After about five hours of withering attacks on Cohen’s character and credibility, Blanche finally began asking about some of the core allegations in the case.
He turned to testimony Cohen gave earlier this week, in which he said he spoke on the phone on Oct. 24, 2016, with then-candidate Trump, updating him on his efforts to secure the rights to Daniels’ story.
Blanche asked Cohen to recall that Cohen said he called Trump’s then-bodyguard, Keith Schiller, who put Trump on the phone.
Was the call on speakerphone, or did Trump pick up the phone? Cohen wasn’t sure.
Does Cohen remember what exactly they talked about?
“We talked about the matter, and it was resolved,” Cohen said.
Blanche showed Cohen two series’ of text messages from that evening. The first showed an exchange between him and a person who had been prank-calling him. Cohen threatened to turn the teen in to the Secret Service.
“I didn’t do it, I’m 14, please don’t do this,” the person said, according to today’s testimony.
Blanche then showed Cohen text messages with Schiller related to that exchange. Schiller told Cohen to call him, just before the phone call Cohen previously testified about.
Blanche accused Cohen of lying when he said he spoke to Trump about the Daniels deal.
His voice rising and the words coming fast, Blanche said: “That was a lie, because you were actually talking to Keith Schiller about the fact that you were receiving harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old, correct?”
Cohen said he believes he talked to Schiller about that, and updated Trump about the deal.
“Now your memory is that you, testifying truthfully, that you had enough time in a 1 minute, 36 second phone call to tell Mr. Schiller about being harassed by a 14-year-old,” and to update Trump, Blanche asked.
Cohen said he did.
“I always ran everything by the boss immediately, and in this case it was saying, ‘Everything’s been taken care of, it’s been resolved,'” Cohen said.