Trump’s Claim That Michael Cohen Recanted Stormy Daniels Accusations Points to Longshot Strategy for Reversal

President Trump’s declaration that his former fixer, Michael Cohen, has recanted his testimony in the Stormy Daniels hush money case could amount to a new strategy to end his status as a convicted felon. The 47th president posted to Truth Social last week that Cohen’s “Act of Bravery is a Great Credit to the Justice System in New York City and State. I am sure it was not easy for him! Now we are asking that any remnant of those Politically Weaponized Cases against me be immediately terminated and dismissed.”No other public statement indicates that Cohen has recanted his testimony. The lawyer was a crucial witness for Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, in his successful push in 2024 to convict Mr. Trump on all 34 counts for falsification of business records. Those “guilty” verdicts were transformed to felonies from misdemeanors after the jury concluded that the falsifications were committed in the service of a second crime.Cohen testified that he facilitated some $130,000 in payments to Ms. Daniels, who is an adult film performer, from Mr. Trump. In 2018 Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court to eight criminal charges stemming from those payments. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a further count of lying to Congress. He spent about a year and a half in prison, part of it during the COVID pandemic. Mr. Trump called Cohen, who had been a longtime employee, a “rat” and a “liar.”Cohen has called his former boss a “cheat,” a “con man,” and a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain.” Last month the allies turned antagonists engineered something of a détente, with Mr. Trump appearing on Cohen’s radio show. For the occasion, the host played the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” Mr. Trump told Cohen, “They weaponized a lot of people, and I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said.” Cohen’s testimony was not part of a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.Cohen, though, appears to deny that, telling CNN on the same day that Mr. Trump phoned in, “What was said is said, and that’s where I stand with it.” Having formerly declared that he would “take a bullet” for his boss. At the lawyer’s criminal sentencing in 2018 he explained that “My weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to Donald Trump” and that “time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”Mr. Trump has launched a dual-track strategy to overturn his convictions. He has argued that his appeal belongs in federal rather than state court because it concerns his time as president — some of the checks to Ms. Daniels were signed in the Oval Office, and he spoke about the matter while he was president. A federal judge, Alvin Hellerstein, has thrice rejected that argument, as has the trial judge, Juan Merchan. Judge Hellerstein, 92, has ruled that payments to an adult film performer are not within the ambit of a president’s official responsibilities. The federal removal statute mandates that a federal official is entitled to a federal forum if the underlying action was undertaken “under color of office.” Judge Hellerstein wrote, “There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President’s relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act.”Mr. Trump is also appealing his convictions within New York’s courts. Both he and Mr. Bragg have made their arguments to the Empire State’s immediate appellate tribunal, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court. While state law allows for a verdict to be overturned if a witness recants, such a reversal is not automatic. A judge is empowered to hold hearings to weigh the reasons for recantation and to assess the credibility of the witness.One of the seminal New York state cases on recanted testimony was decided more than a century ago, in 1916. In The People of the State of New York v. Oresto Shilitano, the defendant was convicted of three first degree murders. Several witnesses subsequently recanted their testimony. The court, though, ruled that bare recantation does not automatically warrant a new trial unless it is accompanied by other evidence of misconduct.

Trump’s Claim That Michael Cohen Recanted Stormy Daniels Accusations Points to Longshot Strategy for Reversal

Trump’s Claim That Michael Cohen Recanted Stormy Daniels Accusations Points to Longshot Strategy for Reversal

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