disdain for the key prosecution witness.
Trump is on trial, but the Post reported that “testimony has been just as devastating” to Cohen, who has “become something of a national punching bag.”
Post reporter Devlin Barrett referred to Cohen as a “flawed witness,” who has been called “hopeless” and a “jerk” in front of the jury.
The jury also heard that a witness thought Cohen was “going to kill himself” when he learned Trump didn’t plan to give him a job in the White House.
Some reports have noted this has been purposeful by the prosecution, as a way of softening the blow when Cohen testifies and being upfront about his flaws to the jury.
A separate Washington Post piece referred to “Cohen’s TikTok grift.”
ABC News recently published an article declaring Cohen’s TikTok actions could be problematic.
Defense attorney Jeremy Saland, who used to work in the Manhattan DA’s Office, told ABC News that Trump’s legal team can use Cohen’s actions to “tear down his credibility.”
Will Steakin, an ABC News reporter who co-wrote the story, noted on X days later that Cohen appeared on TikTok wearing a shirt depicting Trump in a jumpsuit and handcuffs behind bars.
On Thursday, a CNN panelist debated Cohen’s credibility as a witness in the trial of his previous boss.
“If there’s any human being on the planet Earth [whose] picture should be next to the definition ‘reasonable doubt,’ it’s Michael Cohen,” Arthur Aidala said before pointing to Cohen’s “history of being a liar” and “a fraud.”
CNN’s Elie Honig predicted Cohen won’t be the prosecution’s last witness because “you don’t want to end on a potentially shaky, risky note.”
Cohen has even been dragged across the pond.
The BBC recently reported Cohen “has not exactly helped” the prosecution with outside-the-courtroom antics.
The British outlet noted that Cohen has been mocking Trump on social media and joking about him being incarcerated.
“He’s doing everything as a prosecutor you don’t want your witness to do,” former Manhattan prosecutor Lance Fletcher told the BBC.
“He’s got all sorts of credibility problems.”
In a statement, Lanny Davis pointed to his client’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee on February 27, 2019, implying Cohen was credible that day.
“You have [an] answer. Live TV. In front of millions. Feb 27, 2019,” Davis said.
“Before Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows and a dozen Rs calling him a liar.”
That day, Cohen said he was “ashamed” to know Trump, calling him a “racist,” “conman,” “cheat,” and revealed a personal check he alleges was used to reimburse him for the “hush money payments.”
Trump defense attorneys say the $35,000 payments were “not a payback,” but instead legal payments or attorney’s fees.
READ MORE – Alvin Bragg’s Office Caught Deleting Evidence in Trump’s NY ‘Hush Money’ Trial
