Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, testified Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on behalf of the former president.

Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned opponent, spent about three hours answering questions in the secret proceedings. He is scheduled to return again on Wednesday for more testimony, his lawyer said as the couple emerged from the courthouse.

Michael spent a long and productive afternoon answering all questions, all facts and being completely responsive, said Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis.

The testimony comes at a critical time as the Manhattan district attorney’s office considers indicting Trump over payments made during his 2016 campaign to two women who alleged affairs or sexual encounters with him.

Before entering the courthouse for the hearing, Cohen, who orchestrated those payouts, said his goal was simply “to tell the truth, rejecting any suggestion that he might be motivated by a desire to see Trump behind bars.” .

This is not revenge,” he said. “This is all about accountability. He must be held accountable for his dirty deeds.

Trump denies involvement with any of the women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal.

Michael Cohen pleads guilty, says he coordinated hush money with Trump to influence election

Cohen provided evidence to prosecutors, including voice recordings of conversations he had with a lawyer for one of the women, as well as emails and text messages. He also has recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump discussed a settlement to pay the other woman through the supermarket magazine The National Enquirer.

Prosecutors appear to be looking into whether Trump committed any crimes in how the payments were made or how they were accounted for internally at Trump’s company, the Trump Organization.

One possible charge is falsifying company records, a felony unless prosecutors can prove it was done to cover up another crime. No former US president has ever been charged with a crime.

Trump allegedly told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. His own choice of Attorney General testified that that is a crime

Appearing Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Trump attorney Joseph Tacopina said it was unlikely the former president would accept an invitation from prosecutors last week to testify before the grand jury.

We have no plans to participate in this proceeding, Tacopina said. It is a decision that has yet to be made. No deadline has been set, so we’ll wait and see.

He characterized Trump as a victim and said he was pressured to make the payment to Daniels.

This was a clear racketeering and I don’t know since when we decided to prosecute victims of racketeering,” Tacopina said. “He has vehemently denied this affair. But he had to pay money because there was going to be an accusation that would embarrass him publicly, regardless of the campaign.

Daniels and the attorney who helped arrange payment for her, Keith Davidson, have both denied extorting anyone.

Michael Cohen’s memoir, an overview account of Trump’s alleged role in the hush money scandal

Tacopina also accuses the Manhattan district attorney of prosecutorial misconduct, writing in a letter to the New York City inspector general that prosecutors are trying to hinder Trump’s chances in the 2024 presidential election. Tacopina asked the city’s Department of Investigations to investigate an overtly political prosecution.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Trump’s lawyers have tried several times to get judges in New York and Florida to intervene in or stop investigations of Trump and the Trump Organization, arguing that they are politically motivated. All those attempts have failed.

Cohen was in jail after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging payouts to Daniels and McDougal to keep them from going public. He is also suspended.

Trump’s lawyers could point to those factors in an attempt to undermine Cohen’s credibility, if the former president is indicted and Cohen is tested at trial.

Cohen has had regular meetings with Manhattan prosecutors in recent weeks, including a day-long Friday session in preparation for his grand jury appearance.

Michael Cohen describes a culture of crime surrounding Trump

The panel has been hearing testimony in some Manhattan since January

District Attorney Dist. thoughtful

Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has called the next chapter of his agency’s years-long Trump investigation. But the hush money payments, perhaps the most salacious of Trump’s avenues of investigation, are familiar territory.

Federal prosecutors and Bragg’s predecessor in the

DA’s Attorney

office, Cyrus Vance Jr., each examined the payments but did not charge Trump.

Cohen declined to comment to reporters as he left the meeting, saying he would now take some time to keep quiet and let the district attorney build their case.

Trump continued to lash out at the investigation on social media on Friday, calling the case a scam, injustice, ridicule, and full and total weaponization of law enforcement to influence presidential elections!

Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company recorded the fees as legal fees.

McDougal’s $150,000 payment was made through the publisher of the National Enquirer, which suppressed her story in a journalistically dubious practice known as catch-and-kill.

According to federal prosecutors who indicted Cohen, the Trump Organization then grossed up Cohen’s compensation for the Daniels payment for tax purposes, netting him $360,000 plus a $60,000 bonus, for a total of $420,000.