Manhattan DA doubles down on Michael Cohen as star witness in ‘hush money’ trial, as Trump lawyers rip gag order bid

Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday pushed back on Donald Trump’s bid to keep Michael Cohen from testifying at the upcoming “hush money” criminal trial, arguing the ex-president’s attorneys will be welcome to grill his former fixer — when he takes the stand.

The argument from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg came a day after Trump’s camp ripped a proposed gag order that would bar the GOP presidential front-runner from attacking the case’s witnesses, the court’s staff and families as an “unconstitutional” bid to “assail” him.

“American voters have the First Amendment right to hear President Trump’s uncensored voice on all issues that relate to this case,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote about the proposed gag order, which would still let the former president slam Bragg.

Attorneys for Trump, 77, also argued in a recently filed motion that Cohen, whom they’ve blasted as a serial liar, should be barred from testifying at the trial — expected to start March 25 — “in order to protect the integrity of this court and the process of justice.”

But Bragg’s office shot back Tuesday that Trump’s claim “reads more like a press release than a legal filing” and was “intentionally inflammatory and totally meritless.”

Cohen’s statements about Trump’s alleged hush-money payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels will be backed up by corroborating evidence, prosecutors argued.

Trump’s former personal lawyer will admit on the stand at the upcoming trial that he “pleaded guilty to making false statements in the past,” the filing states.

But prosecutors “routinely” build cases around people who have committed crimes or have “engaged in other misconduct that may affect their credibility,” they added.

Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations stemming from the payoffs in a separate federal case.

He also admitted during Trump’s recent civil fraud trial — where the real estate mogul was ordered to pay more than $450 million after being found to have inflated the value of his assets — that he had lied to a federal judge at one of his appearances in that case.

Trump’s lawyers will get to confront Cohen during cross-examination about his past misdeeds, which is “more than sufficient to protect defendant’s rights and test the veracity of the people’s evidence,” prosecutors argued.

On the gag order issue, Trump’s lawyers want Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to deny Bragg’s bid to bar Trump from making — or directing others to make — disparaging public remarks about potential witnesses, court staff and the families of prosecutors in the case.

Trump would still be allowed to rip Bragg, an elected Democrat, under the DA’s proposed terms — and he’s likely to do so.

The Republican infamously sparked outrage last March when he threatened “death and destruction” if he was criminally charged in New York — and posted an image of himself holding a baseball bat next to Bragg’s head.

Trump also paid $15,000 in fines after he was found to have repeatedly breached a narrow gag order in his civil fraud trial that only barred him from disparaging the judge’s court staff.

Yet the proposed gag order in the hush-money case, which Bragg has called “narrowly tailored,” according to Trump’s camp would amount to what’s known as a “prior restraint” on his free speech.

“President Trump’s political opponents have, and will continue to, attack him based on this case,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The voters have the right to listen to President Trump’s unfettered responses to those attacks — not just one side of that debate.”

The legal grappling comes as jury selection is expected to kick off later this month in a trial over whether Trump falsified business records to cover up the payoffs to Daniels in order to hide a secret tryst from voters before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Unlike in his civil cases, he will be required to attend the criminal trial in Manhattan from start to finish.