In New York, a federal judge raised questions about Michael Cohen’s honesty, suggesting he may have committed perjury. This development lends weight to former President Donald Trump’s assertions that his former personal lawyer, who is expected to be a key witness against him in an upcoming criminal trial in New York, cannot be trusted.
Judge Jesse M. Furman expressed doubts about Cohen’s credibility in a document that refused Cohen’s request for an early end to his court supervision. This supervision was part of his sentence following a three-year prison term for various offenses, including tax evasion, lying to banks and Congress, and breaking campaign finance laws.
Furman pointed to Cohen’s behavior during Trump’s civil fraud trial in Manhattan last October. Despite having pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2018, Cohen claimed on the stand that he was not actually guilty of the charge. When questioned about lying to the judge who accepted his guilty plea, Cohen admitted to doing so.
Furman noted that Cohen’s testimony at the trial presented two possibilities: either Cohen lied when he pleaded guilty, or he lied during his testimony in October 2023. Furman emphasized that Cohen’s attempts to distance himself from his previous admissions of guilt highlight the ongoing need for deterrence.
Trump has consistently criticized Cohen’s reliability, accusing him of committing “MASSIVE PERJURY” in the civil fraud case. Trump’s comments came after Cohen altered his initial testimony, which had implicated Trump in inflating asset values for financial gain.
Under cross-examination, Cohen eventually acknowledged that Trump did not explicitly instruct him to inflate figures. However, Cohen later suggested that Trump had indirectly indicated what he wanted.
Despite these controversies, Trump was found liable in the case and was ordered to pay a $454 million penalty last month.
In response to Furman’s statements, Cohen’s lawyer, E. Danya Perry, challenged the judge’s conclusions, arguing that they were both factually and legally incorrect. Perry contended that Furman overlooked the fact that Cohen had not denied the actions leading to his charges and that defendants often accept plea deals under significant pressure.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, supported Furman’s assessment, stating it confirmed Cohen’s perjury and called for his prosecution. Meanwhile, the judge in the civil fraud trial found Cohen credible despite the complexities surrounding his guilty plea and his motivations for testifying against Trump.
Furman also decided against penalizing a lawyer who used fake legal case citations generated by artificial intelligence in a court filing, recognizing the lawyer was unaware of the mistake.
Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018 involved arranging payments to silence two women, which threatened Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Although Trump was not charged by federal prosecutors, they questioned Cohen’s credibility.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in a New York state court, with Cohen set to be a primary witness in Trump’s trial over these charges. The trial has been postponed to allow the defense more time to review evidence from a 2018 federal investigation into Cohen and the payments.
After Allen Weisselberg, former Trump Organization finance chief, admitted to lying in his fraud case testimony, Trump’s lawyers accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of ignoring Cohen’s alleged perjury.
Trump’s legal team attempted to prevent Cohen from testifying at the hush-money trial, labeling him a liar and a perjurer. However, Judge Juan M. Merchan dismissed these concerns, stating there was no precedent for excluding a witness based on past credibility issues. Merchan emphasized that the argument against Cohen’s testimony was speculative regarding his potential to commit perjury.