Trumps buildings. Michael cohen, yes. And you have resolved that. Yes, sir. You were working with President Trumps son among other people. Yes. Blanche, there was construction going on at an apartment you had purchased for 5 million and that apartment was your primary residence for many years and you still live in that building with trumps name on it . Cohen, i do. Property in trump hotel that you rent out for 15,000 a month. Yes. Family members in trumps buildings. Michael cohen says in laws, parents. In 2000, we bought a block. Todd blanche, you first helped President Trump and his family resolve the board was trying to remove the trump name from the building. Yes, sir. Your practice at the time was an international banking, highend net worth protection. Letter of credit transactions. Yes, sir. And you were more in litigation or corporate. More corporate. Again, they continue on in this about the early 2000s, he saw himself as a bit of a deal maker. He started working then on other legal matters for President Trump. The story goes that President Trump, the former president , was impressed and will note this todd blanche is calling him President Trump, but again, the color is the crossexamination feels all over the place. Heres what, let me ask you if this is what theyre trying to do. Theyre talk about how he made millions in medallions. Hes renting out this apartment for 15,000. He has another one for 5 million. His inlaws live there. He makes a lot of money, theyre arguing. Hes very rich. No, but is it, youre arguing that you didnt have that money to pay Stormy Daniels and you would not have done it. That donald trump needed to pay you back. Maybe you were rich enough and maybe this is something you could afford. He had money. Thats their argument. Crossexamination all over the place, thats often how it works. Direct, it has to be detailed and very streamlined and orderly. A cross sometimes is to knock you off your feet. Im talking about the witness. So all over the place sometimes works. Well find out with the verdict whether or not it worked in trumps favor. Back to the court outside the courthouse. Yasmin is there. What else can you tell us about this line of questioning, yasmin . Reporter yeah, so im seeing this kind of as stages of grief. First they went after Michael Cohen implying he has an ax to grind when it comes to donald trump. Hes media hungry with his social media posts, tiktok and podcasts. Now theyre doubling back to his relationship, where it all began. I think its important to refresh folks on the relationship and the loyalty that Michael Cohen had to donald trump for some time, dating back to 2007, when he first began working for donald trump. If you remember from Michael Cohens testimony during direct, it was 2007 he started working for the Trump Organization and family. He did a couple of jobs for donald trump. At this point, billing him around 100,000. Hoffinger asking were you paid that 100,000 . No, but instead, he was offered 375,000 which blanche reiterates here, you have money. Donald trump has been paying you quite well over the last couple of years or while you were working for him. The bonus of course of 125,000. Just to remind folks of that transaction, when he was hired, how long he worked for donald trump until he left the organization subsequently in 2017 by the way. So for quite some time, he worked alongside donald trump kind of seeing him as a Father Figure and todd blanche taking us through that crossexamination right now and building it seems kind of this idea not only loyalty, which is what they did during direct, but now more so how donald trump treated it seems Michael Cohen quite well. Leaving him with a heck of a lot of money and a high salary to many people in this country. Blanche, at the time, you werent lying . Cohen says at the time, i was knee deep into the cult of donald trump. Yes. This is about 2015 when he was running for president. You said hes a man who cares deeply about this country. Who tells it straight. Blanche, as a man who tells it straight and all he wants to do is make this country great again. Cohen says i think that sounds right. At the time, you werent lying. At the time, i was knee deep into the cult of donald trump. Yes. Blanche asks let me ask that again. At the time, you were not lying. Cohen, i was not lying, no. Thats how i felt. Blanche, you were telling the truth. Cohen says thats how i felt. Blanche, you were telling the truth. Cohen says thats how i felt. He asked it twice and cohen answered it twice. Andrew . You know, this is sort of an interesting cross because i dont think you are Learning Anything to our prior conversation that was not brought out on direct. I thought one of the most poignant moments on direct was when hoffinger asked when Michael Cohen first started work at the Trump Organization and he would do something for donald trump and donald trump would respond by saying thats great or thats fantastic and she said how did you feel. And he said, i felt on top of the world. And you got this sense that he needed trumps approval and that he was, here, they use the term obsessed, but it wasnt really obsessed. That was just so much a part of what he was hoping to have from him. This is just underscoring it. I dont know that it makes him look bad. To me, it brings him, like, they need to say this guy is a horrible criminal whos just done this parade of horrible things but he is you know, this is Donald Trumps person. And that is to me this is sort of surrounding him with making trump and Michael Cohen sort of, you know, have this symbiotic relationship. I dont know if thats the most effective thing that they were that close and there was that close bond because Michael Cohens already explained who he was then and also the feeling of anger and abuse that came from trump in terms of how he was treated after being so loyal. And before we got to that moment, they asked him about his relationship with the entire family. Blanche says the nine and a half years you were there, you represented trump and his family. I have. Melania, don jr. I dont think i ever represented eric. You also helped some of the kids with various work. Reaching out to the media on behalf of President Trumps children. They also say he made 375,000 salary with the exception of a 2016 bonus that was 125,000. His financial success, high profile, tenacity, those are the things hes pointing out that caused him to want to be very close to and serving donald trump. I agree with andrew. Its basically establishing that he was an insider. He knew about the family. He worked with them. He was like Donald Trumps right arm. So i dont know the point of this. I dont know if its for the defense to prove hes an insider and a trusted member of the organization. You said you would take a bullet for the president. Cohen says i did say that, yes. You talked about the time toward the end of the campaign that you were offered a book deal. Cohen says yes. You were offered 10 million to write a tell all book. Is that right . Cohen says, i believe so. First of all, wow. Blanche, what you said in the article was with counteroffer, what you said was that you counteroffered, how about 100 million. Cohen says correct. According to the article, you were just pushing it to see how high it would go. Cohen says thats not true. In 2017, you had no intention of writing a book . Cohen, i had no intention of writing a book. No money in the world that would cause you to write a book about his family . Sounds correct. No money that would get you to disclose anything about his family . Cohen says okay. You describe them as a surrogate family. Cohen says correct. Whats he getting at here . The thing thats missing from the defense at the moment that theyre trying to put in here is that trump didnt know about the false Business Records. The d. A. s office has proven up the falsity of the records. We know thats false. Its a slam dunk case. They couldnt bring it. As a misdemeanor, the statute of limitations had passed. They had done a good job to conceal this conspiracy. Whats missing is that trump knew about the false Business Records and they have a circumstantial case. What theyre trying to do is show this is somebody who was loyal to trump. He was telling the truth at the time then when he didnt get a job in the administration, he got so upset and so dispond enter about not going to washington, d. C. And that does comport with What Davidson said that he decided he was going to punish donald trump and basically free him for it. Sounds like theyre trying tooed that now. The first year donald trump was in office you went from seeing him almost daily except when he was campaigning to not seeing him nearly as much when he was at the white house. Cohen says correct. You told hope hicks you missed him. Yes, i did. I had a great relationship with my colleagues. President trump said the same thing at a fundraiser in washington, d. C. Blanche, there was an Ongoing Investigation and there was a separation. Cohen says yes. There was a separation. Blanche, you spoke about how it was frustrating. You were disappointed not to be able to spend as much time with trump and the kids because of the investigation. Waiting for Michael Cohens response. But sounds like its getting at where you were going, duncan. Were starting to see what the defense is in their questioning of these witnesses. They are stuck with certain facts that they cant do anything about. Weisselbergs handwriting. Those text messages. The Phone Records. So they have two witnesses. One of whom is a liar whos on the stand right now and hes an admitted liar and the other is missing. Thats Allen Weisselberg and Michael Cohen. The two of them are the defense in this case and cooked the books themselves and that donald trump didnt know about it. He was so upset to not get a job in the administration that he decided to frame the president of the United States for a crime he didnt commit. For this false Business Records and i think we will see that more in the testimony to come when the defense case comes. And to that point, i dont think Donald Trumps really matters to that defense. Theyll be able to argue to the jury without his defense. We may see a very streamlined defense. They dont have to call a lot of witnesses to be able they dont have to prove anything. The prosecution has the burden here. Pick up where you left off because its getting a little brutal. Depending on your point of view. Todd blanche says let me ask this in a different way. You were told to stay away and not communicate with him and his family. Cohen, i was told not to speak to President Trump but not his family. Not that i couldnt see his kids. I just didnt. Okay. This is totally misleading. When a criminal investigation occurs and i know this, both have done on the defense side and the prosecution side. The, everyone getting lawyered up. So President Trump had lawyers. Michael cohen had lawyers. All of those lawyers will say to their clients, do not speak. The principal should not speak to each other. It goes through counsel. Oh, see, you were suddenly shunned is really wrong. That is not what goes on in a criminal investigation. No ones shunning each other. In fact, the fact that all of them have counsel and are being told dont speak to each other is in the interest of everyone in the conspiracy. Its standard practice. To make that a motive of oh, see, you were shunned outside of the group. Thats not what happened. People in Donald Trumps orbit might have at one point have hated him. They might have at one point loved him and then later on if they hated him, they love him again. Or if they loved him, now they hate him. Theres a whole lot of flipflopping in regards to any one persons emotions regarding donald trump depending on how donald trump treats that person. Reporter depending on how donald trump treats that person, what hes willing to give them, which it seems what todd blanche is getting at, right . You love donald trump. You thought he would make America Great again. You championed him to become the president of the United States back in 2015 and now the sudden turn of events and how does that actually happen. But its a conversation weve had with so many individuals that currently support and or dont support, no longer support donald trump and how you kind of make the 180. I just spoke with ramaswami who was inside the courthouse today. I believe hes back now. I asked him after january 6th, you called donald trump abhorrent. You said he was a sore loser then here you are supporting him as a Quote Unquote Surrogate Inside the courtroom coming as you tell me on your own volition are you gunning for a Vice President ial pick. If offered, will you take it . He said im not going to disclose my conversations where the former president , but nonetheless, this is whats wrong with the media. He kind of ducked my question. Youre asking me about january 6th on a day when we should be talking about as he puts it, a sham of a trial. It kind of speaks to this flipflopping thats happening to so Many Republican surrogates and lawmakers that support donald trump and have for so long. Especially after january 6th. We remember the speech made by Lindsey Graham when it came to what happened after january 6th. To now. And how they feel about donald trump now. So this line of questioning is interesting considering what we talk about in the public sector, the spear n the media when it comes to his own supporters, guys. Okay. Were getting into something where we have a direct witness and direct expert. Andrew, this goes to you. At some point in august of 2018, you decided to meet with the Special Counsels office and tell them what you knew, correct . I was asked to cooperate. And you dont remember when you would cooperate . Cohen says correct. Blanche, you first met with Robert MuellersSpecial Counsel on august 2018. Cohen, still to protect trump, provide answers. Blanche, when you met with them that first time, you had lawyers with you. Three lawyers with you. An fbi agent . There was a lot of people there. Whats going on here . I was not at this meeting but a year before that, we had, and this is public. We had found the lead with respect to the 130,000 payment. We, as i mentioned, had referred that part of the investigation because it doubled Stormy Daniels. He continued the investigation into Michael Cohens testimony with congress with respect to what happened with the moscow project that trump was engaged in. It developed substantial evidence that what he had said under oath was not true. Just to be clear, there was no question that Michael Cohen was not lying for himself. Because he was not the principal in that deal. This was all about Michael Cohen lying because he was distancing the timeline in terms of what donald trump was doing in russia. And he ultimately pled guilty to that. Could you see at that point though this is where this would ultimately, potentially end . Yes. When we saw the payment, there were a lot of things that ran through our mind in terms of Election Fraud. In terms of potential bank fraud. In terms of making false representations about what Essential Consulting was. We actually heard in this trial that Michael Cohen say yes, i lied to the bank in terms of what the purpose was. If i said the true purpose, there was a risk they werent going to give me the account and have an llc, partnership. So were seeing sort of fast forward the end result of the Special Counsel investigation into Michael Cohen very much related to donald trump though. And the Southern District of new york, federal analog to the d. A. Here investigating the Stormy Daniels payment. Lisa rubin has a little analysis from the overflow room. She says blanche keeps trying to impeach Michael Cohen and other peoples records of cohens purported statements. As Media Articles relying on anonymous source, cohen has distanced himself from most of these statements yet blanche is doing it again. Focusing on notes from a meeting with the Special Counsels office. That is typical and permissible. If you and i were in a meeting, youre a journalist, you take notes. The source then later asked about it. They dont know what you wrote, if you got it correct. Maybe you did, maybe you didnt. You could be asked is that what you said and you can show your notes but im entitled to be like, yes, that is what i said. Or you know what, i dont know what katy tur was writing down. I wasnt in charge of what she wrote down. And thats not, i dont think thats