Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen once tried to organize a photoshoot with Mark Cuban to make his boss jealous.
Magazine mogul David Pecker finished giving evidence at Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan Friday where he revealed the anecdote about Cohen, who had been his point of contact at Trump Tower since 2007.
He said the now-disgraced and disbarred lawyer – expected to be one of the star witnesses against Trump at the trial – asked the former National Enquirer boss to send paparazzi to a summer 2016 meeting with the “Shark Tank” star.
Trump attorney Emil Bove asked if the photo op was designed to “put pressure on President Trump to treat Cohen differently” during cross-examination.
Pecker said Cohen never said that to him — but ultimately admitted such photos would do that. However it doesn’t appear photos of Cohen and Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban were ever published.
Pecker, who has testified he engineered deals and bought up stories damaging to Trump costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, also admitted on the stand he felt Cohen was prone to exaggeration.
Cohen left the Trump Organization on Trump in 2018 and became one of the then-president’s biggest detractors.
He was later sentenced to three years in federal prison after admitting lying to US congressional committees.
Elsewhere under cross-examination Pecker insisted he’d “been truthful to the best of my recollection.”
He also stuck to his story about paying off and silencing Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal despite Bove’s attempts to poke holes in his testimony.
Meanwhile Trump, 77, griped Friday before court he was spending his wife Melania’s birthday in the at the trial.
After Pecker two more witnesses were called.
Former Trump assistant Rhona Graff testified she once seen porn star Stormy Daniels at Trump Tower, and “office chatter” was she was being considered for a spot on “Celebrity Apprentice” which Trump used to host.
However, as the court previously heard from Pecker, Daniels had other dealings with Trump after Cohen had bought her story of an alleged 2007 one night stand with him for $130,000 in a bid to keep it from being published.
Graff left the stand after 30 minutes and was followed by banker Gary Farro, who testified he helped set up a shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, for Cohen.
That company was later used in a failed bid to cover up the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and faces up to four years in prison.
Farro will resume his testimony when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
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