Michael Cohen describes a hush-money deal
Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand yesterday to face attorneys from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Donald Trump’s legal team in the case against the former president.
Cohen told jurors he received monthly checks, most of which had the former president’s signature, that were purportedly part of a legal “retention” agreement but were actually from him to porn star Stormy Daniels Reimbursement of hush money paid to Daniels for claiming she had a sexual relationship with Trump. Cohen’s testimony is the first and only personal account linking Trump to key documents in the case.
In a series of questions, Trump’s lawyers sought to paint Cohen as an opportunist. Trump’s top lawyer Todd Branch pressed Cohen over his social media posts, his efforts to cash in on his feud with the former president, his own criminal history and his desire to see Trump behind bars .
analyze: My colleague Maggie Haberman writes that the defense appears to be trying to paint Cohen as “essentially a Trump stalker” — someone who was once obsessed with the former president and is now equally obsessed with revenge.
What’s next: Trump’s lawyers said they could call expert witnesses, but they have not yet decided whether to call Trump himself.
Other details: An appeals court upheld the judge’s gag order, a blow to Trump.
Russia expands purge of Defense Department
Russian security officials detained senior general Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov early yesterday on “massive” bribery charges, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia’s federal law enforcement agency. His detention comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly replaced long-serving Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Prosecutors said General Kuznetsov accepted bribes from “commercial interests” between 2021 and 2023 while working to protect state secrets. Prosecutors claim security agents found the equivalent of $1 million in cash and luxury goods when they searched his home.
UN adjusts Gaza death toll
The United Nations has begun pointing to the much lower death toll of women and children in Gaza and admits it has incomplete information about Israeli casualties during the war in the region.
The group has now killed 4,959 women and 7,797 children, down from at least 9,500 women and 14,500 children earlier this month. While the total number of casualties – about 35,000 – remained largely unchanged, a U.N. official said the organization was waiting for more identifying information on some 10,000 dead so they were not included in the new statistics.
background: The change comes as the United Nations switches to citing more conservative data sources. The change intensifies the debate over the figures’ credibility, although many international officials and experts say the figures are generally reliable.
Gaza: Israeli military leaders have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of a plan to govern the territory after the war.
More headlines
Housekeepers in Britain are still housekeeping, but not in the same way they once were. Today, the role isn’t just about polishing silverware and folding napkins, it’s also about lifestyle management, akin to a personal maître d’.
Customer requests can sometimes be unusual. “The client points to the shoreline and says, ‘I want to have dinner on the top of the mountain tonight—please make arrangements,'” said one experienced housekeeper. We called a local restaurant and helicoptered in dinner and table settings for six people.
Lived: Canadian author and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, widely regarded as a master of the short story, has died. She is 92 years old.
conversation starter
sports news
PGA Championship: Akshay Bhatia’s story begins in Valhalla.
Art and Thought
New York City Street Fight
New York City’s streets have always been bustling, but lately they’ve become almost uninhabitable.
Residents clashed over traffic, parking and garbage dumps. Cars and taxis compete for space, and buses swerve to avoid trucks parked in the bike lane. Electric bikes are everywhere. Today, far fewer pedestrians are killed by motorists, but last year was the deadliest year for cyclists since 1999.
“All of these things are trying to fit into the grid that was designed in 1811,” my colleague Dodai Stewart explains in the video. Relief may be coming: The city is about to enact the nation’s first congestion pricing plan, which will charge most drivers $15 to enter much of Manhattan below 60th Street.
