Michael Cohen Claimed He Did This for Donald Trump at His Civil Fraud Trial in New York

Former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles have taken the spotlight once more as the New York Civil Fraud trial kicked off earlier this week. This comes amid his campaign for the upcoming 2024 presidential elections, which is already in full swing. While Trump battles away in court, fighting one legal matter at a time, his campaign team is working hard to garner support for him. Circling back to the trial, it began with the ex-president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, being called to the stand to testify as a witness. Cohen is commonly referred to as Trump’s alleged ‘Fixer’ throughout, given the allegations against him. Among a slew of revelations, this one was perhaps the most surprising.

According to CNN reports, he was cross-examined by Attorney Alina Habba at New York Court with regard to the information he possessed concerning the trial. The trial unfolded, with Cohen bringing to light numerous details about the case. However, what possibly no one present at court expected to hear was how Cohen was “ordered” by Trump to allegedly manipulate his net worth and financial statements. According to Forbes, the twice-impeached President is currently in the Billionaire’s Club and worth $2.6 billion, which, as per Cohen’s recent testimony, may be incorrect.

Cohen confessed that he and the former Chief Financial Officer [CFO] Allen Wiesselberg of Trump Org. were often responsible for “manipulating” financial statements. That’s not all; they also did the same for the documents pertaining to the trial.

Cohen mentioned that they would only succumb to it whenever Trump wanted to reflect a net worth of his choice. In his testimony, he explained in great detail how he and Wiesselberg would alter financial records to arrive at the desired net worth. He did so by using a few technical jargon in his statements. 

Cohen begins his testimony by stating, “I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected.” He continued to note the role he and Wiesselberg played. “My responsibility, along with Allen Weisselberg, was predominantly to reverse engineer the various different asset classes and increase those assets,” claimed Cohen. As mentioned earlier, it was all done according to Trump’s desires. In Cohen’s words, the task was undertaken "to achieve the number that Mr.Trump had tasked us with.”

Trump’s former attorney ended with a final confession in light of the aforementioned matter when he was asked the “kind” of numbers Trump would allegedly order them to put down. “Whatever number” Trump would assign them to cough up, they’d do without question, regardless of how difficult or possibly illogical it appeared to be, as per Cohen.

Prior to this recent testimony, Wiesselberg also offered his testimony, which was in complete contrast to what Cohen noted. The former CFO claimed that he “doesn’t believe it ever happened” and claimed to possess no memory of the same. The trial is set to continue on Wednesday, with more information to be uncovered.