By Steve Neavling
Donald Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen testified at his former boss’s criminal trial in New York on Monday, saying he personally approved a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“Just do it,” Cohen said Trump told him about making the $130,000 payment to keep Daniels quiet about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006, The New York Times reports.
Trump allegedly reimbursed Cohen for the expenses, and in doing so, falsified the payment as a series of legal expenses in violation of New York law, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he would “have made that payment to Stormy Daniels without getting a signoff from Mr. Trump?”
Cohen responded, “No, because everything required Mr. Trump’s signoff. And on top of that, I wanted the money back.”
Cohen said he first met Trump through his son Donald Jr. He ended up working as Trump’s special counsel for 10 years.
In essence, Cohen said he was Trump’s right-hand man.
“It was whatever concerned him, whatever he wanted,” Cohen testified.
