Trump trial reside updates: Michael Cohen particulars key second of case

When Donald Trump sat down with his lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to discuss his plans to run for president in 2016 he had a simple warning.

‘You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,’ is how Cohen remembered the conversation.

During more than five hours of riveting testimony on Monday, Cohen described the extraordinary lengths he went to in keeping their stories out of the headlines.

He worked his contacts in the media, set up front companies and received invoices from businesses with meaningless names like ‘Investor Advisory Services.’

And in so doing the prosecution’s star witness added the one link missing from the past three weeks of evidence: He told the court that Trump told him to do it.

READ MORE BELOW

Cohen scurried out of Manhattan criminal court after testifying all day.

He is expected to take the stand again Tuesday, since the prosecution has not finished with their star witness.

The defense will then have an opportunity to try and poke holes in Cohen’s testimony, which could bleed into the latter half of the week.

Trump zoomed away from court minutes before 5 p.m. ET on Monday, the 16th day of his hush money trial.

Court is set to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, with his former ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen back on the stand for questioning.

Trump went on a long nearly six-and-a-half-minute rant at the conclusion of court proceedings Monday.

The former president said it’s a ‘terrible thing’ what’s happening to democracy with this case.

‘What’s going on in that courtroom is a threat to democracy and we cannot have a country where we get to prosecute your political opponents, instead of persuading voters.’

He started talking about dozens of ‘legal experts’ who have agreed with his position on the case.

Trump praised Senator JD Vance and Iowa state Attorney General Brenna Bird, who both accompanied him to court today.

He went on to lament being kept hostage for ‘three and a half, four weeks, instead of campaigning.’

‘There’s no problem here. You know the FEC wrote this off. … they took a pass they said there’s no problem here.’

‘It could have been brought six years ago, seven years ago, almost eight years ago. They bring it right in the middle of my presidential campaign.’

‘We have a corrupt judge,’ Trump went on, calling him ‘highly conflicted.’

‘And he’s keeping me from campaigning. He’s an appointed New York judge appointed, you know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He’s appointed. He’s a corrupt judge. And he’s a conflicted judge and he outta let us go out and campaign and get rid of this scam.’

Cohen spoke about a bank statement showing the $130,000 Stormy Daniels payoff that also has hand-written information he said was intended to make him whole financially.

The 2016 document has writing he says is both his and Allen Weisselberg’s. It has the ‘grossed up’ amoung, that allowed Cohen to avoid taking a tax hit when declaring the funds as income. He says he was in the 50 per cent bracket at the time.

Also included was a $60,000 bonus – Cohen said he was furious when he got a bonus of just two-thirds of what he got the prior year even while footing the money to pay off Daniels.

In addition, there was a notation about $50,000 he said was owed to Red Finch Consulting for some tech services for the Trump Organization.

(Cohen said he had already paid part of the funds from his own money. The prosecution asked why he then asked to get the entire $50,000 amount back. ‘Because that’s what was owed and I didn’t feel Mr. Trump deserved the benefit of the difference,’ was his response).

He said he, Weisselberg, and Trump all discussed the matter in Trump’s Trump Tower office. He said he suspected Trump and Weisselberg had already spoken about it in advance, calling it a ‘frick and frack type of game.’

The document showed how he would be paid back in monthly reimbursements.

‘It says $420k,000 divided by 12,’ with an equals sign, he said. ‘That’s 35,000 and that’s per month,’ he said of Weisselberg’s notations.

Trump signed off on it orally, he said. ‘He approved it. Said this is going to be one heck of a ride in DC.’

Cohen has testified that days before Trump moved to DC to become president in January 2017, he was in the president elect’s Trump Tower office with CFO Allen Weisselberg discussing how he was to be paid.

Weisselberg laid out that it would be done as a legal retainer and split over 12 monthly payments. Trump signed off on it, said Cohen.

‘He approved it and then said it’s going to be a heck of a ride in DC,’ he said.

This is the crucial bit of Cohen’s testimony, essentially saying that Trump knew and approved that the hush money payment would be noted down in company documents as payment for legal services.

That is a big line to end the day on.

Prosecutors appeared to try to get the jump on a defense play: that Cohen is lashing out as a spurned former aide who didn’t land a White House job despite helping steer Trump to the White House.

He said he wasn’t interested in a role as assistant general counsel. He would at least like to have been considered for White House chief of staff, at least for his own ‘ego.’

Eventually, he settled on a new role: personal attorney to the president.

The prosecution asked if he would be able to monetize his experience with Trump in that role.

‘Absolutely,’ he said. He said the role would give him entree with ‘consulting agreements to various different companies who wanted to understand Mr. Trump.’

He even brought in an attorney to pitch Trump on the idea, and eventually got it in January 2017, he said.

In one comment, Cohen revealed the complex scheme he undertook to disguess the Stormy Daniels payoff in his own household. Pseudonums, a new LLC, and an NDA might bury the story from public view. But while he was putting up the money himself, simply draining a family account wouldn’t do the trick.

His wife, Laura Shusterman, keeps an eye on the books, he said.

Cohen told the jury he decided to fund the $130,000 himself from his HELOC, or home equity loan, to keep it away from his wife.

He said: ‘My wife as chief executive of the household would not understand if there was $130,000 missing from out joint bank account,’ he said.

‘That would have been a problem for me. Once I received the money back from Mr Trump I would deposit it and nobody would be the wiser.’

Cohen testified about how key figures responded to a Wall Street Journal report that blew open the Karen McDougal story, after spending hours speaking about his role in ‘catch and kill’ matters.

Hope Hicks, who testified earlier, emailed Cohen with some proposed responses, which Cohen tersely described as an effort to ‘deny.’ She called the story ‘false’ and wanted to call out a ‘publicity-hungry individual.’

‘We have nothing to do with this final attempt by the liberal elite to disparage Donald Trump and stop this historic movement,’ was one of Hicks’ proposed responses, just hours before the election.

Cohen wrote back with his preferred language

‘Instead, say these accusations are completely untrue and just the latest despicable attempt by the liberal media and the Clinton machine to distract the public …’ Cohen advised.

Asked if Trump was angry during this frantic period of damage control that could surface the Stormy Daniels story, Cohen said ‘Yes. Because there was a negative story that could impact the campaign as a result of women.’

On October 27, 2016, Cohen wired $130,000 to Keith Davidson, Daniels’ lawyer.

On the wire transfer form, Cohen wrote that it was for a ‘retainer’. 

That was not true, Cohen said in court, and it was really to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about the alleged affair.

The contract was signed by Cohen and Daniels on October 28th and a copy was shown to the jury.

Cohen said he signed on behalf of Trump to ensure he wasn’t identified on the contract.

Trump was listed as ‘David Dennison’ while Daniels was listed as ‘Peggy Peterson’.

The trial has heard that fake names were to ensure their privacy in case the contract was leaked.

Michael Cohen testified that he did not identify Trump on account documents for one critical reason.

‘It was to protect him and isolate him from the transaction,’ Trump’s former ‘fixer’ said Monday.

He was discussing the Essential Consultants account he set up to transfer the Stormy Daniels hush money payment.

Cohen went on to say that all transactions ‘required Mr. Trump’s signoff.’

That’s an important point that prosecutors are hoping to hammer home to the jury to try and connect the former president to an alleged scheme.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger has repeatedly asked Cohen – a government witness – to state that he was untruthful when creating new entities to handle the Stormy Daniels payoff.

One instance came when he set up Essential Consultans, an LLC, as a legitimate business to receive the payments. The bank filled out a Know Your Customer form, which got entered as evidence in the trial.

Hoffinger asked Cohen if that business narrative was true or false.

‘It’s false,’ he said. Why wasn’t it true?

‘To hide the intent of the reason for opening Essential Consultans, which is to pay for a nondisclosure agreement,’ was how he put it. He said they probably wouldn’t have allowed it if he used the real reason.

Earlier, Hoffinger asked him why he didn’t give the true reason when contacting First Republic bank.

‘I’m not sure that they would have opened it if it stated: To pay off a adult film star for a non-disclosure agreement, he said with a chuckle.

‘And you understaood that, right?’ she asked Cohen, who served time after pleading guilty to lying to Congress and a campaing finance violation.

‘Yes, m’am,’ he said.

The move could prepare him for cross-examination that lies ahead.

On October 25, 2016, National Enquirer editor Dyland Howard text Cohen saying: ‘Keith calling you urgently. We have to coordinate something’.

Later the same day, Cohen called Howard and the tabloid magazine’s publisher David Pecker.

Cohen told the jury that Pecker said ‘we have to get this thing done’.

‘It will be catastrophic for the campaign. It will further isolate women from the candidate’.

Cohen then asked Pecker if he would pay the $130,000 to kill Stormy Daniels’s story.

‘Not a chance’, Cohen said was his response.

‘He didn’t get the money back on the $150,000.’ He also feared he would lose his job.

Cohen then made sure the story was ‘locked down’. The jury was then shown a serires of messages between him and the Enquirer executives related to the Daniels payments.

Cohen told the jury he decided to fund the $130,000 himself from his HELOC, or home equity loan, to keep it away from his wife.

He said: ‘My wife as chief executive of the household would not understand if there was $130,000 missing from out joint bank account

‘That would have been a problem for me. Once I received the money back from Mr Trump I would deposit it and nobody would be the wiser’

Cohen got asked during testimony about text he received from Melania Trump.

‘Good morning Michael. Can you pls call DT on his cell. Thanks,’ it read.

‘Of course,’ he responded.

Earlier in his testimony, Cohen said Melania Trump came up with the idea to refer to the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape as ‘locker room talk.’

He also spoke about asking Trump about how the Stormy Daniels matter would play with his wife.

‘I said to him, how’s things going to go upstairs,’ he said.

Trump has kept his eyes closed throughout large portions of Cohen’s testimony.

But at one point the 77-year-old seemed to nod off.

The former president’s head went down in front of him while his fixer spoke, and then snapped back up.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom

Michael Cohen is delivering on his status as the star witness.

While Stormy Daniels may have delivered a slew of risque headlines with her testimony last week about sleeping with Donald Trump, and Trump Organization pen pushers may have laid out the nuts and bolts of how the checks were signed, Cohen is threading it all together, describing his direct conversations with Trump about how to silence Daniels.

In one conversation, as their deal was falling apart, Trump told him he had spoken with friends who told him: ‘It’s $130,000, you’re a billionaire.’

His message to Cohen was: ‘Just get it done. There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it.’

Cohen said at one point Trump informed him he had consulted others about his predicament, with the Stormy Daniels story on the verge of going public weeks before Election Day.

‘He stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people. And that it’s 130,000. You’re a billionaire. Just pay it,’ Cohen said.

He summarized the advice. ‘There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Subdue it. And he expressed to me: just do it. Go meet up with [Trump Orgnization CFO] Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out.

He said when that meeting happened, ‘I ultimately said: I’ll pay it.’

But addressing a key part of the case, Cohen said he would never put up his own money pay for a non-disclosure agreement for someone else. ‘I was doing everything that I could and more in order to protect my boss… But I would not lay out 130,000 for an NDA needed by somebody else,’ he said.

Cohen explained an odd feature of the paper trail: why he created an LLC named Resolution Consultants for the Stormy Daniels payoff, then switched the name. The second iteration was called Essential Consultants.

‘It’s actually the name of a company of somebody I know out of state,’ he said.

‘I didn’t think he’d appreciate if [we] used the same name as his company.

Just back from a lunch break, Cohen spoke about an email chain with Keith Davidson about finalizing the Stormy Daniels payoff.

His overarching goal was to stall, knowing that Daniels’ allegations would be less threatening after the November election was concluded.

In an October 2016 message, Davidson told him: ‘You should have all the executed documents a few days ago. Talk to you tomorrow.’

‘My response. Yes it’s Yom Kippur, so the office is for all purposes closed,’ Cohen testified, telling Davidson he could reach him by cell.

Asked the purpose of his communications, Cohen responded, ‘Continued to delay – delay the execution of the documents.’

‘In this specific case, I used the holiday of Yom Kippur to once again try to delay it which is again, until after the election,’ he said.

Trump came back into court with a smaller group of cheerleaders than he arrived with this morning.

Sen. JD Vance and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis have taken up their seats in the second row of the courtroom.

Again he did not look at Cohen as he walked to the witness stand.

The morning session ended with Michael Cohen on the cusp of describing the details of the hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen whether he spoke to Trump about how the Stormy Daniels story was going over with Melania Trump.

‘I said to him, how’s things going to go upstairs,’ Cohen said, looking upward while describing a conversation he said happened inside Trump Tower, where Trump has a penthouse apartment.

Cohen said he was concerned. But Trump wasn’t.

‘Don’t worry. He goes … how long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long. He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign.’

Cohen testified about a meeting with Trump in his Trump Tower office amid porn star Stormy Daniels’ interview with TheDirty.com in 2011.

Cohen described the outlines of Daniels’ allegations about an affair dating to a 2006 golf tournament. Cohen was asked if Trump told him anything about having met the porn star.

‘He told me that he was playing golf with Big Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers star. ‘They had met Stormy Daniels and others there,’ Cohen testified.

Cohen cracked a smile when he described a boast by Trump where he stacked up well against the football player. ‘But she liked Mr. Trump and that women prefer Trump even over someone like Big Ben,’ he said.

He said Trump didn’t answer directly whether Trump and Daniels had sex. But Trump said she was a ‘beautiful woman.’ (Trump has called Daniels ‘horse face’ in tweets after she publicly accused him of the affair).

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom

Michael Cohen is describing how he heard on October 8, 2016, that Stormy Daniels was shopping her story around.

He knew about the story from when he got it taken down by a website in 2011.

He is asked what impact it would likely have on the campaign in 2016 with the election just a month away. ‘Catastrophic,’ he says, pausing for a beat.

‘This is horrible for the campaign.’

Cohen is describing a dramatic email chain when Trump’s camp learned about the infamous ‘Access Hollyood’ tape. ‘Deny, deny, deny,’ campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks wrote him.

‘Please call me,’ Cohen wrote Steve Bannon, who he misidentified as Trump campaign manager.

‘It’s all over the place. Whose doing damage control here?’ Cohen asked.

Asked why he would make such an inquiry, he responded, ‘In order to protect Mr. Trump.’

Asked if he was concerned about the impact on the campaign,’ he responded in the affirmative.

It was another effort by prosecutors to fill out his role with respect to the 2016 campaign.

Michael Cohen told the court it was Melania Trump who came up with advice to ‘spin’ the infamous Access Hollywood tape.

The fixer claimed to the jury that it was the then-future first lady who said it the clip of her husband saying ‘grab em by the p****’ should be dismissed as ‘locker room talk.’

‘He wanted me to reach out to all my contacts in the media. We needed to put a spin on this. The spin he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended or at least he told me that’s what Melania had though it was and use that in order to get control over the story and to minimize its impact on him and his campaign,’ Cohen testified.

Michael Cohen told the court how he went to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to get the money for Karen McDougal’s ‘life rights’.

Weisselberg said it would ‘defeat the purpose’ if the money came from the business.

The point was not to have Trump’s name affiliated with the story at all.

Cohen therefore asked Weisselberg to come up with other ways to provide the cash.

One of the ideas was to ‘come up with a LLC’ or limited liability company to facilitate the payment.

This led to 10 or 12 conversations with Weisselberg about the McDougal transaction, Cohen told the court.

More from the Ohio senator who features on every list of Trump’s potential 2024 running mates.

Speaking outside court Vance said:

This guy (Cohen) is a convicted felon who admitted that he secretly recorded his former employer. I think his testimony will hurt with any reasonable juror, and hopefully we have a few of those.

Two other things here quickly. Number one, the thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace, is that every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative.

The judge inside, his daughter is making millions of dollars running against Donald Trump, raising money for Trump’s political opponents. The number three person in the Department of Justice left to become a local prosecutor to go after Donald Trump. And, of course there is Alvin Bragg, a Soros-funded prosecutor who promised to go after Donald Trump and is doing that.

Whether you love Donald Trump, or like him, or whether you are a Democrat or don’t care about politics, what’s going on inside that courtroom is a threat to American democracy. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot have a country where you get to prosecute your political opponents instead of persuading voters.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance led the press conference, starting off by slamming Cohen as a ‘convicted felon.’

‘Does any reasonable person believe anything Michael Cohen has said?’ he continued.

He went on to attack Judge Merchan’s daughter for profiting off the case and the top prosecutor in the case Michael Colangelo, who left Biden’s DOJ to prosecute Trump.

‘This is a threat to American democracy,’ Vance went on.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said Trump is getting ‘no respect’ in court.

‘This courtroom is depressing,’ he added. ‘This courtroom is the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen.’

Trump appeared much more lively when he returned to the courtroom after a short break.

The former president was seen shaking head and smiling dismissively when Cohen claimed he didn’t want to record any more than he did because it was enough to convince David Pecker he was going to get the money.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom:

Sen JD Vance spent the morning session live tweeting proceedings from the second row of the courtroom.

So although Trump cannot comment on witnesses, his supporters can … and did: ‘Michael Cohen admitting he secretly recorded his employer. Just totally normal conduct, right? The best part is he said he did it only once and only for Trump’s benefit. A standup guy!’

Vance and Trump’s other cheerleaders, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and the AGs of Alabama and Iowa, have not returned after the break

Trump’s entourage of political supporters have not entered the courtroom with him.

Like at other points during the trial, Donald Trump had his eyes closed for much of the testimony.

He looked straight at Cohen when he took the stand, but then he seemed to keep his reactions to a minimum.

The former president appeared to keep his head down as his former fixer detailed his work with National Enquirer to kill Karen McDougal’s affair allegations.

The jury has been excused and Michael Cohen has stepped down from the stand after the first part of his testimony.

After detailing the hush money deal made to kill Karen McDougal’s affair story, he is likely to be asked about what led to the payments to Stormy Daniels.

The court hears a secret audio recording Cohen made of a conversation about the Karen McDougal story.

The recording was secretly made on September 6th 2016 by Cohen as he was in discussions with the National Enquirer about buying up the rights to the story from Ms McDougal, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1998.

Before speaking to Cohen, Trump can be heard talking to somebody called ‘Pam’.

He says: ‘Maybe it would be better if you didn’t come. Because of this. It’s so false what they’re saying. Such b*******’.

It is unclear what Trump is referring to.

Cohen enters and says: ‘I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I’m going to do that right away’.

According to prosecutors, this was a company Cohen was setting up to pay the $150,000 back to the Enquirer, which would pay McDougal for her story.

In the end, he never did pay the money.

The ‘our friend David’ referred to David Pecker, who at the time was publisher of the Enquirer.

Cohen continues: ‘ I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,’ referring to the man who at the time was chief financial officer of The Trump Organization, Trump’s real estate business.

Trump replies: ‘So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?’

Cohen replies: ‘Yes. And it’s all the stuff’.

On the tape there is crosstalk between the two men and it is unclear who Trump is referring to when he says: ‘Maybe he gets hit by a truck’.

Cohen says: ‘Correct. So, I’m all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be…’

Cutting in, Trump says: ‘Listen, what financing?’

When Cohen says they will ‘have to pay him something’, Trump cuts in: ‘Pay with cash’.

To reassure him, Cohen says: ‘No, no, no, no, no, I got it’.

Donald Trump spent Mother’s Day having brunch at Mar-a-Lago where he was surrounded by supporters although not by members of his family.

There was no sign of his wife Melania Trump or son Barron Trump in the many videos and photos posted to social media on Sunday from the private club in Palm Beach.

Instead, Trump, wearing a bright yellow tie, ate at a table with Fox News’ Brett Baier and other guests. The former president had his iPad handy, which he likes to use to play DJ.

‘I hope that all of the incredible MOTHERS out there had an incredible day. You are the most special people of them all!!! ❤️Love, DONALD J. TRUMP, 45th President of the United States,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

He made no mention of Melania, but he did post the former first lady’s message to mothers.

Melania Trump is spending her first Mother’s Day without her mom. Amalija Knavs died in January.

‘I have never seen anything more rehearsed!’ Eric wrote on X in the middle of Cohen’s testimony.

He is seated immediately behind his father in the courtroom Monday.

Prosecutors took Cohen through the period where he learned about bombshell claims by former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal’s claims of an extended affair with Trump. ‘Boss I gotta talk do you,’ Cohen told Trump as he walked into his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, he recalled.

‘Come in,’ I went in

Cohen says he asked Trump if he knew who Karen McDougal was, or ‘anything about the story.’

‘His response to me was: ‘She’s really beautiful.’

‘I said, “Okay but there’s a story …”‘ Cohen testified.

That was just one early scene in a chain of events that would result in a $150,000 payment to McDougal. According to Cohen, ex-National Enquirer boss David Pecker would put up the money, but Trump told him, ‘I’ll take care of it,’ meaning he would pay him back.

Cohen is going through another infamous ‘catch and kill’ episode, this one involving a Trump Tower doorman who claimed ‘that there was a love child’ involving Trump.

Cohen said he heard about it from American Media Inc., after earlier speaking about his contacts with David Pecker and Dyland Howard, and testifying about what he called a plan to kill negative stories about Trump.

The story – which was never established as true – was about the doorman’s claim that Trump fathered a child with a Trump Tower housekeeper.

Cohen says he went to Trump ‘immediately’ to advise him ‘there was a negative story and to get his direction on what he wanted me to do.’

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom:

Michael Cohen’s delivery is considered, cautious, flat.

If jurors were expecting a ‘pants on fire’ type, or a ‘jerk’, as other witnesses put it, then they are not getting one.

And that is exactly why prosecutors were so happy to get previous witnesses to dish the dirt on him.

In doing so, they have ‘inoculated’ the jury against his worst points.

We know that Cohen is a convicted perjurer but the prosecution is hoping the jurors are all thinking: Oh, maybe he’s not so bad after all.

Donald Trump was over the moon when the National Enqurier ran positive stories about him or negative ones about his rivals.

The tabloid magazine would send over stories before they were published, and the editorial team often sought input from Trump.

Cohen would show Trump, and he would say: ‘It’s fantastic! That’s unbelievable!’

Donald Trump was concerned that many women would come forward when he announced his run for president, Michael Cohen told the court.

The former president’s ‘fixer’ also detailed how he would preview National Enqurier stories and covers before they were published.

Trump and his team knew the power the tabloid had as it was sold in so many supermarkets and bodegas.

Therefore they tried to place positive stories about Trump and negative articles about his opponents.

Cohen revealed that he was in close contact with the National Enquirer publisher at the time, David Pecker, and editor Dylan Howard.

‘Negative ones (stories) I would receive from David or Dylan Howard was Hillary Clinton wearing very thick glasses, some allegations she had some brain injury

‘It was Ted Cruz, a photo of his father with lee Harvey Osawald claiming (he) was involved in the assaination of JFK

‘Article on Marco Rubio in a swimming pool with a bunch of other men claiming they were having a drug binge of some sort.’

Early in his testimony, Cohen spoke about his happiest times working for Donald Trump, as the defendant sat just feet away from him in Manhattan Criminal Court. ‘I enjoyed working with my colleagues at the Trump organization, the Trump children. It was a big family,’ he said, smiling and recalling those times.

Asked how he felt about working for Trump, Cohen flashed nostalgia and emotion, replying simply, ‘Fantastic.’

‘Working for him, especially during those ten

years was an amazing experience in many, many ways. There were great times. There were several less than great time.s

Michael Cohen told the court that he spent so much time with Donald Trump that the real estate mogul chose to ‘sync’ his cell phone.

‘We ultimately decided, he agreed, to have his contact numbers synced to my cell number,’ he said.

It meant Cohen could get anyone Trump wanted on the line.

As a result, he had more than 30,000 contacts on his phone.

Michael Cohen was asked by prosecutors about whether he would sometimes bully people while working for the Trump Organization.

Cohen replied: ‘Yes.’

He went on, saying the ‘only thing that was on my mind’ was to ‘make him happy,’ referring to Trump.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom:

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger has got quickly to the heart of one of the issues about this case: That Trump has not left a paper trail.

Did Trump ever use email, she asks Cohen. No, he replies.

‘During certain conversations, he would comment that emails are like written papers,’ he continued.

‘He knows too many people who have gone down … by having emails that prosecutors can use in a case.’

Michael Cohen testified that it would be ‘fair’ to characterize him as Trump’s former ‘fixer.’

‘Some have described me as that,’ he told prosecutors.

‘If it was in order to place a story that would be advantageous I would speak with them,’ he said. He would also bring down the hammer. ‘If there was an article that caused him displeasure I’d speak with them as well,’ he said.

He agreed his role was to minimize negative stories and enhance positive stories.

Trump has not looked directly at Cohen thus far.

Cohen is describing some of the tasks he did for Trump, like figuring out how to pay now-defunct Trump University vendors, when bills were far beyond the $2 million in a company bank account.

Cohen said he ‘came up with basically 20 percent of everyone’s invoice’ – the amount each vendor would get. He ‘contacted each and every one.’

All but two accepted the lowball offer, other than two, who got nothing.

Cohen testified he would tell Trump about each arrangement.

Trump said it was ‘fantastic.’ Asked how the accomplishment made him feel, Cohen said it was ‘like I was on top of the world.’

Cohen told the court he was honored to be offered a job at the Trump Organization in 2007.

He explained how Don Jr. introduced him to the former president after buying several units at one of his properties.

Cohen then got involved with resolving an issue with one of the building’s boards, sparking negotiations over a new position.

‘I was asked to review a series of documents that deal with Trump resorts,’ Cohen said.

Then they started talks over salary, and ended up on a ‘middle number’ of $375,000.

Cohen said he never went back to his old employer’s office and Trump got some of his staff to pack his belongings.

He then started work from Ivanka’s old office.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is establishing how Cohen went from being a personal injury lawyer to someone with extremely close access to Donald Trump. When Trump offered him a job and got him to leave his firm, ‘I actually never went back. Not even that day,’ Cohen said. Trump ‘‘gave me Ivanka Trump’s old office on 26’ – meaning the 26th Floor of Trump Tower. As for his role: ‘I would only answer to him and I would work on issues that were of concern to him,’ Cohen said.

Donald Trump spoke for six minutes before entering the court to face his nemsis Michael Cohen.

His attorney, Todd Blanche, stood next to him as he spoke about a number of press articles that he said show the case against him is flawed.

The former president also celebrated the New York Times poll that shows him leading Joe Biden in five swing states.

Cohen was asked to identify Trump from the witness box where he is delivering testimony.

He had to stand up to get a gander of the man he was introduced to by Donald Trump Jr. after getting into real estate buy purchasing Trump properties.

He was asked to identify Trump by an article of clothing. ‘He’s wearing a blue and white tie,’ Cohen said.

Here we go. With a call of ‘Witness entering’ from a court officer, Michael Cohen walks stiffly into the courtroom.

Trump looks straight ahead as his nemesis steps into the witness box and is sworn in. Cohen is wearing a light pink tie and his most earnest expression.

This is not a man who does humility easily, but he’ll need every ounce of it to get through what will be a very testing time on the stand.

He begins with soft balls from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger about his age, marital status and early career.

Trump complained about being sidelined while he’d prefer to be campaigning due to his criminal trial.

He told reporters before entering the courthouse on Monday morning: ‘I should be out campaigning now, instead of sitting in a very cold courthouse all day long.’

Judge Merchan’s first act of business is to disallow as evidence a ‘separation agreement’ that former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg got when he left the company.

It would ‘just provide an explanation for why somebody’s not here,’ said Merchan. Weisselberg is currently serving time in prison at Rikers Island.

‘It doesn’t move the ball in any way towards satisfying the burden of proof .. so I’m going to deny the application,’ said the judge.

Prosecutors said last week the agreement showed that under the agreement Weisselberg was entitled to three payments of $250,000 this year and that he couldn’t disparage the Trump Organization.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside the courtroom.

Trump has arrived with his biggest entourage so far for the showdown with Michael Cohen.

He has Sens. JD Vance and Tommy Tuberville in the rows behind him. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis rounded out the group of lawmakers.

Son Eric has returned, along with his regular staff Boris Epshteyn, Natalie Harp and Jason Miller.

One question is how Cohen, after prepping with prosecutors, will refer to Trump while on the stand. During dramatic 2019 congressional testimony, he called him ‘Mr. Trump’ while denouncing him, as in: ‘I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.’

‘Mr. Trump’ was the preferred title inside the Trump Organization, where Cohen once had a 26th floor office. More recently, Cohen has been quoted on his podcast and other commentary calling him ‘Donald.’ During the trial, in an effort to establish his unreliability, prosecutors brought up a tweet where he called the former president ‘Von Schitzenpants.’ Sly comments or outbursts like that could hurt the prosecution’s case.

Cohen left his New York apartment accompanied by his Danya Perry, a white collar criminal defense lawyer and a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

She runs a boutique law firm under her own name, and previously served as New York’s deputy attorney general. She ran investigations for the Moreland Commission, which investigated public corruption. The Harvard College and Yale law grad previously worked at MacAndrews & Forbes and for the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and worked for a federal judge.

Cohen spent hours before Monday’s appearance prepping for testimony and for what is expected to be a brutal cross examination with lawyer Lanny Davis.

Donald Trump’s motorcade has left his Manhattan residence on the way to court for the showdown with his former fixer Michael Cohen.

He will sit in court while the lawyer he has repeatedly berated explains the details of the hush money agreement at the center of the case.

Cohen is set to say that Trump was behind the payment and that the former president personally approved the reimbursements.

Prosecutors say the payments were illegally disguised as legal fees.

The Manhattan District Attorey’s office prosecutors indicated on Friday that this would be the final week of their case.

Michael Cohen’s testimony could last several days and is expected to deliver fireworks.

The prosecution’s final witnesses are set to be less dramatic and could be procedural.

Then the defense will take over. It is not yet clear who they will bring to the stand.

There is a chance Trump’s lawyers may not call anyone.

Cohen walked into the court in downtown Manhattan just after 8am.

Donald Trump is yet to leave Trump Tower for his routine motorcade trip.

Cohen worked for the Trump Organization from 2006 to 2017, serving as Trump’s fixer. He once proudly proclaimed he’d ‘take a bullet’ for his boss.

Cohen took the lead in arranging the payment to Daniels, passing it through a corporation he established for the purpose. He says he was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the payment and related bonuses as ‘legal expenses.’

A few months earlier, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer to make a similar $150,00 payment to McDougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump.

Cohen made recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump spoke about the arrangement to pay McDougal through the tabloid publisher. At one point, Trump said: ‘What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?’ Trump denies the affair.

After Trump became president, Cohen held himself out as someone who could potentially advise corporate clients on the new administration, collecting hefty fees from companies seeking influence in the new White House.

Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with evading taxes related to his investments in the taxi industry, with lying to Congress and with campaign finance violations related to the hush money payments.

Cohen, who blamed Trump for his legal problems, pleaded guilty and served about a year in prison before being released to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is now a key prosecution witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation.

The jury in Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial has already heard three weeks of testimony.

They have listened to a range of witnesses from Stormy Daniels – who went into lurid detail about her alleged tryst with the former president – and paralegals and cell phone company workers who have entered evidence.

In the next two weeks, they will likely be sent out to deliberate to decide guilt in the first trial of a former president.

Here is who they are:

Michael Cohen has departed his New York home to head to the lower Manhattan court.

He left with his attorney Danya Perry and is set to take the stand just after 9.30am.

Cohen once described himself as Trump’s ‘spokesman, thug, pit bull and lawless lawyer’.

The fixer could now be a problem for his old boss.

A pair of lead Republicans in the House are demanding to know why the Department of Justice has not yet investigated Michael Cohen despite the former Trump fixer admitting he lied to Congress.

Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik wrote  the Justice Department (DOJ) six months ago with a criminal referral for Cohen. The DOJ confirmed receipt of the letter but has never followed up.

Cohen admitted in October to lying to Congress in 2019 when he falsely told the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors that he was not instructed by Trump to inflate his net worth.

Cohen may have been undermining his own credibility as a witness, as he’s been taking to TikTok to talk about the case and requesting donations.

‘Trump 2024?’ Cohen said on the video-sharing platform. ‘More like Trump 20-24 years.’

The reimbursements Cohen received form the basis of the charges — 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — against Trump.

Prosecutors say the reimbursements were logged as legal expenses to conceal the payments’ true purpose.

Defense lawyers have teed up a bruising cross-examination of Cohen, telling jurors during opening statements that the fixer-turned-foe is an ‘admitted liar’ with an ‘obsession to get President Trump.’

His checkered past is focal in the case. The testimony of a witness with such intimate knowledge of Trump’s activities could heighten the legal exposure of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee if jurors deem him sufficiently credible.

But prosecutors relying on someone who was jailed for pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payments and lying to Congress is a risky strategy.

Donald Trump left his criminal trial with a smile on Friday after a judge told the prosecution to control their star witness Michael Cohen.

The former president nodded as Judge Juan Merchan urged the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to direct the lawyer at the center of the case to stop discussing it.

The good news for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee came at the end of a grueling week in court where he sat through six hours of testimony from Stormy Daniels.

The porn star went into detail with her salacious and sometimes lurid claims about the night they allegedly had sex in a hotel room in 2006 – a story Trump has denied.

She finished her appearance on the stand on Thursday afternoon, with Friday a far more subdued affair with witnesses who gave less dramatic but still crucial evidence.

They bore witness to some of the most extraordinary moments of the Trump presidency: The decision to take out Abu Abkr al-Baghdadi. The first statements from the White House about a strange new virus. A ridiculous storm path bearing down on Alabama redrawn with a Sharpie pen. And the president’s ruminating about injecting bleach.

Some cabinet members, longtime aides and top White House personnel remained loyal until the bitter end and still support him. Others bailed out in the last days of his administration, both before and after January 6.

A smattering landed book deals they used to unload on the administration they once served, or penned op-eds denouncing Trump. Others followed him to Mar-a-Lago, helping the former president regroup as he plotted a way forward that took him to the cusp of the Republican presidential 2024 nomination.

Even before he set foot inside courtroom 1530, Michael Cohen’s role as a key witness in Donald Trump’s hush money case put the former president’s lawyer-cum-fixer at the center of proceedings.

Celebrity lawyer Keith Davidson, for example, was asked about a message he received asking him to ‘call that jerk back.’

‘Who was that jerk?’ he was asked by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass during the second week of the trial.

‘Michael Cohen,’ he replied to laughter in the public gallery.

It is one thing for Trump’s defense to start to case doubt on the testimony of a disbarred lawyer who has changed his story about paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels; it is quite another for the prosecution, which will rely on Cohen’s testimony to draw a direct link from Trump to the payment, to highlight his shortcomings.