Trump team claims Michael Cohen ‘collapsed’ under cross-examination but is that really the case?

On Thursday, the jury in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial heard how his former “fixer” and attorney Michael Cohen was bombarded with prank calls in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

It was Cohen’s complaint of these calls to Mr Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller in a 24 October 2016 phone call that Mr Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche used to try to undermine Cohen’s prior testimony as part of a fiery cross-examination.

The one-time Trump loyalist turned nemesis had previously testified that it was on that call that he told the then-2016 presidential candidate he had secured the $130,000 hush money deal to bury Stormy Daniels’ story about having sex with Mr Trump in 2006. The phone conversation that night lasted just one minute and 36 seconds.

While Cohen remained calm on the witness stand, Mr Blanche screamed accusations at him that he was lying to the jury about the contents of that call – suggesting that the prank calls alone were likely discussed.

Cohen meanwhile maintained that he believed he spoke to both Mr Trump and Mr Schiller on the phone – and insisted that the hush money deal was part of his discussion with the future president that night. Cohen has previously been convicted of perjury but defends himself from that accusation by noting he lied to protect Mr Trump.

Supporters of Mr Trump have framed this exchange as a victory for the former president that undermines the prosecution’s entire case regarding the 34 counts of falsifying business records in an illegal effort to conceal the true nature of his payments to Cohen: that they were reimbursements for hiding stories of alleged affairs from voters to boost his chances of winning the presidential election.

Mr Trump’s defense has focused its