Sparks fly as Trump's defense lawyers confront Michael Cohn
Former Donald Trump's civil fraud trial grew tense this week when a defense attorney attacked the former president's one-time lawyer Michael Cohen.
According to the BBC, Wednesday saw a heated exchange between Cohen and Alina Habba, who attempted to cast doubt on Cohen's credibility and motivation.
Lawyer suggests Cohn is lying about Trump to make money
"You have made a career out of publicly attacking President Trump haven't you?" the BBC quoted Habba as saying to Cohen at one point.
When Cohen acknowledged that was in fact the case, Trump's lawyer then suggested that the witness had a financial incentive to embellish his stories.
"The more outrageous your stories are about President Trump, the more money you make?" she asked. Cohen responded by saying, "No."
The BBC noted that Cohen at one point appeared to grow frustrated with Habba's cross examination, saying, "I answered every question that you want, why are you screaming at me?"
"There is nothing wrong with calling a liar, a liar"
Later on, lead defense attorney Chris Kise caused fireworks when he declared that Cohen "admitted here today in open court that he lied."
The remark prompted an angry response from prosecutor Colleen Faherty, who accused Kise of engaging in "showmanship." For his part, Kise responded by insisting that "there is nothing wrong with calling a liar, a liar."
Cohen's testimony has not been the only trial source of drama, as NBC News reported last week that Judge Arthur Engoron became "livid" after it emerged that a post that Trump had deleted from Truth Social continued to be visible on his campaign website.
This was despite the fact that Engoron had previously imposed a gag order prohibiting Trump from making disparaging remarks about court staff.
"Last night I learned the offending post was never removed from a website. This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear [that] failure to comply will result in serious sanctions," Engoron said.
Trump threatened with jail time
"Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm. I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could possibly imprison him," the judge continued.
Kise attempted to defuse the situation, saying that the violation stemmed from a "truly inadvertent" oversight. He added, "It is unfortunate and I apologize on behalf of my client."
However, Engoron was unimpressed by that explanation and threatened the former president with jail time if the gag order is violated again.
