Trump rails against Cohen's evidence in hush money trial

Former President Trump complained on Friday about a recording of a phone conversation between him and Michael Cohen that was played as evidence in his hush money trial.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the tape “was good for my case, but it was cut off at the end, right in the beginning of something very positive that I was about to say. Why was it cut off???”

During Thursday's hearing, prosecutors played a recording Cohen secretly made in September 2016 in which he speaks to Trump about a deal he made with former Playboy model Karen McDougal to cover up allegations that she had an affair with him about a decade before Trump was elected president.

On the tape, Trump can be heard asking how much the deal will cost. He asks “one-fifty?” – by which he apparently means $150,000.

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There is also a brief exchange between Trump and Cohen about whether the payment should be made in cash or by check. Trump wants to pay in cash, but Cohen refuses.

Doug Daus, a forensic analyst who has worked for years in the prosecutor's office, said Cohen's recording appeared to have been interrupted when he received an incoming call. But under cross-examination by Trump's lawyers, Daus acknowledged that his forensic analysis did not reveal an actual recording of that call.

Cohen is expected to testify as a prosecution witness in the trial. As a former Trump lawyer, Cohen has become an outspoken critic of the former president. However, Trump and his allies argue that Cohen is an unreliable witness.

Trump is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the New York case. The case is inherently salacious because it involves a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her from going public with her story of an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

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