Judge Asks Michael Cohen to Stop Talking About Trump Trial on TikTok

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen arrives at the district attorney's office to complete his testimony before a grand jury in New York City on March 15, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

NEW YORK—At the end of a week of lively direct and cross-examination in the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, his lawyers asked Justice Juan Merchan to impose a gag order on Michael Cohen, the defendant’s former attorney and “fixer,” who they said has not refrained from attacking President Trump on social media despite repeated promises to do so.

Attorney Todd Blanche got up in the courtroom to argue that it was unfair for Mr. Cohen to attack President Trump constantly in a public forum while the GOP’s front-runner is himself subject to a gag order so strict that Justice Merchan earlier this week threatened to impose a jail sanction in the event of further violations.

But the government’s lawyer, Joshua Steinglass, promptly fired back at the defense, saying that prosecutors had already strongly urged Mr. Cohen to cease his antics.

“Judge, we have repeatedly instructed all the witnesses in this case to refrain from making public statements. The fact is, we have no control over what they do,” Mr. Steinglass said.

“The fact of the matter is, these witnesses are not subject to a gag order and we have no remedy if they engage in these activities.”

Judge Merchan instructed the prosecutors to tell Mr. Cohen, on the judge’s authority, to cease and desist these activities, but stopped short of imposing a gag order on President Trump’s former attorney.

Shrill Attacks

Mr. Cohen, whose name has come up constantly in the criminal trial now underway in lower Manhattan, has produced a series of short videos on TikTok mocking his onetime client and supporting the prosecution of President Trump.

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The videos feature impersonations of the 45^th president, commentary praising Justice Juan Merchan for moving the criminal case forward, and clips from Trump interviews that Mr. Cohen considers to lend support to the gag order barring the GOP front-runner from publicly commenting on known or foreseeable trial witnesses—an order that Justice Merchan last week found President Trump to have repeatedly violated, imposing a $9,000 fine.

While some of the commentary may find a receptive audience among Mr. Cohen’s nearly 300,000 TikTok followers, it has already sparked a backlash. Mr. Cohen has come under criticism for providing the defense material that they are certain to present when he takes the stand, in the hope of exposing him as a rabid Trump-hater with an obvious agenda.

Keith Naughton, the principal of Silent Majority Strategies, a Maryland-based political consultant, believes that Mr. Cohen would not enter the courtroom with any credibility even in the absence of the latest slew of videos. He believes that what these TikTok productions expose, above all, is Mr. Cohen’s vested interest in cultivating a high public and online profile in the vanishingly small amount of time in which he can still draw some residual celebrity from a connection to President Trump.

“Michael Cohen has been talking about this case not just on TikTok, but on other platforms and YouTube shows. I think he sees his time in the spotlight coming to an end, and is probably trying to cash in as much as possible,” Mr. Naughton told The Epoch Times.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/AFP)

The Videos

In a March 25 video, Mr. Cohen praised Justice Merchan for scheduling jury selection in the trial to begin on April 15, calling the occasion “A Bad Day For Donald … A Good Day for N.Y. and Justice!”

Two days later, Mr. Cohen released another video in which a guest mimicked the voice of President Trump saying “I’m going to go to jail, and it’s going to be okay, and I’m going to do it in your honor, quite frankly.”

Then, last week—just days before Justice Merchan’s April 29 ruling on the alleged gag order violations—Mr. Cohen posted a clip of an interview in which President Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and he’s got no credibility whatsoever.”

The implication was that President Trump had violated the gag order, which in its amended April 1 version expressly forbids the defendant from commenting on known or foreseeable witnesses in the case.

Some of these videos have gone viral, with their viewers far exceeding the number of Mr. Cohen’s reported TikTok followers. For example, the March 25 video extolling Justice Merchan netted more than 344,000 views.

In Mr. Naughton’s view, Mr. Cohen has not helped his own image by releasing videos that seek to portray him as a righteous warrior against his one-time client.

“He wants to portray himself as some kind of defender of democracy, but he looks more like a guy just grasping for attention and dollars,” Mr. Naughton said.

Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen looks on at court during a break in the former president’s fraud trial in New York on Oct. 25, 2023. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

Looking to November

In the event that Joe Biden wins in November and keeps the White House, interest in one of the countless public and semi-public figures who have lampooned and attacked President Trump in the run-up to the election will be faint to nonexistent, said Mr. Naughton. But if President Trump retakes the White House, things do not look better for Mr. Cohen.

“If Trump gets reelected, it will mean that the legal cases, and all that Cohen has been claiming—‘Trump is finished!’—failed. Plus, his testimony and cross-examination could be a disaster for him. I think he is trying to make the most of what is going on right now in case it is his last shot,” Mr. Naughton said.

“A lot of the anti-Trump left-wing legal analysts will be completely humiliated,” he added.

While Mr. Cohen may think he is helping foment support for the prosecution of President Trump in the current criminal case, and for a Biden victory in November, his antics may end up having the opposite effect, believes, John Feehery, a political strategist who once served as press secretary to Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

“Any time Michael Cohen makes news, it is bad for the prosecution, because Cohen is a notorious liar and anything he says will most likely be wildly fictional. His every utterance undermines his credibility, which will hurt the already weak case against Trump,” Mr. Feehery told The Epoch Times.

Mr. Cohen has admitted to lying under oath during a 2019 deposition before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In February 2019, lawmakers on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform referred Mr. Cohen to the Justice Department for perjury in connection with false statements he had made to the committee just one day before. On Wednesday of this week, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Oh.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sent a letter listing numerous examples of Mr. Cohen’s false statement to Congress.

“I can only guess that the reason he is opining on TikTok is because he wants to increase his visibility and his chances to make some money. This is his best chance to be a celebrity. He needs to make the most of it,” said Mr. Feehery.

Mr. Cohen did not immediately reply to a request for comment.