Judge says Michael Cohen may have committed perjury, refuses to end his probation early

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge suggested Wednesday that Michael Cohen committed perjury under oath, giving fresh support to former President Donald Trump’s claims that his onetime personal lawyer — poised to be a star prosecution witness at his upcoming New York criminal trial — is an untrustworthy liar.

Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan questioned Cohen’s truthfulness in a written order denying his request for early release from the court supervision that followed his three-year prison sentence for crimes including tax evasion, lying to banks and Congress and violating campaign finance laws.

Furman cited Cohen’s testimony at Trump’s civil fraud trial in a Manhattan state court last October. On the witness stand, Cohen insisted he wasn’t actually guilty of tax evasion even though he pleaded guilty to the charge in 2018. Asked if he had lied to the federal judge who accepted his guilty plea, Cohen said, “Yes.”

“Cohen repeatedly and unambiguously testified at the state court trial that he was not guilty of tax evasion and that he had lied under oath” to the late Judge William H. Pauley III, Furman wrote.

He said Cohen’s testimony “gives rise to two possibilities: one, Cohen committed perjury when he pleaded guilty before Judge Pauley or, two, Cohen committed perjury in his October 2023 testimony.”

“At a minimum, Cohen’s ongoing and escalating efforts to walk away from his prior acceptance of responsibility for his crimes are manifest evidence of the ongoing need for specific deterrence,” Furman wrote as he explained why he left in place the court supervision that is scheduled to end later this year.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly attacked Cohen’s credibility, saying he “committed MASSIVE PERJURY” in the civil fraud case “at a level seldom seen on the stand before.”

Trump, who was accused in the case of lying about his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals, reacted after Cohen backtracked from initial testimony that Trump had directed him to boost the value of assets to “whatever number Trump told us to.”