Michael Cohen keeps posting bizarre TikToks — including a livestream that showed Donald Trump behind bars — despite Manhattan prosecutors “repeatedly” pleading with him to stay quiet about the hush money case, it was revealed in court Friday.
The former president’s lawyers griped to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that Cohen should be muzzled — as their client is — after he went live on the social media app Wednesday night wearing an anti-Trump shirt.
“He’s wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of President Trump behind bars,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said about the footage after jurors in the criminal trial were sent home for the day.
“It’s becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness, but this witness has continued to talk,” he said.
Prosecutors admitted that they have pleaded with their star witness to stay quiet about the case — but that he’s blabbed about it anyway.
“We’ve repeatedly, repeatedly asked the witnesses not to do that,” Assistant District Joshua Steinglass said after Blanche asked the judge to expand the case’s gag order to stop Cohen from speaking out about the charges.
“The fact of the matter is, these witnesses are not subject to the gag order and we have no remedy if they engage in those activities,” Steinglass added.
At Trump’s lawyers’ request, Merchan directed prosecutors to “communicate to Mr. Cohen — yet again — that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case” or about Trump.
“That comes from the bench and you are communicating that on behalf of the bench,” the judge added.
The edict comes as Cohen, 57, is expected to take the stand Monday to detail his role in paying — allegedly at Trump’s behest — $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, to silence her story about having sex with the Republican.
Trump, 77, is barred by the court’s gag order from bashing Cohen, and has been fined $10,000 for publicly disparaging his ex-fixer, Daniels and the jury as a whole.
Cohen — who has done prison time for a campaign finance crime based off the same hush money payment — has repeatedly blasted Trump during the trial.
The now-disbarred lawyer worked as one of Trump’s closest advisors and eventually his personal attorney for 12 years.
Jurors, earlier on Friday, got a glimpse of how quickly their relationship soured in 2018 after Cohen — as part of a plea worked out with federal prosecutors — claimed that the real estate mogul had directed him to make the Daniels payoff.
Prosecutors showed an April 2018 tweet in which Trump defended his longtime loyal fixer, writing that the New York Times and its reporter Maggie Haberman “are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.”
In a follow-up, Trump praised Cohen for being a “fine person with a wonderful family” who “I have always liked & respected.”
But Trump changed his tune months later when Cohen pleaded guilty to a federal campaign finance crime for his role in the hush money scheme.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump wrote in an Aug. 21, 2018 Twitter post.
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — who observed part of Friday’s proceedings wearing a pinstriped suit in the first row of the courthouse gallery — says it will call Cohen and one other witness next week, before resting its case.
Trump will then be able to put on a defense case if he so wishes, and will have the right to testify.
On his way out of court, Trump lamented the gag order that bars him from speaking about witnesses and jurors.
“Everybody can say whatever they want,” he said.
“But I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody.”
“It’s a disgrace,” he added.
