Trump defense grills Michael Cohen in hush money trial

The jury is leaving and Trump is reading papers he’s holding close to his face at the defense table.

Michael Cohen is also leaving. He’s keeping his head facing forward as he exits through the side door.

Judge Juan Merchan is stopping proceedings for the day.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche was ready to move onto a different area in his cross-examination of Michael Cohen.

The cross-examination is not over.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen about the statement he sent out to reporters about the complaint to the Federal Election Commission.

In the statement, Cohen says he will not provide any further comment.

Cohen points to the part of the statement saying that neither the Trump Organization nor Trump campaign was involved in the transaction.

Cohen says, “I wanted them to believe it was true.”

He also says he called reporters he knew.

 “I called and told them ‘this is true.’”

There’s been a “tonal shift” today as Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche continued cross-examining Michael Cohen, CNN’s Audie Cornish said.

CNN reporters saw Blanche walking back into the courtroom after a break side-by-side with Trump, which has only been seen once before. Trump is usually walking out front solo with his lawyers trailing.

“I think you could interpret for that to Donald Trump giving an ‘attaboy’ to Todd Blanche,” CNN’s Gloria Borger said.

This comes as defense continued its attempt to discredit Cohen in front of the jury, which CNN analyst Elie Honig deemed to be successful.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now bringing up a 2018 letter Michael Cohen’s attorney sent to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint from a watchdog group about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.

The group, Common Cause, alleged Trump had violated campaign finance laws in making the payment.

Cohen was asked to read a section of the letter his attorney sent in response to Common Cause at the time, which said the $130,000 payment was a private transaction using Cohen’s own personal funds, and that, “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”

Blanche asks Cohen if he asserts the statement is true because he used his own personal funds.

Cohen says yes, Trump either reimbursed Cohen from his own funds of from the revocable trust.

Jurors are following along, heads swaying back and forth between Blanche and Cohen, and then looking down at the document on the monitor as the two discuss the letter.

Attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about work he did for the “The Apprentice” or members of Donald Trump’s family.

Blanche confirms with Cohen again that he did personal work for Melania Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Blanche then asks if he ever had a retainer agreement while working at the Trump Organization.

“I never had a retainer agreement,” Cohen says.

“It’s not just January 2017,” Trump’s attorney says. “It’s from the day you never went back to your law firm” and were hired by Trump.

Blanche then asks Cohen to confirm that under New York ethics rules, a lawyer doesn’t need a retainer agreement for a client.

For context: Blanche is raising this because prosecutors noted in their direct that Cohen didn’t have a retainer when he became personal attorney for the president in 2017. 

Now referring to the settlement with Stormy Daniels, attorney Todd Blanche asks, “Make no mistake, this was a completely legal binding contract, correct?”

“Yes sir,” Michael Cohen says.

Blanche referenced the agreement between “Peggy Peterson” and “David Dennison” — pseudonyms for Donald Trump and Daniels — asking whether these sorts of agreements are common.

“A non-disclosure agreement, an NDA, a settlement between two parties, happens all the time?” he asks. “Yes,” Cohen says.

When asked, Cohen confirms he still understands it to be a proper, legally binding contract.

“And there’s nothing illegal about a settlement contract between two parties, both of whom have lawyers?” Blanche also asks. Cohen agrees.

Todd Blanche asks whether Michael Cohen believed that Stormy Daniels was extorting Donald Trump.

Judge Juan Merchan overrules an objection.

“Yes, I recall making a statement like that,” Cohen says. “That they were extorting Mr. Trump.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about the interest of ABC News in Stormy Daniels’ story, inquiring about who Keith Davidson was speaking to at the news outlet about the story.

“I’m actually blanking on his name,” Cohen says, before remembering it was John Santucci.

Cohen said Santucci “used to come to the office quite a bit.”

So when Cohen heard ABC News through Santucci was fighting for Daniels’ story, he recalls he was surprised.

“I was shocked that John Santucci actually did, I meaning he had spent quite of bit of time following the Trump campaign and then of course he denied that they were involved,” he said.

Donald Trump just wrote a note on a Post-it and pushed it to his attorney, Emil Bove, who read it and turned to nod in the affirmative at Trump.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche resumes his cross-examination of Michael Cohen, by saying, “I want to talk for a few minutes about the $130,000 payment you made to Stormy Daniels.”

“Yes sir,” Cohen says.

Trump seems in good spirits smiling with his attorneys before the jury enters.

It’s rare to see Donald Trump pay this close attention during witness testimony.

He shifted his body in the direction of the witness stand and has been closely watching Michael Cohen as defense attorney Todd Blanche cross-examines him.

Typically during other witnesses, Trump has closed his eyes for sustained periods as if the testimony isn’t happening at all.

They’re taking a break in the courtroom.

The judge has asked an attorney for both sides to join him for a private conversation in a side-room.

He wants them present to talk to an alternate juror who said they have an appointment next Thursday afternoon, which could affect proceedings.

Merchan asked the attorneys their thoughts, and both sides said they’d cross that bridge when they got there.

Michael Cohen says he got an identity theft call from a bank that cut off the 2016 recording with Donald Trump.

He testifies that although he and Trump continued speaking after he got the call, he did not restart the recording.

Michael Cohen discussed how he dealt with stories about Trump in the media and he detailed some of the 95 secret recordings he had on his phone.

Here are the highlights of his testimony:

Relationship with the media: Cohen answered a series of questions on how he dealt with the media.

Recordings: Cohen said he didn’t tell people he was recording them, which is not illegal in New York, as it’s a one-party recording consent state. Here are some key points:

Stormy Daniels story reaction: Cohen said Trump said he was worried about what his family would think and “the brand” when a post about Stormy Daniels went up on the gossip site thedirty.com.

Michael Cohen’s former attorney Bob Costello could be called by Trump’s defense team as a witness during their case, according to a source familiar with the defense team’s strategy.

Costello testified Wednesday in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee, consistently criticized his former client and said said “virtually every statement” Cohen made on the stand about Costello was a lie.

Following the testimony, Trump’s team reached out to Costello.

For weeks, there was a general consensus among Trump’s defense team that Costello would not be called to testify during his hush money criminal trial.

According to several sources familiar with the matter, there has been a change in mentality around Costello being called as a witness. Sources also say his name has been mentioned a number of times in recent conversations about the defense. Plans are fluid however, and nothing has been finalized.

Costello previously appeared as the only defense witness before the grand jury investigating the case in March 2023.

Todd Blanche has moved to the 2016 recording of the conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.

Blanche notes that on the recording released in September of 2016, Cohen made of his conversation with Trump, Trump was talking about paying with cash.

“He’s not talking about Benjamins and green dollar bills. He’s talking about paying for something in cash and not financing?” Blanche asks.

“No sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche asks Cohen to confirm that Trump often paid for big-ticket items like property with cash without financing.

“When you say he’s very rich and he pays all cash, you’re not saying that you or Mr. Trump or his sons go down to the bank with a bunch of bags full of cash and buy something? You’re saying it’s not financed — we’re just going to pay with cash, right?” Blanche asks.

“That’s correct,” Cohen says.

But on the recording, Cohen says Trump was referring to cash as money.

“He was, which is why I said the word check,” Cohen says. Cohen claims he was telling Trump they had to use a check to pay Karen McDougal.

Blanche pulls up the recorded conversation transcript to show the jury briefly: The recording cut off after Cohen said “check.”

Michel Cohen testified that on a June 2016 call with Donald Trump, he expressed concern about files American Media Inc. held on Trump.

At the time, according to Cohen, David Pecker was up for consideration for a CEO position and he was worried someone else could get control of the files.

“The concern here was even beyond the election this conversation wasn’t tied to the election it was a real concern that Mr. Pecker could get hit by a bus at any time…and you guys wouldn’t have those files, right?” Blanche asks.

“Yes sir,” Cohen says.

Trump is still turned in Michael Cohen’s direction and is watching the testimony closely.

It’s rare he’s had this much sustained attention on a witness, including through the first two days of Cohen’s testimony.

Michael Cohen is speaking in an even, slow tone, but is a bit halting at times as if he’s choosing his words carefully.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is once again challenging Cohen about his specific memory of phone calls — a key issue regarding his recollection of discussing the Stormy Daniels story with Donald Trump.

Blanche asks how many calls Cohen was getting each day in 2016.

Cohen says 100, and Blanche says, for the purpose of a hypothetical, he’d go with 50 per day.

“So we’re talking about, conservatively, 14,000 calls a year in 2016 and 2017?” Blanche asks. Cohen confirms.

So, Blanche continues, when Cohen testified on Monday and Tuesday about specific conversations he had with people including former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, former editor Dylan Howard and President Trump, “You were not testifying from a specific recollection of that phone call, were you?”

Cohen insists that he was, “because these phone calls are things that I have been talking about for the last six years.” They were “extremely important and all-consuming,” so while he may not recall certain specific details, he remembers the overall conversation, Cohen continues.

Why this matters: Trump’s defense has repeatedly challenged Cohen’s memory of discussing the Daniels hush money deal with the former president in an October 2016 phone call, which is a key piece of testimony for the prosecution.

The defense is highlighting the sheer number of calls Cohen was fielding at the time, and have tried to point out inconsistencies in his memory of other calls. They’ve also grilled Cohen about whether he’s only recalling things based on materials shown to him by prosecutors.

Cohen says he has used the documents to “jog his memory,” but not relied on them wholesale.

The name Keith Schiller has come up in testimony several times during the hush money trial against Donald Trump — but notably, the jury won’t hear directly from Trump’s former bodyguard.

The prosecution “may have tried to talk to him and they don’t know exactly what Keith Schiller is going to say,” Jeff Swartz, a former Florida judge, said on CNN, adding Schiller still is loyal to Trump and “he obviously has made that clear.”

The defense has shown messages between Cohen and Schiller about prank calls Cohen received in October 2016. Shortly after these messages, the defense argued Cohen and Schiller talked on the phone about the prank calls, not the Daniels payment as Cohen previously testified.

Schiller was not on the witness list and is not expected to be called.

He’s not the only person involved who isn’t in court. Other witnesses have described former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg as being at the center of the hush money payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

During direct questioning from the prosecution, Cohen said Trump told him to meet with Weisselberg to work out how he was going to be reimbursed for the hush money payment to Daniels. He also said Weisselberg told Cohen he would be paid $420,000 over 12 months — the payments that are at the center of the criminal charges.

Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about his testimony that if the false story about the Trump Tower doorman came out it would have a “significant” impact on the campaign.

Blanche then asks if Trump didn’t “initially” think the story would hurt him.

Cohen agrees, “Initially, yes.”

Now defense attorney Todd Blanche turns to American Media Inc.’s payment to former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin to suppress his false claim that Trump had an alleged love child with a maid. 

Blanche asked, “Money was paid to keep the story from getting out but the story was false, correct?”

“I believe so, yes,” Cohen says

“Do you have any doubt in your mind it’s false? Blanche asks.

“No sir,” Cohen says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now turning to the 2015 Trump Tower meeting and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

He asks Cohen about his testimony that the power of the tabloid was its placement in supermarkets.

“Had you ever told anybody that, before your testimony this week?” Blanche asks.

“Not that I recall,” Cohen says.

Blanche then suggested to Cohen, “You learned about what David Pecker testified about in this trial,” implying he heard the line from Pecker.

Cohen disputed that assertion.

More context: On August 2015, prosecutors say Trump met with Pecker at Trump Tower and Pecker agreed to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s campaign and flag any negative stories to Cohen.

See a full timeline of the hush money case.

Michael Cohen is asked about the ethics of recording a conversation with Donald Trump.

After referencing the September 2016 recording that the jury heard, attorney Todd Blanche asks, “You understand that it is not ethical for a lawyer to record a conversation with their client.”

Cohen agrees and then adds that recording a client conversation is permitted under the crime-fraud exception.

“Just so I understand, you surreptitiously recorded your client so you could play a privileged recorded communication between you and your client with a third party?” Blanche asks.

“That’s correct,” Cohen said.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen whether there are 95 “secret recordings” on his cell phone, which Cohen confirms.

Cohen recalls one of the recorded conversations was with former CNN President Jeff Zucker.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen, “By the way, did you tell people you were recording them?”

“No sir,” Cohen replied.

Blanche followed up and asked if people asked Cohen if he was recording them and he told them he wasn’t.

“I don’t remember that specifically. It’s not illegal in New York,” Cohen said.

Trump has his body shifted toward the witness stand as he’s listening.

Donald Trump is leaning forward to read the texts between New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Michael Cohen that are being shown on the screen.

Trump is paying attention to this line of questioning. He’s almost smirking.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen whether he recorded phone conversations with reporters.

Cohen said he wouldn’t characterize it as “a lot.”

Blanche asked him how many.

Cohen said about 40 phone conversations.

Trump turned and exchanged a smile with his attorney Susan Necheles at this response.

Cohen said he stopped recording calls with reporters after the 2016 presidential election.

Blanche asked him to clarify that he didn’t record calls with reporters in 2017 and 2018.

Cohen said, “I would have to check”

“We’ll check together in a minute,” Blanche said.

Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about his relationship with New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman.

He confirms he feels he’s had a strong relationship with her and that they’ve known each other for 20 years.

Haberman is in the courtroom.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about his first conversations with Donald Trump after becoming aware of a post about Stormy Daniels on the gossip site thedirty.com.

“Fair to say that the first time you heard about that and the story by Ms. Daniels, when you talked to President Trump about it, he said he was worried about what his family would think, correct?” Blanche asks.

“Yes, as well as, of course, for the brand,” Cohen says.

Blanche asks Cohen if he told law enforcement in February 2021, “The first thing that President Trump said to you was that his family wouldn’t like that very much?”

Cohen says, “That’s true.”

Remember: Cohen has testified that the first time he learned of Daniels’ story about Trump was when he worked with attorney Keith Davidson to take down the blog post about the alleged encounter on the gossip site.

Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen about the frustration from the Trump campaign in 2016 when he would go off message.

Cohen says he was not part of the campaign, he was a “surrogate.”

Trump appears to be listening as Michael Cohen testifies that Trump would “blow up” at him if he failed to get positive stories about Trump in the press as he wanted.

Cohen said, “It was my routine to always advise Mr. Trump because the story that I was going to put out is not the way he would want it. One, it would cause him to blow up at me and two, it would probably be the end of my job.”

Trump shook his head “no” during this testimony.

Cohen acknowledged it was “fair” to say that Cohen often responded to journalists about negative stories.

Todd Blanche asked whether Michael Cohen “worked very hard” to get positive stories into the press about Donald Trump and the things he was doing.

“Yes,” Cohen says.

Blanche then asks if Cohen also worked very hard to make sure there were positive stories about him at times.

“Yes sir,” Cohen replies.

Blanche asks Cohen about how he worked with journalists both for positive stories and for negative stories.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche turns his questioning to a website Michael Cohen created in 2011, shouldtrumprun.com

Cohen confirmed the website was a “stunt” but confirmed that he personally worked with The National Enquirer on a story after they conducted a poll that showed readers responded positively to the idea of Trump running for president.

Cohen also confirmed The National Enquirer then wrote a positive story about Cohen for starting shouldtrumprun.com.

Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche says he is now going to go back chronologically over Michael Cohen’s testimony.

The jury is now seeing the text exchange Michael Cohen had with a 14-year-old who he says was harassing him by phone in 2016.

Cohen testified earlier that the teen had failed to block his number at one point, giving Cohen the ability to see who was calling him repeatedly.

The texts shown in court show Cohen telling the recipient that the number has been sent to the US Secret Service. The teen apologizes and says it wasn’t them making the calls, and that their friend had told them to call.

“This number has just been sent to secret service for your ongoing and continuous harassing calls over the past 3 days,” Cohen writes. “If you are a minor, I suggest you notify your parent or guardian.”

“I DIDN’T DO IT,” the other person texts back, adding “Im 14” and “Please don’t.”

Cohen wrote back for the teen’s parent or guardian to contact him “before the secret service reaches out to them.”

Why these messages are relevant: The defense has tried to show that Cohen’s phone call to Donald Trump’s bodyguard around this time was about helping Cohen deal with the harassment — not the Stormy Daniels payment, as Cohen has testified.

Cohen has said he spoke about both things with the bodyguard, Keith Schiller.

These messages were not displayed publicly before lunch because they needed to be redacted. Trump attorney Todd Blanche circled back to them now that they were redacted and accepted into evidence.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche begins by asking Michael Cohen whether he has any evidence that “anyone at the DA improperly leaked or even leaked at all” the indictment before it was unsealed.

“No sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche continues asking about the indictment and the judge asks the lawyers to briefly approach. He’s back at the podium.

Blanche reminds Cohen that he went on TV that day.

“When you did those interviews, the indictment was unsealed by the court, correct?” Blanche asks.

“I had read through the New York Times article,” Cohen says.

“By the time you went on CNN, it was public, correct?” Blanche asks.

“Yes,” Cohen says.

Michael Cohen is back on the stand. Trump attorney Todd Blanche is questioning him.

Judge Juan Merchan just said a juror has told the court they have an appointment next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Merchan is going to inquire further with that juror and said he’d take one attorney from each side with him during the break.

Prosecutors are asking Judge Juan Merchan to clarify the record over the questions about the unsealing of the Trump indictment, arguing that attorney Todd Blanche’s questions had suggested there was an impropriety with the district attorney’s office over an apparent leaking of the indictment.

Merchan says he’s going to give Blanche the chance to clean up the potential for misunderstanding by the jury before deciding whether he needs to give a curative instruction.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the court is in session.

Donald Trump has entered the courtroom after a fist bump and a wave on his way in at 2:08 pm ET.

Michael Cohen delved into the role he wanted to have working for Trump and how the logistics played out in the hush money payment. The cross-examination continued until the court lunch break.

Here are the highlights of his testimony:

Which White House role: Cohen reiterated he wanted to be considered for Trump’s chief of staff for “ego” purposes, as he testified earlier, but he said that wasn’t the position he wanted. He said he asked Trump for a personal attorney to the president role, adding that he had wanted a hybrid role with access to Trump but also outside the government.

Using AI to make fake legal cases: Cohen admitted to submitting fake legal cases, generated by AI, to support his application for early termination of supervised release. The defense confirmed Cohen had been disbarred and was no longer a lawyer at the time he provided his attorneys with the fake cases.

Hush money payment and key 2016 call: The defense asked Cohen about the logistics of the hush money payment at the center of the case and pressed him on a key phone conversation that directly linked Trump to Daniels’ deal. Here are some key points in the exchange between Cohen and the defense:

CNN’s Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb, and Lauren Dolan contributed reporting to this post.

Michael Cohen’s testimony about an October 2016 call with Keith Schiller and Donald Trump gets at the core of the case and could potentially be problematic for prosecutors, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.

“Michael Cohen on his direct testimony said, ‘I had this phone call in late October of 2016, I called Keith Schiller and he patched me through to Trump, I don’t remember if he put me on speaker but I was speaking to the two of them and I told them then that Stormy Daniels had been paid and the matter was resolved.’ Right? We’ve been asking, ‘When are they going to go with the core?’ This is the core of the case,” Honig explained.

He added that Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche then raised two points regarding this testimony.

First, the texts leading up to the call that day show that Cohen texted Schiller nothing about Daniels, but about instead about a 14-year-old who was harassing him.

“If that’s a the case, it’s a big problem,” Honig said.

Michael Cohen has been testifying under cross-examination for a little over four and a half hours over two days.

The court has been dismissed for a lunch break.

Michael Cohen will continue to be cross-examined by the defense when the court returns.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is pressing Michael Cohen over his prior testimony that he had spoken to Donald Trump about resolving the Stormy Daniels hush money payment in an October 2016 phone call.

Blanche has been showing text messages and a call log that he says indicate Cohen was asking Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller for help with harassment he was receiving — not calling Schiller in order to speak with Trump about Daniels, as he testified Monday.

Cohen insists that while “part of” the correspondence was regarding the harassment, “I know that Keith was with Mr. Trump at the time and there was more potentially than this.”

Blanche asks skeptically whether Cohen really “had enough time to update Schiller about all the (harassment) problems you were having and also update President Trump about the status of the Stormy Daniels situation, because you had to keep him informed.”

Cohen says he testified about the nature of the call, “Based upon what was going on, and based upon the text messages and so on — based on the other text messages about the Stormy Daniels matter.”

Blanche challenged Cohen to confirm that his trial testimony was based on the material prosecutors showed him in preparation for questioning, not his own recollection.

“Yes, that refreshed my recollection,” Cohen said calmly.

Some context: The defense was expected to challenge Cohen’s recollection of this phone call in a substantial effort to undercut his credibility.

Blanche grew animated during this portion of questioning, flailing his arms and speaking in a high-pitched tone.

The jurors are now seeing the text exchange between Keith Schiller, Donald Trump’s former bodyguard, and Michael Cohen.

Reporters in court are not seeing the exchange because the phone numbers have not been redacted on the exhibit.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche has pulled up a call log from around the time of some pivotal conversations involving Michael Cohen, Donald Trump and Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller.

Blanche is asking Cohen to confirm that when he called Schiller on one occasion, the intent of the phone call was actually to speak to Trump about the Stormy Daniels deal.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about a number of harassing calls Cohen was receiving around the same time he testified before the grand jury.

“Do you remember that on the 24th at around 7 p.m. at night the person who was harassing you forgot to block their number and you got their number,” Blanche asks.

“No sir,” Cohen said.

“Let me show you,” Blanche says as he begins to cite a text message.

According to Blanche, Cohen texted that the person, “Would have to explain to the Secret Service.” And the person replied, “I’m 14, please don’t do this.”

“Do you recall at 7:48 p.m. texting Keith Schiller about this 14-year-old,” Blanche asks.

“I don’t recall,” Cohen says.

He says Cohen asked who he should speak to, and Schiller, Trump’s former bodyguard, replied at 8:02 p.m., according to Blanche, telling Cohen to call him.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking about a call on the evening of October 24, 2016.

Cohen has testified that he told Donald Trump in the call that the Stormy Daniels hush money deal was funded.

“We talked about the matter, that it was resolved,” Cohen says.

Blanche asks if Cohen previously discussed this call with prosecutors, suggesting that Cohen did not mention it at that time. Cohen says he doesn’t recall, so Blanche offers to call up the testimony.

After an objection from the prosecution and a huddle between the lawyers and judge, Cohen looks at the transcript of his meeting with prosecutors, and eventually says he does have a recollection of talking with them about the call.

According to prosecutors, on October 27, 2016, Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to her attorney through a shell company in exchange for her silence about an affair she allegedly had with Donald Trump in 2006.

Trump has publicly denied having an affair with Daniels and denied making the payments.

Prosecutors say Daniels first brought her story to AMI, whose executives brought the story to Cohen on Trump’s behalf.

According to prosecutors, Trump directed Cohen to delay making the payment as long as possible, telling him if they delayed paying until after the election they could avoid paying it at all.

The former president has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included the payment to Daniels.

Prosecutors allege that Trump allegedly disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.”

Read a full timeline of the hush money case.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now shifting his questioning to October 2016 and moving money from his home equity line of credit into the LLC to wire the money to Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ attorney.

He’s confronting Michael Cohen about the logistics of how he called Keith Schiller, Trump’s ex-bodyguard and former director of Oval Office operations, and spoke to Trump to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it.”

Blanche asked Cohen how the call worked. He asked if Schiller put Trump on speaker or talked privately. Cohen said both would occur, and he didn’t recall this specific call.

Blanche is leaning on the podium appearing confident and at ease as he speaks.

Michael Cohen claimed in court documents unsealed in December 2023 that he unwittingly sent his then-attorney nonexistent case citations in his request for early termination of his supervised release.

At that time, a federal judge ordered Cohen’s former attorney, David Schwartz, to explain where he came up with the court cases cited in Cohen’s request for early termination of supervised release, saying as far as the judge can tell, “none of these cases exist.” District Judge Jesse Furman gave Cohen until late December to weigh in on the dispute after finding the issue implicated him.

In a signed declaration, Cohen said the citations and descriptions he sent to Schwartz came from Google Bard, an AI chatbot tool that directly competes with ChatGPT.

Cohen assumed Schwartz would vet the information before adding it into legal filings, he added.

Some context: Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 for crimes that included arranging payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump after the former president’s onetime “fixer” attributed his offenses to “my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” 

After several attempts, Cohen was released from prison in May 2020 due to the pandemic only to have that reversed when Cohen reported to the courthouse to finalize his transition to home confinement. When he objected to many of the conditions, he was taken into custody.

Penis-shaped balloons with photos of District Attorney Alvin Bragg and others are floating over lower Manhattan.

Some of the balloons, which are filled with helium, have a picture of Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the hush money trial against Donald Trump taking place nearby. 

Others feature a picture of prosecutors, such as special counsel Jack Smith, who brought charges against Trump in different criminal cases.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen about using fake legal cases to support his application for early termination of supervised release.

“As part of application do you recall there were fake legal cases included in the letter around that application,” Blanche asks.

Prosecutors objected, but Judge Juan Merchan allowed the question.

Cohen looked at the jury as he explained how he used AI to search for court cases.

Cohen said the cases weren’t correct.

“When you say inaccurate you mean the cases didn’t exist?” Blanche asks.

“Under that specific citation, that is correct,” Cohen says.

Blanche followed up, “… the 3 cases that you gave to your attorney were not real cases?”

“That’s correct,” Cohen concedes.

While Cohen was giving his explanation about the AI cases, Trump can be seen staring intently at his former lawyer and fixer.

Blanche confirmed with Cohen that he’d been disbarred and was no longer a lawyer at the time he provided his attorneys with the fake cases.

Moving on to Michael Cohen’s conversations with Darrell Scott, a member of Trump’s Diversity Coalition, Blanche asks, “Did you express disappoint to Pastor Scott repeatedly that President Trump hadn’t brought you into the administration?”

“Not into the administration — I knew the role I wanted… I may have expressed frustration,” Cohen testifies.

Blanche asks why Cohen needed to have someone put in a good word, when he had testified he had spoken to Trump almost every day during the campaign.

Cohen acknowledges that “it’s always good to have somebody else advocate.”

When asked what he wanted Scott to tell Trump, he says, “How important it was the diversity coalition as a basis for the campaign and its success.”

The defense continues to paint a picture of a Michael Cohen spurned by the incoming Trump administration, asking more questions about Cohen’s role and his perceived treatment by his longtime client.

“Your daughter said that President Trump and his new people were walking all over you?” Blanche asks.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen says.

“You agreed with that, didn’t you?” Blanche asks.

“At the time,” Cohen says.

“That’s not accurate,” Cohen says.

Remember: Cohen has walked a line of acknowledging his desire to be “considered” for a role in the Trump administration, while also insisting he was content with his ultimate standing, while Trump’s attorneys try to highlight any perception that he was dejected over his position in the former president’s orbit.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen if he was “despondent” when the former president of Goldman Sachs Gary Cohn got a post in the White House but not him.

Cohen said no but Blanche confronted him with texts with his daughter about the situation, noting he was having a hard time just getting tickets to President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

Cohen confirmed that on the stand.

As attorney Todd Blanche and Michael Cohen go back and forth over whether Cohen had wanted a White House role, Trump is looking in Cohen’s direction.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche continues to push Michael Cohen on his true desires to be a part of Trump’s administration.

In texts, Cohen told his daughter “with him now and he wants me to go just not sure the position.”

Cohen acknowledged he told his daughter that Trump was “not happy with the title I wanted.”

Blanche pushed Cohen to admit he wanted the position of special counsel to the president within the Trump administration.

Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, both Republicans, are back in the courtroom as Michael Cohen testifies about wanting to be considered for White House chief of staff.

Gaetz is seated next to Trump lawyer Alina Habba in the first row of the galley behind the former president.

Meanwhile, several jurors eyes are looking down. It’s unclear if they’re taking notes or just looking down.

The defense has been pressing Michael Cohen on whether he really wanted to work in the White House, potentially as chief of staff to Donald Trump.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche has asked Cohen repeatedly whether it’s true that Cohen only wanted to be considered for the role, “for ego purpose,” as he has previously testified. Cohen has stood by that remark.

Blanche is now reviewing texts between Cohen and his daughter, where they discussed whether he would be chief of staff. In the messages, Cohen’s daughter says she read that Reince Priebus — who did eventually become Trump’s first chief of staff — was being considered.

“And you said, ‘He’s pushing like a madman,’” Blanche says, referring to Cohen’s comments in the messages.

When Trump picked Priebus, Blanche asks Cohen whether it’s true Cohen told his daughter he was disappointed.

“That I wasn’t considered, yes sir,” Cohen says, sticking to the distinction he’s made about merely wanting to be listed among the potential picks.

GOP lawmakers who turned out in support of Donald Trump during Thursday’s hush money trial attacked Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter in remarks outside of the Manhattan courthouse.

“You got a corrupt judge whose daughter is one of the leading fundraisers for the Democrat Party,” Republican Rep. Bob Good said. “This is a crooked sham trial,” he added.

Rep. Andy Biggs and also brought up Merchan’s daughter’s ties to Democrats.

Allies appear to be using Trump’s own talking points about Merchan’s daughter.

Remember: Before the hush money trial began, Trump vilified Merchan’s daughter with a combination of accurate information about her political affiliations melded with dubious claims about her supposed anti-Trump online posts, which the court says don’t even belong to her. The judge ruled that Trump’s “dangerous rhetoric” threatens the integrity of the looming trial.

Later on, expanded gag order ruled that Trump could not talk about the judge’s family.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Stephen Collinson contributed to this report.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about his desire to work at the White House, specifically wanting to be considered for White House chief of staff.

“I would have liked to have been considered for ego purpose,” Cohen says, reiterating his testimony from earlier in the week.

Blanche asks whether he recalled arguments at sentencing about his wanting a role at the White House. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objected and attorneys had a brief sidebar.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked if Michael Cohen recalled whether he testified in October 2023 that he refused a substantial assistance letter.

“I do,” Cohen said.

“But that’s not true, is it?”

“It’s true,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked, “Who did you say that to?”

“Guy Petrillo, my lawyer.” 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about his attempts to end his supervised release early.

“After you started supervised release, you have made several efforts to have your supervised release terminated early,” Blanche says.

“Correct,” Cohen says, noting none of them have been successful.

Cohen has tried four times to end his supervised release early, he confirms.

Cohen first said three times, but then agreed with Blanche, who corrected him that it’s been four failed attempts.

Blanche asks Cohen if he wanted to be released early because of his cooperation with an ongoing investigation.

“But this whole time, all the meetings, you were never offered a cooperation agreement and you were never a cooperating witness?” Blanche asks.

“That’s correct,” Cohen says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going through several investigations and asked Michael Cohen if he met with them but was never offered or served as a “cooperating witness” in the investigations, including Robert Mueller’s, the New York attorney general’s, among others.

Cohen agrees it is correct to say that he is not a “cooperating witness.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Kristen Holmes discussed the body language of both Michael Cohen and Donald Trump before court took a short break.

Collins noted that Trump had been closing his eyes today for long periods of time, as he has been doing throughout the trial. “He’s not always sleeping, it just seems like pretending like the testimony is not happening,” she said, but Trump started to perk up when his lawyer started questioning Cohen about a potential pardon.

Holmes also said that Trump seemed to pay more attention as Cohen’s voice got more rapid and when he “sounds a little bit less measured.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is back at the podium to continue his cross-examination of witness Michael Cohen.

Remember: Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney.

Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen got more animated on the stand as the cross-examination from the defense continued. He talked about times when he said he lied under oath and if he took responsibility for his actions.

Here are the highlights of his testimony so far:

Previous testimony under oath: The defense asked about times when Cohen lied while under oath during several proceedings and asked whether he took responsibility for his actions. Here’s what happened:

He got animated: Cohen’s voice got more animated while explaining why he did not feel he should have been charged as a first-time tax evader.

Who he’s blamed: Cohen confirmed he has blamed a variety of people for his actions, including his accountant, federal prosecutors and the bank.

Deleting communications: Cohen said it was his practice to ask certain people to delete their communications with him at times, like former publisher of the National Enquire David Pecker.

Pardon talk: Cohen said he never asked Trump and would never accept a pardon, contrary to what he testified to Congress, but he explored it with his lawyers because he “wanted this nightmare to end.”

Judge Juan Merchan announced that there will no court next Wednesday, May 22, after jurors indicated they cannot work that day.

Merchan addressed jurors earlier today with the possibility of holding court next Wednesday to make up for several upcoming off days. As they let for their mid-morning break, he asked them to let the sergeant know if they could work.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench after a short morning break.

Donald Trump and prosecutors have returned to the courtroom.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba has joined his group. She is sitting next to Eric Trump.

After Judge Juan Merchan called for a morning break, Michael Cohen left the stand. He was breathing heavily.

The politicians in the courtroom stood up. Trump was sneering as he walked out. They followed him.

Outside the courtroom, Trump didn’t look at the hallway cameras but he did flash a thumbs up.

The court is taking a morning break and Michael Cohen is expected to resume testimony when it returns.

Judge Juan Merchan again reminded the jurors to let the sergeant know whether they can work next Wednesday.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now moving onto Michel Cohen’s conversations with Robert Costello after the FBI raided his home and office.

Blanche asked Cohen if during those conversations with Costello after the raids he told him he could cooperate against Trump, and Cohen in turn told Costello that he “had nothing on President Trump and could not cooperate.”

“No,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked Cohen if he meant he didn’t say it or didn’t recall.

“I do not recall,” he said.

Trump is looking directly at Michael Cohen now as he testifies, leaning a bit forward in his chair.

Cohen is testifying about his statements regarding pardons.

Michael Cohen just said on the stand that he did explore a pardon from Donald Trump with his lawyers, contrary to what he had testified to Congress, and the defense is now grilling him over how his attorney corrected the record on that issue.

“Your lawyer issued a statement, a public statement, that admitted that you had actually directed you attorneys at the time to explore possibility of a pardon?” Blanche asks. “They did that to correct the record from your testimony in front of Congress?”

“Correct,” Cohen says.

“Your lawyers corrected the statement because it wasn’t true when you made it?” Blanche asks.

“Correct,” Cohen responds.

Cohen says it was a confusing conversation. Blanche, raising his voice, responds, “This wasn’t a confusing conversation.”

“This was a written statement you read into the record,” he says.

Donald Trump’s defense has frustrated his former attorney, Michael Cohen, after questioning about his testimony in his own previous criminal trial.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 for crimes that included arranging payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump after the President’s onetime “fixer” attributed his offenses to “my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”

On the stand today, Cohen called US District Judge William Pauley III “corrupt.”

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Cohen’s frustration while discussing the charges against him are where he begins to come apart under questioning.

“He’s pretty calm and casual about the other stuff, but this sets him off.”

CNN’s Laura Coates also suggested that the jury may start to question Cohen as a result of this cross-examination.

Legal analyst Adam Kaufmann added that the defense was undermining how Cohen comes across to the jury.

Speaking to CNN, Kaufmann noted that Cohen was essentially saying “everyone in the world. Everyone in this system was corrupt – except me. The judge, the prosecutors, it was all out to get me. And that’s not going to fly with the jury.”

He said the tactic made Cohen come across as defensive, which “really undermines the ‘I lied before, I was bad before but now I’ve fessed up to everything I’ve done, I’ve owned it’” explanation.

Michael Cohen said on the stand that he did explore a pardon from Donald Trump with his lawyers, saying “because I wanted this nightmare to end.”

He also said a pardon was “being dangled.”

“So, when you said you never asked for and would never accept a pardon, that was a lie, wasn’t it?” Blanche asked.

“At the time it was accurate,” Cohen said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is challenging Michael Cohen on his past statements that he never asked for nor would ever accept a pardon from President Trump.

Blanche continued to confront Cohen that he testified publicly he would never accept a pardon but then told lawmakers behind closed doors that he directed his lawyers to explore the possibility.

Cohen says his public testimony was referring to the present tense.

Former President Donald Trump has been looking in Michael Cohen’s direction from time to time while he testifies.

He leaned forward to read the congressional deposition testimony on a screen, when it was pulled up.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen if he has a habit of asking certain people in his life to delete their communications with him periodically, like former publisher of the National Enquirer David Pecker.

Cohen confirmed when it came to some people that was his practice.

Blanche was getting at Cohen’s discussions with his wife about the HELOC (which Cohen used to make the payment to Daniels’s attorney) by asking about a March 9, 2018 statement Michael Avenatti put out saying the money had come from Cohen’s HELOC.

The prosecution objected to this line of questioning and there was a sidebar.

Blanche asked Cohen if he deleted text messages around that time. “Two days later you deleted all the text messages that you had with your wife on March 11?”

“I’m not, no sir. I’m not aware of that,” Cohen said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is moving on to Michael Cohen’s statements to Congress in which he said he never asked for, nor would he accept a pardon from Trump.

Cohen says he reached out to his attorney to “see whether it was legitimate” but he said a pardon would be a nightmare.

Donald Trump’s attorneys have filed court documents indicating they will ask New York’s highest court to weigh in on the gag order against him in his hush money trial.

On Tuesday, a New York appeals court denied Trump’s latest attempt to end the gag order. The next day, Trump’s attorneys submitted court filings indicating they will appeal the denied motion to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. Those filings are not available on the docket.

The Court of Appeals does not have to accept the motion. As of Thursday morning, the clerk’s office said it had not yet received the motion.

Michael Cohen looked over at the jury with a small smile and shook his head as attorneys sidebar with Judge Juan Merchan.

The prosecution objected to a question from Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche about whether Cohen told his wife about the Home Equity Line of Credit he used to make the payment to Stormy Daniels’ attorney.

Michael Cohen’s tone perked up particularly when attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen about the corporations he had to receive monthly payments for the taxi medallions.

“There were 16 corporations,” Cohen said, going on to explain why that’s “actually standard in the industry.”

Cohen went on to talk about the typical industry practice of holding two or more medallions in an LLC entity.

“Thank you,” Blanche said, when he was done.

“You’re welcome,” Cohen responded, garnering laughs in the overflow room.

“Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, echoing a similar line of questioning from his cross-examination on Tuesday.

“Yes,” Michael Cohen said.

Cohen’s tone is still measured as he answers, but he looks annoyed in court.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche just had an exchange with Michael Cohen that sums up his general tack over the last half-hour or so: Highlighting ways Cohen has shifted the blame for his convictions away from himself and onto others.

“You blame a lot of people over the years for the conduct that you were convicted of,” Blanche says.

“I blame people, yes,” Cohen says

“You blame your accountant?” Blanche asks.

“Correct,” Cohen responds.

“At times you blame the bank?” Blanche asks.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

“You blame federal prosecutors?” Blanche asks.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen says.

The questions continue at that cadence, with Blanche adding judges and Donald Trump, to which Cohen also responds that, yes, he has blamed them at times for his wrongdoing.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says Michael Cohen got credit for accepting responsibility in his sentencing, even though he lied to the judge about accepting responsibility.

“You repeatedly said to congressmen and senators under oath over the course of two days that you had accepted responsibility for your conduct,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, referring to Michael Cohen’s 2019 testimony before Congress.

“Correct, and that I was going to prison as a result,”Cohen said.

“But do you agree with me that lying under oath is not accepting responsibility,” asks blanche.

Cohen asked him to clarify his question.

“Do you agree with me that when you plead guilty to a crime and you’re lying that’s not accepting responsibility for your conduct?” Blanche asks.

“I accepted responsibility and I was suffering the consequences as a a result,” Cohen said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche now returns to Michael Cohen’s 2019 congressional testimony.

Judge Juan Merchan overruled an objection to this question.

“I don’t believe I was asked the question,” Cohen says.

Jurors are, as usually, paying attention to this back and forth.

The defense continues to press Michael Cohen about his previous lies under oath — and his motivation for making the false statements.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Cohen if it’s true he lied to a federal judge because “the stakes affected you personally,” as Cohen has previously testified.

Cohen said that statement was true.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche interrupted Michael Cohen’s testimony while he was speaking, saying, “please don’t make a speech,” cutting Cohen off.

“When you testified under oath and pled guilty that you knew at the time that your false statements on that application would be used as a decision by the bank, were you lying?” Blanche says, asking about the charges against Cohen.

“I took the global plea that was provided to me,” Cohen says.

“Please don’t make a speech,” Blanche interjected, cutting Cohen off.

Michael Cohen is now explaining why he did not feel he should have been charged as a first-time tax evader.

His voice is getting more animated as he speaks, his pace quickening.

“You testified under oath at a different trial that you did not commit the crimes that you pled guilty to before Judge Pauley, correct?” attorney Todd Blanche asks, referring to Trump’s civil fraud trial when Cohen testified about the guilty plea.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Cohen is facing the jury as he explains why he shouldn’t have been charged.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche confirmed that Michael Cohen has called the federal judge who sentenced him in the federal case “corrupt” and “was in on it.”

Cohen said “I do” when asked if he still currently believes that Judge William Pauley was in on his prosecution.

Blanche asked if he called prosecutors for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Pauley “f**king animals.”

“Correct,” Cohen said.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now referencing Michael Cohen’s book, “Revenge,” and confirming that Cohen described his tax charges as “bogus” in the text.

“You felt — and I believe you still feel — that you did not engage in tax fraud, but you had to plead guilty to protect your wife and family?” Blanche asks.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Blanche asks, “In your book you said the charges were 100% inaccurate?”

“I was referring to the same thing,” Cohen said.

Why it matters: This is part of an extensive line of questioning in which the defense is harping on whether Cohen is the kind of person willing to accept responsibility for his actions.

Blanche has also raised statements Cohen made in pretrial proceedings and his testimony, asking Cohen to lay out to what degree he blames himself for prior wrongdoing.

The defense resumed its cross-examination of Michael Cohen Thursday after almost two hours of questioning on Tuesday. Cohen started by knocking down the defense’s questions about information he learned from a former district attorney’s office investigator.

Here are the highlights of his testimony:

Texts to ex-DA office investigator: Cohen viewed text messages he sent Jeremy Rosenberg, a former investigator for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Cohen undercut the defense when he said he didn’t find out about Trump’s indictment from Rosenberg – he found out in a New York Times article.

David v. Goliath: Cohen confirmed he viewed himself as David and Trump as Goliath, referring to Trump’s indictment, in a March 2023 appearance on CNN. The indictment was not unsealed when Cohen said he had “Goliath on his back.”

He wanted Trump to go to prison: The defense brought up two episodes of his “Mea Culpa” podcast where Cohen said what he wanted Trump to go to prison. Here’s what Cohen said:

Posting on social media: Cohen admitted he kept posting on social media about the trial, despite knowing a paralegal was tracking his accounts and pleas from the district attorney’s office asking him to stop.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking Cohen about his meeting with pretrial services, and about whether a court official was concerned Cohen had not accepted responsibility for his conduct.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

“When you met with him and talked about the offense conduct, you blamed others, correct?” Blanche asks.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche presses Cohen further, zeroing in on previous statements in which Cohen said he had not committed the tax crime.

“I repeated what I had written as well with my attorney in the sentencing memo, that I take responsibility, but I did not believe that it was a charge that I should have been, a crime that I should have been, charged with. That’s in the sentencing memo as well,” Cohen says.

“Nobody induced you or threatened you to plead guilty, correct?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, referring to the tax evasion charges that were in part linked to his taxi medallion income.

“As I stated previously, I was provided 48 hours within which to accept the plea or the Southern District of New York was going to file an 80-page indictment hat included my wife. And I elected to protect my family,” Cohen said.

When Blanche asked again if Cohen felt induced to plead guilty Cohen said, “I never denied the underlying facts I just did not believe that I should have been criminally charged for either of those six offenses.”

“That was a lie?” Blanche asks. “That was not true,” Cohen said.

As he did on Tuesday, Blanche again pushed Cohen on his view of what’s different between a lie and something that is not true.

“I was using just different terminology,” Cohen said. “So it was a lie?” Blanche said.

“Correct.” Cohen answered.

Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, is presenting a “starkly different” demeanor in court to that which he has shown in previous media appearances, including on his own podcast, according to CNN reporters outside the courthouse.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Kaitlin Collins pointed to past comments by Cohen, including on October 23, 2020, when he said, “I absolutely f***ing hope that this man ends up in prison.”

“We all know Michael Cohen. It’s not the demeanor you saw on the stand where was initially ‘yes ma’am, no ma’am,’ to the prosecution, looking at the jury, acknowledging that he was mesmerized by Donald Trump but how that relationship deteriorated,” she added.

Holmes said this was a part of the defense’s plan, to point to Cohen’s inconsistencies. She said lawyers are trying to show the jury the contrast between how he is acting on the stand versus his “aggressive social media posts.”

“You have this person on the stand who really is playing along with what they wanted him to do, which was to stay measured,” she said.

“Now you’re actually hearing a different Michael Cohen than what the jury has been hearing,” she added.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked about a business associate of Michael Cohen’s who cooperated in the federal investigation.

Cohen explained that the associate ran a taxi management company and leased taxi medallions from Cohen.

“So you plead guilty on August 21, 2018, and a few minutes into that hearing the same thing happens that happened on Monday morning, Judge Pauley has his deputy swear you in. Correct?” Blanche asks.

For context: The tax evasion charges Cohen pleaded guilty to in 2018 were in part linked to his taxi medallion income. Cohen confirmed on the stand today he knew before pleading guilty that the taxi management associate cooperated with the federal investigators against him.

Blanche is now walking Cohen through the statements he made to Judge William Pauley during that hearing.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is pressing Michael Cohen on whether he has accepted responsibility for his lies under oath, or if he blames Trump for his false statements during testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.

“I worked with a joint defense agreement and we crafted the two-page document in order to stay on message — the message we all knew Mr. Trump wanted, including Mr. Trump’s attorney at the time,” Cohen responds.

“So are you saying you’re accepting responsibility, or blaming the joint defense agreement?” Blanche followed up.

“Accepting responsibility, I read it and I submitted it to the committee,” Cohen said on the stand.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is turning now to the 2017 House Intelligence Committee testimony where Michael Cohen lied under oath and was charged with perjury in 2018.

Blanche is asking Cohen to recount the lies.

When Cohen said he stopped the Trump Tower Moscow project talks in January 2016, that was a lie, Cohen confirms. “What was the other lie?” Blanche asks. “I don’t recall. I think those were the two,” Cohen says.

On Tuesday, prosecutors also went over the lies Cohen told before Congress to try to get ahead of this part of the cross.

After citing Michael Cohen’s previous remarks in the media about Donald Trump, Todd Blanche shifted to Cohen’s previous testimony under oath.

“Was that oath that you took every single time, so going back to all the depositions, the same oath that you took Monday morning in this courtroom?” Blanche asks.

“Yes sir,” Cohen says.

“The oath doesn’t change, depending on the location, does it?” Blanche asks.

“No,” Cohen says.

“And each time you met with a federal agent you were told that if you made a false statement that that was a felony, a federal crime, correct?” Blanche asks.

“Yes sir,” Cohen says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen about a TikTok from April 21, 2024, just before opening statements in the hush money trial.

On the TikTok, Blanche said Cohen said he has “mental excitement about the fact that this trial was starting.”

Blanche noted that the paralegal was monitoring social media.

“That didn’t stop you, did it?” he asked.

Cohen said, “No, sir.”

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asks whether there’s many more clips of Michael Cohen speaking insultingly of Donald Trump, similar to the ones that were played in court.

“You continued to call President Trump various names on your podcasts and when you’re even doing CNN interviews, correct?” Blanche asks. “Correct,” Cohen says.

Blanche shows Cohen a March 2023 post from Trump on his Truth Social platform attacking Cohen and Stormy Daniels. He asks whether Cohen responded.

“I’m not on Truth Social, sir,” Cohen says initially.

Blanche clarifies that he did respond on X, formerly known on as Twitter.

“You called him dumba** Donald?” the Trump attorney asks.

“Sounds correct,” Cohen confirms.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asks Michael Cohen if he’s publicly said the work he’s done helped get Donald Trump indicted.

“I took some credit, yes,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked him again, Cohen said, “Yes that’s what I believe.”

Another podcast recording is being played for the jury, from October 23, 2020.

“I truly f**king hope that this man ends up in prison,” Michael Cohen is heard saying.

He goes on to say, “But 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 my family.”

On the clip from a May 30, 2023, podcast episode being played in court, Michael Cohen thanks “the Manhattan district attorney’s office and their fearless leader, Alvin Bragg.”

He goes on to say of Trump: “He is about to get a taste of what I went through, and I promise you it’s not fun.”

Cohen’s voice on the podcast is starkly different from how he sounds on the stand, speaking much more quickly and with a sense of excitement about the indictment.

The defense’s questions have turned to one of Michael Cohen’s podcasts.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche pulls up a clip of Cohen’s Mea Culpa podcast, in which Cohen gives his reaction to the indictment.

Blanche, the judge and Cohen are wearing headphones.

Trump did not put on the headphones to listen to the clip.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objects to the playing of the clip for “reasons” she says she laid out at the bench, but Judge Juan Merchan overrules and the podcast is being played.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche brings up Michael Cohen’s appearance on CNN on March 30, 2023, after the indictment of the former president when Cohen referred to the indictment as David v. Goliath.

Cohen confirms he viewed himself as David and Trump as Goliath.

“And you actually said on March 30, so before the indictment was unsealed, that ‘You had Goliath on his back,’ didn’t you?” Blanche asked.

“Sounds correct,” Cohen says.

Cohen confirmed he meant he was David and Trump was Goliath.

Blanche asked to approach the bench again, but Judge Merchan said no.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked if detective Jeremy Rosenberg confirmed to Michael Cohen that Trump had been indicted. Rosenberg was a former detective with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

His question is based on news reports and not publicly announced by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

“Did Rosenberg tell you before the indictment was unsealed in this case that they told the New York Times about the indictment before they told you?” Blanche asked.

“No sir,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he learned about Trump’s indictment from The New York Times article.

“I asked him, ‘Nice to find out through the New York Times article, thanks for a heads up,” Cohen says of his texts with Rosenberg.

More context: Trump was indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult-film star in 2016.

Prosecutors allege Trump was a part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Read more about this case and the other three criminal cases Trump faces.

Michael Cohen is reviewing text messages on a monitor inside the courtroom. The messages are not in evidence.

Trump is whispering with his attorney Emil Bove while Cohen is reviewing the messages.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger quickly steps in and asks if the large “swaths” of redactions make the texts out of context. Cohen says, “I believe so.”

She objected to them coming into evidence. After a brief discussion with lawyers, Judge Juan Merchan sustained the objection.

Trump shook his head as Merchan sustained the objection.

Blanche also asked if in one of the texts Cohen says he was “going to hold President Trump accountable.” There was another objection that was also sustained.

Michael Cohen is being asked about his interactions with a former investigator for the district attorney’s office.

This is the detective Cohen gave his phones to in 2023.

Lawyers for both sides had a brief sidebar. They have a redacted version of the texts being shown to Cohen.

Cross-examination is underway. Trump attorney Todd Blanche, who is at the podium, is directing his questions at Michael Cohen who is on the stand.

Judge Juan Merchan told the jury that because the schedule over the next few weeks will be disrupted by holidays and conflicts it may be necessary for the court to be in session next Wednesday.

He added that if any juror can’t work on Wednesday that’s fine and the court won’t sit.

Remember: The courtroom has been dark on Wednesdays since the start of the hush money trial.

Michael Cohen is back on the stand for cross-examination by the defense.

He avoided looking in the direction of Donald Trump as he walked in the courtroom. The judge has also called the jury in.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche grilled Cohen for about two hours Tuesday afternoon, painting him as a man obsessed with Trump and bent on revenge.

Blanche is expected to focus his questioning Thursday on alleged ties Cohen has told in the past to try to undercut his credibility with the jury, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Cohen’s credibility is key because he is the only witness who has directly tied Trump to the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels and the false documents created to disguise the repayment to Cohen.

CNN’s Laura Dolan contributed reporting to this post.

The sidebar lasted nearly 20 minutes. We’ll learn more about what they were talking about when a transcript is out later today.

Judge Juan Merchan spoke with his clerks, saying, “I apologize for all the whispering.”

Lawyers for both the defense and prosecution are at the bench speaking with Judge Juan Merchan.

Trump attorney Emil Bove walked back to the defense table to grab a notebook for the sidebar, while Trump is sitting at the defense table with his attorney, Susan Necheles.

Trump is watching Judge Merchan interact with his attorney Todd Blanche and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger — both of whom have done the majority of the talking.

Trump is leaning back with his eyes closed, as he’s been for much of Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers are at court today to support Donald Trump, according to the Trump campaign.

Trump allies have been appearing in court throughout the trial.

Here’s who is in court today:

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench as day 18 of Trump’s hush money trial gets underway.

Donald Trump has entered the courtroom. He is joined by Eric Trump, GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and several politicians.

Gaetz is sitting next to Eric Trump in the front row. GOP Reps. Mike Waltz, Robert Good and Lauren Boebert are also in front row.

The line of politicians trailing Trump was so long that it caused a backup into the aisle as court security officers tried to find them all seats.

Former President Donald Trump, with lawyer Todd Blanche, speaks to the press on arrival at his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 16.

Donald Trump slammed Judge Juan Merchan in remarks before entering the Manhattan courtroom on Thursday.

“The judge, as you know, is highly conflicted, like nobody I’ve ever seen this conflicted; he should not be the judge. He should not be allowed to have anything to do with this case. He should be so far away this case,” Trump told reporters.

The former president also complained about the area around the court being like “Fort Knox” due to security and not allowing “friendly protesters.” Trump also repeated his claim that the real crime is that the hush money case was allowed to go to trial and that it is a part of a political ploy because it’s happening “right smack in the middle of the election.”

Former US President Donald Trump, with attorney Todd Blanche, speaks to the media outside Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14.

Donald Trump’s legal team is led by Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two former federal prosecutors from New York, and Susan Necheles, a veteran criminal defense lawyer with deep experience in New York and with appearing before Judge Juan Merchan.

The defense will continue to cross-examine Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness, when court resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET. Blanche conducted the questioning on Tuesday.

During cross-examination, defense attorneys typically aim to discredit the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney.

Here are the key things to know about Trump’s legal team:

Prosecutors have entered the courtroom ahead of the start of court proceedings today.

When Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand soon, what unfolds will be a crucial test of the defense team’s strategy to undermine the prosecution’s star witness.

But it will also be a test of whether that defense team consisting of Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles and Emil Bove can please their difficult and mercurial client. Ultimately, that job rests with Blanche, the lead attorney who is conducting the cross examination of Cohen. 

After Cohen left the witness stand on Tuesday, Trump told those around him that he thought Blanche had done a good job, despite how Blanche was scolded by the judge by making his first two questions for Cohen about the attorneys, rather than the client.

Several allies of Trump’s argued he hadn’t achieved any knockout blows they had been counting on. That crucial day came after weeks where Trump had alternated between praising his legal team and berating them in private, arguing they weren’t being aggressive enough with witnesses or the judge.  

While Trump has always had high — and often verging on unrealistic — expectations for his attorneys, those inside the former president’s orbit view Thursday as a key test of his goodwill for Blanche in particular. 

Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse where the former president is expected to attend a third day of witness testimony from his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Defense lawyers are expected to grill Cohen, zeroing in alleged lies he has told in the past to try to undercut his credibility with the jury.

Court will end at 4 p.m. ET today, the judge said Tuesday.

Donald Trump has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a hush money payment made to an adult film star to hide an affair.

Prosecutors allege that Trump allegedly disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.” Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, allegedly received a $130,000 payment just days before the 2016 presidential election. The $130,000 payment to Daniels was made by Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal attorney, who landed in federal prison over that transaction for breaking campaign finance laws.

Cohen, now a critical witness, has said that Trump directed him to make the payment to Daniels. Trump and his legal team attempted to bar Cohen from testifying, arguing that he’s committed perjury more than once in other cases, but the request was denied.

Donald Trump departed Trump Tower moments ago, en route to the Manhattan criminal court where his lawyers are expected to grill the prosecution’s key witness, Michael Cohen, and try to undercut his credibility with the jury.

What we expect in the questioning: The defense will zero in on past statements Cohen has made under oath to argue to the jury that he can’t be believed while under oath in the present, people familiar with the matter tell CNN. One person familiar with the matter said it will take “a long time to get through the lies,” they allege he told.

Cohen’s credibility is key because he is the only witness who has directly tied Trump to the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels and the allegedly falsified documents that described the repayment to Cohen as a retainer. 

Prosecutors have shown the jury call logs and called witnesses to buttress Cohen’s account but his believability could be central to the case. 

CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia contributed reporting to this post.

A cadre of Republican lawmakers are expected to join Donald Trump in court in New York today to show support for the former president in his criminal trial.

Among them, Florida Reps. Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz, two sources told CNN. 

The courtroom has become a backdrop for wannabe vice presidential and future potential Trump administration Cabinet auditions.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who are both under consideration to be on the GOP ticket, made the trip this week to stand alongside Trump and offer their full-throated support of him. 

Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger before Judge Juan Merchan while a reimbursement check is shown on screen, as former President Donald Trump and his lawyer Emil Bove watch during Trump's criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan state court in New York City on Tuesday, May 14.

On Thursday, Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche will continue cross-examining Michael Cohen, and for the first time will focus on challenging what the former attorney for Donald Trump said in his direct testimony to support the charges in this case, according to a source familiar.

The defense wants to challenge:

Trump’s team is not looking to destroy Cohen on the stand, CNN has learned, but wants to at least make jurors realize they don’t want to make an important decision based on his word alone. 

Cohen’s testimony is expected to last until Monday.

Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump, leaves federal court in Washington, DC, on October 21, 2022, after he was sentenced to four months in prison.

After watching his former fixer Michael Cohen testify against him on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump was set to attend a fundraiser in New York City co-hosted by Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, whom he pardoned in 2020.

Trying to intimidate his sister from testifying before a grand jury, the elder Kushner set up a sort of rogue sting operation in which he meant to videotape his sister’s brother with a prostitute and then send the tape to his sister.

At least those are the broad outlines of the tale as told by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was then the US attorney for the state who prosecuted the case.

Cohen is rare in the universe of Trump associates since he both turned on Trump and went to prison. Many other Trump aides and associates who faced jail eventually got pardons or clemency and still support the former president.

Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger before Judge Juan Merchan while a reimbursement check is shown on screen in Manhattan state court in New York City, on May 14, in this courtroom sketch.

Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche began his confrontation with Michael Cohen on Tuesday by throwing the former fixer’s language back in his face.

Blanche confirmed the two had never spoken, but asked Cohen whether he knew who he was already since Cohen “went on TikTok and called me a crying little sh*t” just before the trial began.

“Sounds like something I would say,” responded Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer.

The question set the tone for the cross-examination of the Manhattan district attorney’s key witness in the hush money trial. For roughly two hours, Blanche began a cross-examination to discredit Cohen’s allegations against Trump. Blanche confirmed his questioning will take most of the day when court picks up today.

Here are the key takeaways:

Read up on the key players in the trial:

Donald Trump’s defense team is planning to focus its cross-examination of Michael Cohen today on the alleged lies he has told in the past to try to undercut his credibility with the jury, people familiar with the matter said.

Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is expected to focus on past statements Cohen has made, including under oath, to argue to the jury that he can’t be believed while he’s under oath now, the person said.

Another focus is expected to be to challenge Cohen’s testimony of conversations he says he had with Trump around the hush money payment and reimbursement, the person said.

The person said it will take “a long time to get through the lies.”

Remember: Cohen’s credibility is key because he is the only witness who has tied Trump to the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels and the allegedly falsified documents that described the repayment to Cohen as a retainer. Prosecutors have shown the jury call logs and called witnesses to buttress Cohen’s account but his believability could be central to the case.

One of the areas Blanche is expected to go into involves testimony Cohen gave last year at Trump’s civil fraud trial. Then Cohen testified that he lied when he pleaded guilty to some charges, including tax fraud, before Judge William Pauley. Trump’s lawyers believe Cohen perjured himself. Cohen has also repeatedly said publicly that he didn’t commit tax fraud.

Earlier this week, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger sought to get ahead of this questioning when she asked Cohen about that testimony.

Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen goes back on the stand Thursday braced for another bruising day of cross-examination that is shaping up as the most crucial chapter in the first criminal trial of a former president.

Cohen is the last prosecution witness, and his testimony is a sign that the trial – arising from a hush money payment Trump allegedly made to an adult film star and efforts to cover it up – is moving swiftly toward a climax that could rock the last five months of the election.

Trump’s self-described former “thug” endured a withering grilling Tuesday, as Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche sought to puncture his credibility, portraying him as a liar obsessed with the ex-president who was raking in a fortune with his quest to bring him down.

CNN’s Paula Reid reported that Blanche – whose cross-examination some outside observers said was erratic and over personalized on Tuesday – will strike directly at charges that Trump ordered the payment to cover up an alleged affair to mislead voters in an early instance of election interference in 2016. (Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty in the case).

Blanche is also expected to challenge Cohen’s memory of conversations with Trump. And he will seek to sow doubt within jurors’ minds that a decision of such magnitude should be made on the word of Cohen alone, Reid reported.

Read the full analysis.

Michael Cohen is “perfect for Todd Blanche,” former Trump payroll corporation attorney William J. Brennan said Tuesday as the defense cross-examined Trump’s former attorney.

Barrett Blade, Stormy Daniels' Husband, appears on CNN on Tuesday, May 14.

The husband of adult film actress Stormy Daniels said that there’s a “good chance” the couple will leave the country if former President Donald Trump is acquitted in his Manhattan criminal trial.

Barrett Blade spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday about the vitriol his wife, who is a key figure in the controversy over a 2016 hush money payment allegedly made to Daniels on Trump’s behalf, has faced.

He said that if Trump is found guilty, he believed Daniels would still face hate from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s supporters.

Some context: Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006 and was paid off in 2016 to keep silent about the affair. Prosecutors allege that Trump broke the law by falsifying business records to reimburse his former lawyer Michael Cohen and conceal a “hush money” payment made to Daniels on Trump’s behalf. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Read the full story.

Michael Cohen leaves his home in Manhattan to testify in Trump's criminal trial in New York City on May 13.

It would be no surprise if the jury in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial now sees his former fixer, Michael Cohen, as a profane social media troll and vengeful liar who dreams of seeing the boss he once worshipped behind bars.

But jurors don’t have to like Cohen. They just have to believe him.

Trump’s self-described former “thug” came under a sustained attack from defense attorney Todd Blanche Tuesday in a cross-examination meant to shatter his credibility as the star witness to the ex-president’s allegedly criminal behavior. But critically, he didn’t lose his composure on the stand. So far, he’s avoided traps that would fatally undermine the case.

Cohen has already directly implicated Trump in making payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up their alleged affair and apparently corroborated prosecution evidence that the scheme was meant to influence the 2016 election. (Trump has denied an affair and pleaded not guilty).

The task of the defense in cross-examination was, therefore, to so undermine Cohen’s credibility that they sowed reasonable doubt in the minds of at least one juror about the wider case.

Read the full analysis.

Former President Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan for his alleged role in a hush money scheme to silence his alleged mistresses before the 2016 election. He faces 34 counts related to “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.” 

Prosecutors called their key witness — Michael Cohen — to the stand on Monday.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 – the “hush money” payment – to keep her from going public before the 2016 election about her claim that she had an affair with Trump in 2006. The alleged reimbursement payment Trump made to Cohen is at the heart of the charges against the former president.

Trump’s attorneys have kept their defense close to the vest, but in court filings they’ve indicated that they plan to attack the credibility of Cohen and Daniels and paint them as liars who are motivated by grudges and money.

Prosecutors are trying to prove that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up hush money payments made to prevent adult film star Stormy Daniel’s claim of an affair with Trump from becoming public before the 2016 presidential election. 

Michael Cohen, who started testifying Monday, has served as a narrator for the prosecution and take the jury from the initial meeting in which Cohen, David Pecker and Trump allegedly agreed to buy negative stories that could hurt Trump’s presidential run to the payment made to Daniels just days before Election Day to an Oval Office meeting in February 2017, just weeks after Trump was sworn in.

Here’s a timeline CNN compiled of key events in the case, including several involving Cohen:

See a full timeline on the case.

Stormy Daniels is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger in Manhattan state court in New York City on May 7 in this courtroom sketch.

Donald Trump’s longtime assistant, the former banker of Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels are among witnesses who have taken the stand so far in the hush money trial.

As of Monday evening, here’s everybody we’ve heard from so far:

We are in the fifth week of court proceedings in Donald Trump’s historic hush money criminal trial.

To refresh your memory, here are the key moments and witnesses from the trial so far:

April 15: Trial began with jury selection.

April 19: A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected.

April 22: The prosecution and defense made their opening statements. Former tabloid boss David Pecker was called to testify.

April 23: Judge Juan Merchan held a Sandoval hearing for Trump’s alleged gag order violations, but reserved his decision.

April 25: While Trump sat in the Manhattan courtroom, the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments on the matter of his immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case against him.

April 26: Pecker’s direct questioning and cross-examination concluded. Trump’s former longtime assistant Rhona Graff was called to testify briefly. Finally, Michael Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro testified.

April 30: Farro’s testimony concluded. Prosecutors then called Dr. Robert Browning, the executive director of C-SPAN archives, and Philip Thompson who works for a court reporting company. Then, Keith Davidson, the former attorney for Daniels and McDougal, took the stand. Also, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for violating a gag order.

May 2: Davidson’s testimony concluded. Digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus was called to testify.

May 3: After Daus finished testifying, Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the district attorney’s office, spoke about reviewing Trump’s social media posts for this case. She was followed by Hope Hicks, once a longtime Trump aide. Her highly-anticipated testimony was a little less than three hours.

May 6: Prosecutors called two witnesses who worked in accounting in the Trump Organization: Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Org. controller, and Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts payable supervisor.

May 7: Prosecutors called Sally Franklin, the senior vice president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House publishing group. After her testimony, Stormy Daniels was called to the stand.

May 9: Stormy Daniels finished her testimony, with the defense trying to undermine her credibility by pointing out inconsistencies in her story on cross-examination.

May 10: Westerhout’s testimony concluded. Then prosecution called several custodial witnesses to the stand.

May 13: Former Trump attorney and key prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, started testifying.

May 14: Trump’s defense began its cross-examination of Cohen.

Read a full timeline of key moments here.

Donald Trump’s lawyers began their cross-examination Tuesday of Michael Cohen, a key witness in the hush money trial against the former president.

Before the defense began trying to poke holes in Cohen’s credibility, the prosecution finished its direct examination during which he described the moment he decided to stop lying for Trump.

Here’s everything you need to know about what happened Tuesday:

Prosecutors finish direct questioning:

Defense starts cross-examination:

What’s next: Cohen will be the last witness to testify for the prosecution, according to the court transcript. Blanche said he expects the cross-examination of Cohen “will continue until the end of the day Thursday,” according to the transcript. Blanche also said it is not clear if Trump would testify.

Gag order: Trump’s latest attempt to end the gag order against him in the hush money criminal trial was denied by a New York appeals court. Trump said that the gag order implemented by Judge Juan Merchan is unfair to him and should be lifted. The appeals court sided with Merchan, according to the order.

Former Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, departs his home for Manhattan Criminal Court n New York , on May 14.

Michael Cohen knows his cross-examination by Donald Trump’s legal team is not going to be friendly because that’s going to be the former president’s defense, CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid said Monday.

“This is how they’re going to make their case on behalf of their client. They are going to try to paint Michael Cohen as a liar who is out for revenge against his former boss,” Reid explained.

The defense has been using clips from Cohen’s podcast, excerpts from his book and his many interviews over the past six years to discredit him.

But while Trump attorney Todd Blanche will want to go after Cohen, he must tread carefully, Reid added.