CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman described the secret recording between former President Donald Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen as “the most dramatic testimony of the day” during Trump’s trial.
Thursday did not go well for the prosecution in the trial involving Stormy Daniels’ hush money and election interference. Analysts suggest that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan had a challenging day.
During the trial, a recording was played for the jury. This particular recording, described by Haberman as “a doozy,” featured a conversation between Trump and Cohen. In the recording, Trump can be heard discussing the arrangement of a cash payment to David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer.
During her appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday night, Haberman acknowledged that the prosecution had a challenging day. However, she emphasized that the Cohen tape was the most captivating and dramatic piece of evidence they had encountered.
COOPER: Maggie, what was it like in court today?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: It’s surreal every day, but I would say that the strangest moment came toward the end of the day, and it was a rough day of testimony. Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, testified for a long time, and Trump’s lawyers actually did get some dings into him on cross-examination. It got very tense. He got very flustered. He ended up sounding pretty weaselly as he was giving answers.
But prosecutors played this exchanges between – that Cohen secretly taped. One was with Keith Davidson and then the other was Michael Cohen and Trump, which you just played. And that tape is basically what jurors were left with as the most dramatic testimony for the day.
There was some other not particularly interesting testimony at the very end, as you say, from a custodian of records, basically saying that he had checked out Cohen’s phone and that it was all forensically true that this material came from it. But we still don’t really know what the jury thinks, and I think that’s something really important to bear in mind.
COOPER: You described the Cohen-Trump recording as a doozy.
HABERMAN: Well, I mean, look, we’ve heard this tape for …
COOPER: Which, again, is a legal term.
HABERMAN: … so – right, thank you for clarifying it for me. It’s been six years almost today that we know about this tape, and so it’s obviously not new to us. But I think when you were hearing it, A, as a juror and, B, in the context of that courtroom, it just sounded very different, particularly at a time when Trump’s lawyers were arguing that this was essentially all just Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen.
They didn’t make this argument explicitly, but they were leaning into the idea that these two were just freelancing and that Davidson was essentially extorting Trump. And so that didn’t get dispelled from that tape, but the idea that Trump didn’t know would have.
Before introducing his panel, Cooper played the 2016 tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FMR. PERSONAL ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, so that – I’m going to do that right away. I’ve actually come up and I’ve spoken …
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Give it to me and (INAUDIBLE) … COHEN: And, I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with …
TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?
COHEN: … funding. Yes, and it’s all the stuff.
TRUMP: Yes, I was thinking about that.
COHEN: All the stuff. Because – here, you never know where that company – you never know what he’s …
TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck.
COHEN: Correct. So, I’m all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be …
TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing?
COHEN: Well, I’ll have to pay him something.
TRUMP: No, pay with cash …
COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it.
TRUMP: … check.