You Won’t Believe Melania Trump’s Reaction to Access Hollywood Tape

Michael Cohen offered new insight Monday into Donald Trump’s infamous “locker room talk” defense about the Access Hollywood tape—and who allegedly came up with it.

While testifying on the stand in Trump’s hush-money trial, Cohen dished out details pertaining to the Access Hollywood tape that nearly tanked Trump’s chances at taking the White House in 2016. In the bombshell recording, Trump can be heard bragging about forcing himself on women, telling interviewer Billy Bush that he would “grab them by the pussy” and describing their bodies and the way he ogles at them with obscene language.

The tape’s release shocked the nation—so much so that media coverage of Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in 2016, fell to the wayside. But Trump’s campaign was salvaged by one line that continues to bolster disgusting, misogynist rhetoric employed by private citizens and public figures across America: It was just “locker room talk.”

“I don’t think you understood what was—this was locker room talk,” Trump said at the time in an aimless apology. “I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.”

But it wasn’t Trump who cooked up the campaign lifeline. Recalling a conversation he had with the former reality TV star, Cohen claimed that the spin actually came from Melania Trump.

“And the spin that he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended, or at least he told me that’s what Melania had thought, and use that in order to get control over the story and minimize the impact on him and his campaign,” Cohen testified.

Michael Cohen has not held back while testifying against his former boss Donald Trump.

Trump’s ex-fixer and attorney took the stand Monday in the former president’s hush-money trial in Manhattan and proceeded to show in great detail some very strong evidence against the former president.

Cohen told the court that he overheard Trump’s conversation with former tabloid magnate David Pecker about paying to suppress a story that Trump had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, debunking Trump’s assertions that he has no knowledge of any such payments.

Cohen also testified that he directly discussed an agreement to pay off McDougal with Trump, who was very happy to hear when it was finalized.

Early on in the trial, Cohen provided secret recordings of the former president discussing the financial particulars of the hush-money payments at the center of the case, showing the extent of Trump’s involvement in suppressing negative stories about himself in advance of the 2016 election. On Monday, Cohen authenticated one such recording regarding the payments to McDougal.

Cohen’s testimony has been eagerly anticipated by Trump’s critics as it could potentially damage the former president more than that of the other witnesses in the hush-money trial, as Cohen carried out the alleged hush-money payments on Trump’s behalf. Earlier in his testimony on Monday, Cohen testified that Trump didn’t use or have an email address out of fear that emails could provide documented evidence against him. Cohen’s testimony shows that such evidence existed in other forms anyway.

Trump faces 34 felony charges in the hush-money case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime for the payments, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Around the start of his 2016 campaign for president, Donald Trump warned his closest advisors that there would be a tidal wave of negative stories coming out about him—especially from women, his former fixer Michael Cohen said Monday.

While on the stand in Trump’s hush-money trial, Cohen recalled a revealing conversation he had with Trump just before he announced his campaign, in which the former reality TV star warned him that they could see a spike in sexual assault allegations.

“You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Cohen said Trump told him at the time.

And come forward they did. At least 26 women have accused Trump of touching them inappropriately, with some accounts dating back decades. Several have come forward into the public eye to advance their allegations against the three-time GOP presidential nominee, often risking the ire and relentless harassment of Trump’s cult-like following.

Yet just a couple have found relative success in holding him accountable. Writer E. Jean Carroll was the first woman whose case against Trump made it to a courtroom. She won big against Trump last May when a jury unanimously found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, awarding her $5 million in damages, and again in January when another jury decided he owed her $83.3 million for defaming her a separate time.

But her justice still hangs in the air. Trump has posted a $92 million bond to appeal the ruling, while Carroll has become a villain in Trumpworld, suffering relentless online vitriol slung by his frenetic base.

Trump has issued individual and blanket denials to the abuse allegations, often claiming that the women were paid to lie about the stories. Meanwhile, Trump was reportedly paying women including porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to stay silent about their sexual encounters.

Daniels is the only other woman to testify against Trump in a court. She gave bombshell testimony last week about her relationship with the former president and the payment she received to keep quiet about it. In fact, some of Trump’s other accusers have been contacting each other in light of Daniels’s testimony, discussing how much they related to her story.

Trump is accused of using Cohen to sweep an affair with Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Donald Trump doesn’t have an email address—because they’re just like a paper trail, says his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.

Cohen was called to the witness stand Monday morning in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan, and he quickly revealed the damaging details about how Trump viewed emails.

“Mr. Trump never had an email address,” Cohen said. He quoted Trump saying to him that “emails are like written papers. There are too many people who have gone down” because “prosecutors” had access to their emails.

Words like these are not how innocent people speak regularly, and this kind of revelation does not portend well for Trump for the rest of Cohen’s testimony, which has been eagerly awaited by Trump critics for its potential to be some of the most damaging to the former president.

Cohen allegedly made payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf to cover up their affair so it wouldn’t damage his run for president in 2016. Cohen has since cooperated with prosecutors not just in the hush-money trial but also spent more than 50 hours talking to investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation. Earlier in the hush-money trial, Cohen provided evidence that possibly destroyed Trump’s defense in the form of secretly recorded conversations of the former president showing that he had detailed knowledge of the payments to Daniels. Trump faces 34 felony charges in the hush-money case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime for the payments, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Cohen has made no secret of now holding disdain for his ex-boss, calling him “Von ShitzInPantz”and a “racist jackass who referred to African nations as ‘shithole countries.’” Trump is stewing over a gag order preventing him from attacking Cohen and other witnesses in the case, as well as court staff and their families.

Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified Monday that he regularly bullied and harassed people who posed a threat to his boss’s ambitions—and his efforts were all rewarded.

While on the stand in Trump’s hush-money trial, Cohen admitted that completing “the task” was the only thing that mattered while working for Trump, specifying that lying for him “was needed” and that bullying Trump’s opposition was also sometimes necessary “in order to accomplish the task.”

“The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task to make him happy,” Cohen said, adding that he was rewarded for the aggressive behavior by being given more power in Trump’s organization, including through job titles and seats.

Cohen described Trump as a “micromanager” who was aware of his every move and said that the pair spoke “every single day, and multiple times a day.” Other times, Cohen would communicate with Trump via one of his other close confidants, including his former assistant Rhona Graff, Trump Organization employee turned director of Oval Office Operations Keith Schiller, Trump’s children, or Hope Hicks.

Those admissions are not good for Trump’s legal team, who have attempted to frame the former president as an individual completely unaware of the behind-the-scenes actions intended to clean up his public profile ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Earlier this month, Hicks testified under subpoena that Trump understood it was prudent to bury the hush-money scandal before the election—even after Trump claimed he had no knowledge of the hush-money payments.

“Mr. Trump’s opinion was that it was better to be dealing with it now and it would’ve been bad to have that story come out before the election,” Hicks said.

Trump is accused of using Cohen to sweep an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.