'I f***ing hope Trump ends up in prison:' Trump's defence plays Cohen's recording, questions his credibility

DonaldTrump'slawyers on Thursday (May 16) played a recording in the courtroom showing his ex-lawyer Michael Cohensaying“I truly f***ing hope that Donald Trump ends up in prison"in the ongoing hush money trial.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold and you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family,”Cohen says in the recording from a podcast he appeared on.

Cohen was one ofTrump'sclosest allies until 2016 but later turned on his former boss, allegedly after the former presidentdidn'toffer him any seat in his administration.

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Trump'slawyerToddBlancheonThursdayasked Cohentotalk about his"desire to work at the White House.”

Cohen said he wouldhave “liked to have been considered for ego purpose”as the White House chief of staff.

Trump'sdefence appeared to be trying to paint him as unreliable on the last day of theweek'strial.

Blanche suggested he lied under oath as he accepted a guilty plea for campaign finance violations and tax evasion in 2018.

Cohen eventually admitted he was told by the authorities his wife wouldbe indictedif he didn't accept the plea deal within 48 hours.

“Ielected to protect my family,”he concluded.

“You felt that you were induced or put under pressure because you were given two days, correct?”Todd Blanche asked.

“Correct,”Cohen answered.

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After pointing questions onCohen'scharacter and credibility, Blanche then accused Cohen of lying on the stand.

He claimed he gave false testimony earlier this week regarding the claim that he talked to Trump on the phone on Oct. 24, 2016, and updated him on his efforts to secure the rights to porn starDaniels'story.

Blanche showed Cohen two seriesof text messages from that evening. The first showed an exchange between him and a person who had been prank-calling him. Cohen threatened to turn him, who turned out to be a 14-year-old, into the Secret Service.

"Ididn'tdo it,I'm14, pleasedon'tdo this,"the person said, according totoday'stestimony.

Then, Blanche showedCohen'stext messages withTrump'sbodyguardKeithSchillerrelatedtothe exchange he just hadwith the teen.

Blanche alleged that Cohen was talking toTrump'sbodyguard that day and he was lying when he said he spoke to Trump about the Daniels deal.

"That was a lie, because you were actually talking to Keith Schiller about the fact that you were receiving harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old, correct?",Blanche said.

"Now your memory is that you, testifying truthfully, that you had enough time in a 1 minute, 36 second phone call to tell Mr. Schiller about being harassed by a 14-year-old,"and to update Trump, Blanche asked.

Cohen said he did.

"Ialways ran everything by the boss immediately, and in this case it was saying,'Everything'sbeen taken care of,it'sbeen resolved,'"Cohen said.

(With inputs from agencies)