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Stealing from Trump was ‘self-help’, lawyer Cohen testifies at hush money trial
- Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen said he pocketed most of a sum of money which was meant for a tech company that did work for Trump’s firm
- ‘It was almost like self-help,’ said Cohen, the prosecution’s most important witness, on his last day of testimony at the ex-president’s New York trial
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Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified that he stole money from Trump’s company as a form of “self-help” as prosecutors rested their case on Monday at the former US president’s hush money trial.
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The prosecution’s most important and final witness, Cohen acknowledged on his last day of testimony that he pocketed most of a sum of money that was meant for a technology company that did work for Trump’s company.
“I just felt it was almost like self-help,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s admission that he had stolen from his then-boss, first raised by defence lawyers on cross-examination, could hurt his credibility with jurors who will be charged with deciding whether Trump should be found guilty at the first trial of a former US president.
Soon after Cohen left the witness box, prosecutors rested their case and Trump’s lawyers began calling witnesses of their own.
One of them drew a reprimand from the judge after he expressed dissatisfaction, prompting the judge to momentarily clear the courtroom.
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“If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes,” Justice Juan Merchan told Robert Costello, a lawyer called by the defence team to testify.
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