NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney Michael Cohen testified Monday that “the boss” played a hands-on role in paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to quash her story about a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump and to conceal the nature of the payments.
Mr. Cohen said at one point that he tried to delay payment to Ms. Daniels until after the 2016 presidential election.
“Because after the election, it wouldn’t matter … according to Mr. Trump,” Mr. Cohen said.
The boss reconsidered as pressure mounted, Mr. Cohen said, and Mr. Trump told him: “Just do it.”
Mr. Cohen’s narrative is key for prosecutors who accuse Mr. Trump of orchestrating the Daniels payoff and concealment and say he should be found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with the intent to commit election and financial offenses.
Mr. Cohen’s testimony capped his stunning evolution from a loyal attorney who sought kudos from Mr. Trump to the foremost detractor of the former president, who faces a rematch with President Biden in November.
He described his tenure at the Trump Organization from 2007 to 2017 as “fantastic” and like being part of a “big family.” His testimony in the criminal trial on Monday finalized his messy divorce from Mr. Trump.
Defense attorneys are expected to rough up Mr. Cohen on cross-examination by pointing to his criminal record, history of lying and personal animus for Mr. Trump. It will likely be the nastiest and most intense part of the trial.
They will cast Mr. Cohen as a rogue actor who paid Ms. Daniels on his own and demanded fees while Mr. Trump was carrying out his presidential duties in 2017.
Under questioning from prosecutors, Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump was a “micromanager” who was dialed into efforts to catch and kill unflattering stories. His fixation on media coverage resulted in an August 2015 meeting with tabloid executive David Pecker at Trump Tower, according to testimony.
Mr. Trump and his allies felt Mr. Pecker’s National Enquirer magazine had a lot of power, given its visibility in checkout lines at supermarkets and bodegas. Efforts to run positive stories about Mr. Trump and negative portrayals of opponents “would be beneficial” to Mr. Trump’s presidential bid, Mr. Cohen said.
Mr. Cohen worked with the tabloid to quash a Trump Tower doorman’s unsubstantiated story about Mr. Trump having a love child. Playboy model Karen McDougal floated a story about an affair with Mr. Trump, sparking an emergency meeting between Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump, according to testimony.
“His response was ‘She’s really beautiful,’” Mr. Cohen said of his chat with Mr. Trump. “I said, ‘OK, but right now there’s a story that’s being shopped.”
Mr. Cohen worked with tabloid executives at American Media Inc., which agreed to secure Ms. McDougal’s story for $150,000 and offer her writing opportunities.
After that, while Mr. Cohen was vacationing in London, he learned of a bombshell: The press was all over leaked audio from “Access Hollywood” in which Mr. Trump spoke about grabbing women by the genitals, sparking around-the-clock media coverage one month before the election.
Around that time, Ms. Daniels resurfaced her story about a sexual encounter in Lake Tahoe a decade earlier.
“Women will hate me. Guys, they think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign,” Mr. Trump said, according to Mr. Cohen’s testimony.
Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump was motivated by the 2016 election, which he won, and not the idea that his wife, Melania Trump, might hear Ms. Daniels’ story.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” Mr. Cohen said.
Mr. Cohen said he brainstormed ways to make the $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels with Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, but they ran into dead ends.
“I ultimately said, ‘OK, I’ll pay it,’” Mr. Cohen said, adding that Mr. Trump assured him he would be reimbursed.
Mr. Cohen said he leveraged a line of home equity to make the wire payment through First Republic Bank, using an LLC he created.
“Everything required Mr. Trump’s signoff,” Mr. Cohen said. “On top of that, I wanted the money back.”
Mr. Cohen is supposed to be the second-to-last witness for the prosecution. Prosecutors signaled they would have one unidentified witness before turning over the trial to the defense. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump will testify, but legal pundits say it would be unwise.
Mr. Weisselberg has been mentioned frequently during the trial but isn’t expected to testify. He is in jail over a separate issue tied to Mr. Trump’s legal troubles and would unlikely be helpful to prosecutors because of his generous separation agreement with the Trump Organization.
Still, it is an issue for prosecutors because they must explain Mr. Weisselberg’s absence to the jury.
Ms. Daniels testified about the alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump earlier in the trial. She described in detail the hotel suite in Lake Tahoe and how she was caught off guard by the physical encounter after a thoughtful conversation about her background and the adult film industry.
The former president denies the sexual encounter. Mr. Cohen said he asked Mr. Trump whether Ms. Daniels’ accusation was true, though Mr. Trump never really answered.
Previous witnesses said Mr. Cohen was offended that Mr. Trump went to Washington without him.
Mr. Cohen said he didn’t think he was qualified for lofty administration roles, though he wanted to be named “personal attorney to the president.”
By the end of 2016, he had another pressing issue: The bonus in his Christmas card had been cut by two-thirds from the prior year.
“I was truly insulted,” Mr. Cohen said.
He complained to Mr. Weisselberg, leading to an effort to make Mr. Cohen whole for his bonus, payment to Ms. Daniels and other expenses. The money would be paid over 12 months and be “grossed up” to help Mr. Cohen be made whole after taxes.
Mr. Cohen turned against his former boss during a cascade of investigations during the Trump presidency. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges of fraud and campaign finance violations. He served prison time and is still on supervised release.
Some Americans know him from his star turn before Congress in 2019, when he called Mr. Trump a “con man.”
Early in his testimony Monday, Mr. Cohen was asked to point out his former boss in court, the only real interaction they had in the courtroom.
Mr. Cohen, standing up to see his former boss over the corner of the judge’s bench, said: “He’s wearing a blue-and-white tie.”