It was Cohen’s testimony in 2019 that sparked the investigation by New York authorities into whether Trump artificially inflated his net worth.
Donald Trump is set to appear in his New York civil fraud trial on Tuesday, where he will face Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and confidant. Cohen, who has become one of Trump’s most vocal critics, had planned to testify last week but had to delay due to health reasons. Trump is not required to attend the proceedings, but he has shown up sporadically and used his appearances to portray himself as the victim of a Democratic Party plot to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump and his two eldest sons are accused of inflating the value of the Trump Organization’s real estate assets to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family empire. Cohen, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer for years, has been taunting the former president on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of his testimony. Cohen’s testimony before Congress in 2019 sparked the investigation by the New York authorities into whether Trump artificially inflated his net worth.
Cohen is also expected to be a star witness in a criminal case facing the former president in New York for allegedly paying election-eve hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payment and has pleaded not guilty. Cohen was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison for crimes including the hush-money case and tax evasion, but was released after a little over a year and served the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
