Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche is now trying to undermine the close relationship Michael Cohen said he had with Trump himself. He is asking whether Cohen did legal work not only for Trump, but also for his family and the Trump Organization. Then Blanche notes that Cohen did not have a legal retainer to do this work.
This is the first time today that I remember Blanche going straight at the prosecution's argument. Prosecutors have said that Trump's reimbursements for the hush money were fraudulently disguised as legal services, even though Cohen had no legal retainer. The point Blanche is seeking to make is: Cohen did legal work for years, and never had a legal retainer.
May 16, 2024, 3:41 p.m. ET
Jonathan Swan (https://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-swan)Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche is now showing the hush-money contract that Michael Cohen struck with Stormy Daniels. He gets Cohen to agree it’s a “perfectly legal contract.” He’s raising his voice to emphasize this point — to try to make the jury feel like this arrangement was business as usual.
Blanche raising his voice is confidence, as Brom pointed out a minute ago.
