Five years after they last met in person, the former president and his self-described fixer were reunited in court on the most anticipated day yet in Donald Trump’s fraud trial.
The New York County Courthouse’s Roman façade and frescoed interiors have played backdrop to many iconic movies and television shows – perhaps, most famously, Goodfellas.
The scene inside the building today was very much real life, but the dramatic stakes were something straight out of cinema: the consigliere turning on his boss, the underling exacting revenge on the master.
Michael Cohen, the one-time personal lawyer for Mr Trump, took the stand on Tuesday to testify against his former boss in a high-stakes civil fraud case that could see the former president lose a portion of his famous real estate business.
The anticipation for this hearing was high. Though Mr Cohen has provided damaging testimony to prosecutors several times by now, this was the first time he had sat before Mr Trump while he did it.
“Heck of a reunion,” Mr Cohen quipped to reporters before walking in to face his boss.
Dressed in a blue blazer, Mr Cohen had ditched the tie but kept his signature hangdog expression and thick Long Island accent.
This being an actual court proceeding, not a cinematic one, there were no bombshell revelations or accompanying gasps from the audience. There was no spontaneous outburst from the defendants.
But over several hours, Mr Cohen provided damaging testimony that repeatedly tied his own actions, and the actions of all the employees at the Trump Organization, directly to Mr Trump.
Source: bbc.com
