Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's one-time fixer and the star prosecution witness in the former president's criminal trial, testified Monday that he lied and bullied for his ex-boss whom he said told him to cover up an affair.
Cohen told a jury in Lower Manhattan that Trump was unconcerned about how news of his alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels would go over with his wife Melania, but that he was deeply concerned about how it would play out on the 2016 campaign trail.
"This is a disaster, a total disaster," Cohen claimed Trump told him, per Inside Edition. "Women will hate me. Guys will think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."
Cohen also said Trump warned him that there would be "a lot of women coming forward" with similar stories.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee in this year's race faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments meant to stifle embarrassing stories from surfacing in the final days of the 2016 campaign.
It's alleged that a $130,000 payment made to Daniels just prior to the election was part of the scheme. Prosecutors claim that Trump falsified records about the payment to "conceal criminal activity."
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels.
Cohen, who served a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, is "by far the prosecution's most important witness," according to The Associated Press.
"Cohen's testimony, which continues Tuesday, is crucial to prosecutors because of his direct communication with the then-candidate about embarrassing stories he was scrambling to suppress," the AP reported. "Cohen also matters because the reimbursements he received from a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels, which prosecutors say was meant to buy her silence in advance of the election, form the basis of 34 felony counts charging Trump with falsifying business records."