Trump Trial Week 4… Will the jury believe Michael Cohen?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump’s former lawyer takes the stand.
Former US President Donald Trump’s trial in New York is in its fourth week, where he’s accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He’s pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and also denies having a sexual encounter with Daniels.
This week, the man at the centre of those allegations - Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and right hand man - took the stand.
Anthony Zurcher, alongside the BBC’s US reporters, Kayla Epstein and Madeline Halpert, take a detailed look at Cohen’s evidence, and they also discuss why high ranking Republicans have been speaking outside the court in New York and why it could affect the Vice Presidential nomination. HOSTS: • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GUESTS: • Kayla Epstein, BBC reporter covering the trial in New York • Madeline Halpert, BBC reporter covering the trial in New York GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email Americast@bbc.co.uk * Or use #Americast
US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s new BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155.
This episode was made by Purvee Pattni with Rufus Gray. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It has been a dramatic week, probably the most important week in Donald Trump's criminal |
| 0:10.6 | trial. |
| 0:11.6 | Michael Cohen, who is Donald Trump's former lawyer, his fixer, the man |
| 0:15.0 | behind the scenes pulling the levers to get a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, he testified |
| 0:21.8 | for the entire week, first with the prosecutors and then being grilled |
| 0:25.1 | by defense attorneys trying to paint him as a liar motivated by revenge. |
| 0:30.5 | So the jury is going to have to decide is Michael Cohen this liar or is |
| 0:35.8 | the prosecution's assertion that yes he lied but he did so in defense of |
| 0:40.4 | Donald Trump and now he's telling you the truth which one is the jury going to believe let's listen to Michael Cohen not at the trial but talking about that before in an interview with CBS |
| 0:50.1 | Yes, I lied to Congress at the direction of in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald |
| 0:57.0 | J Trump. |
| 0:58.1 | And if there's anyone out there that thinks that that lie is going to prevent me from being the credible witness that I am |
| 1:05.0 | based on the documentation, the testimony, the emails, the recording, it's not going to happen. |
| 1:10.0 | Well, we'll see. It's up to the jury to decide whether he's a credible witness or not. We're going to |
| 1:14.9 | unpack all of that. I'm going to bring my BBC colleagues on this program to talk about what |
| 1:19.6 | it was like in the courtroom outside the courtroom. It's all of this dramatic legal events |
| 1:25.2 | were unfolding. |
| 1:26.5 | And we'll look at what it means for Donald Trump. |
| 1:29.2 | Welcome to Americaast in the courtroom. Americaast from BBC News. |
| 1:37.0 | The first ever criminal trial of a former president of these United States. |
| 1:40.0 | Trump is facing 34 felony charges related to so-called hush money payments to |
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