New York: Jurors heard a recording of his voice. They saw a picture of his face. And on Monday, as Donald Trump's criminal trial enters its fifth week, they will finally meet him: Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer and the prosecution's star witness.
Cohen, once Trump's loyal attack dog and now his dedicated antagonist, will take the stand in the first criminal trial of a US president.
Already, jurors have heard how, in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid $130,000 (Rs 1.08 crores) in hush money to a porn actor, silencing her story of a sexual encounter with Trump.
He is expected to testify that he did so at Trump's direction. He is also likely to say that, once Trump was in the White House, the president reimbursed him after the two met in the Oval Office in February 2017. And he will almost certainly confirm the crux of the prosecution's case: that Trump orchestrated a plan to falsify records that disguised the reimbursement as ordinary legal expenses.
The Manhattan district attorney's office, which is expected to conclude its case against Trump this week, has charged the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He faces probation or up to four years in prison.
Cohen's testimony comes with considerable risks for the prosecution. He is an unpredictable witness, prone to both tirades and charm, and since the trial began, the defense has labeled him a liar motivated by a deep-seated desire for revenge. He is also, as the defense is fond of noting, a felon: In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal crimes, some related to the hush-money payment.
Trump has called him a "rat." Cohen has compared Trump to a "mob boss" and insulted him repeatedly on TikTok in the midst of the trial, prompting Judge Juan M. Merchan to warn Cohen last week to stop commenting on the case.
For weeks, prosecutors have been preparing the jury for Cohen's outsize personality, eliciting testimony from witnesses who have little love for the former fixer. A portrait has emerged of a harried, bullying errand boy, willing to do whatever it took to please the man whom in 2016 he had typically referred to as either "the boss" or "Mr. Trump."
Here's what else to know about the trial:
Prosecutors are offering Cohen nothing in return for his testimony. Unlike a traditional cooperating witness who trades testimony for leniency, he has already spent more than a year in federal prison. Still, he has plenty at stake. Cohen has cast himself as an anti-Trump crusader, dedicating two books, a podcast and countless television appearances to seeking what he once called a "way to right some of the many wrongs I committed at his behest."
Last week, Stormy Daniels, the woman to whom Cohen paid the hush money on Trump's behalf, took the stand, with gripping testimony that took jurors inside the Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel suite where she said she and Trump had sex. Daniels was then cross-examined by the defense, which sought to portray her as a lying opportunist. Trump denies that they had sex.
Monday will mark the beginning of the fifth week of the trial, and the fourth of testimony. Prosecutors have called 18 witnesses; Cohen will be the 19th, and the final big-name witness. After prosecutors rest their case, Trump's lawyers will be allowed to call witnesses, but they do not have to. Once testimony has concluded, both sides will make closing arguments and then the case goes to the jury.