The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Friday urged prosecutors to tell the former US president’s estranged former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to stop making public statements about the case before his expected testimony next week.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s defense lawyer in the case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, said Cohen, the star prosecution witness, had spoken on social media on Wednesday while wearing a T-shirt showing Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, behind bars.
Justice Juan Merchan suggested prosecutors tell Cohen that the request to refrain from public statements “comes from the bench.” He spoke at the close of the 15th day of the first criminal trial of a sitting or former US president.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said they would pass along the message. Cohen’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s comments or the timing of his expected testimony.
Cohen’s highly anticipated testimony against his former boss – a man he once said he would take a bullet for – is crucial to the prosecution case.
Trump is accused of fudging his family real estate company’s records to cover up Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she alleges she and Trump had in 2006.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies having sex with Daniels, 45.
Merchan has fined Trump $10,000 for running afoul of a gag order restricting his public statements about witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case, and warned the former president he may jail him for future violations.
