Michael Cohen, Day 3

Trump New York Trial Diary, Entry #18

Good Morning:

Our latest video dispatch, from the second day of Michael Cohen’s testimony, is here:

Our latest episode of Trump’s Trials and Tribulations is available here:

Our latest written dispatch—written with the estimable Anna Bower, Tyler McBrien, and Katherine Pompillio—is available here. It opens:

You know today is going to be different, because Donald J. Trump enters wearing a blue and white diagonally striped tie. We haven’t seen that before. The day may actually mark the beginning of Trump’s blue period: all of the male defense lawyers also have blue ties. It’s like there was a memo or something.

Per the hallway pool, a new member of Trump's entourage today: Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representing Staten Island since 2021.

A reporter shouts "Nicole!" at her, but she doesn’t answer any questions.

Also spotted in the hallway milling about, according to other reporters: Author-turned-Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Football Coach-turned-Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). 

It’s 9:22 a.m. when Trump walks in, entourage in tow, maybe his largest yet: Eric, Alina Habba, Tuberville, Vance, Malliotakis, Boris Epshteyn, and more. His defense team, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Susan Necheles join him.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg takes his seat now too. Epshteyn, who usually slings a large arm over an empty pew seat next to him, is jammed in between two members of Trump's entourage.

And now it’s resplendent in robes time. Justice Merchan sweeps in with unusual grandeur, his robes trailing behind—resplendently, of course—the judicial authority which emanates from the very being trailing slightly behind as well and catching up to surround him as he reaches his black chair.

And today’s #BeastOfTheDay, a rescued flying fox munching some grub while being groomed for parasites, is available here:

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Cohen has held up well so far. His interrogator, defense lawyer Todd Blanche, has come off as a whiny nudnik. Blanche’s opening line of questioning actually featured this exchange (I swear I am not making this up):

"Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche," he begins. “You and I have never spoken or met before; have we?”

“We have not,” replies Cohen.

“But you know who I am; don’t you?” I do.

“As a matter of fact, on April 23rd, so after the trial started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a ‘Crying Little Shit,’ didn’t you?”

Blanche says this with some real venom.

"Sounds like something I would say," Cohen spits back.

 An objection is sustained.

This prompted the judge, in a sidebar conversation, to admonish Blanche: “Please, don’t make it about yourself.”