Michael Cohen swore he had nothing derogatory on Trump, his ex-lawyer says – another lie – as testimony ends

The prosecution and defense rested yesterday, meaning, to no one’s shock, that Donald Trump did not testify.

Trump had said he would, but it would have been judicial malpractice for his lawyers to expose him to a hundred different lines of interrogation.

Michael Cohen went into the hush money trial with a well-established reputation as a convicted liar.

We all knew he would be hammered on cross-examination for lying on behalf of Trump, lying to Congress, lying to investigators and lying to the press. That was baked into the equation.

CROSS-EXAMINATION THROWS MICHAEL COHEN OFF BALANCE, BUT BELABORS POINT THAT HE HATES TRUMP

But the lie he acknowledged on Monday is in a whole different category – and may be a turning point in convincing one or more jurors to dismiss him as a money-grubbing thief and vote for Trump’s acquittal.

The onetime fixer fixed up a nice deal for himself: stealing from the Trump Organization.

Yep, he did it, said Cohen. Yep, he lied about it. Yep, he gladly pocketed the money because he was angry about his bonus being cut.

This was a real Perry Mason moment – and an absolute failure by the prosecution.

On the other litany of lies, Alvin Bragg’s lawyers brought them up on direct examination, with the best possible spin, to soften the sting when Trump’s lawyers were grilling him.

But on this one? Nada. At first, I thought Cohen didn’t tell the prosecutors, but Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asked, "And you told multiple prosecutors in the District 13 Attorney's Office that story, right?"

"Yes sir."

So it was sheer sloppiness – an unbelievable failure.

And the narrative gets even sleazier.

The Trump campaign hired a tech firm called Red Finch to try to discredit unfavorable polls by CNBC and Drudge. The fee was $50,000.