hoffinger, did you continue to lie for him? cohen, yes. hoffinger! did you do that? cohen, out of loyalty and in order to protect him. hoffinger, and at the time he was president, is that right? cohen, yes. hoffinger, and had he already announced he was going to be running again in 2020? cohen, he had stated that. adam, what do you think that hoffinger is trying to prove here? >> he's trying to prove -- they're trying to prove he was loyal, that he had a motive, the motive was at the time aligned with trump. later he becomes vengeful. 24 will come out on cross examination. but they're trying to show that he was aligned with trump at the time and executing and continuing to follow his work, his bidding, and follow out his plan to silence and continue to silence this stormy daniels. >> also, what i keep thinking about here is he's saying, i was taking millions off the other clients in terms of the legal work i was providing as a consultant and here trump is paying him pennies relatively speaking compared to the other clients. he felt this personal connection to trump.

hoffinger, is the situation different than in 2018? the other one, my life was on the line says cohen. the other one, my life was on the line, i was a defendant. so he's making a very important distinction here that he's not the one on trial. he's a witness. the reason other things happen why he pleaded guilty. >> every question you just read was a leading question. cohen merely answered yes to all of them and the prosecutor essentially put into the record her own testimony and cohen said yes or no. she led him where she needed to go and nary an objection, maybe one or two. that's the strange thing. why bother objecting once in a while if it's going on all the time. and i think justice merchan is wondering the same thing. that's an objection he seems to consistently sustain whenever the defense raises it. >> you're trying to direct somebody, sort of what happens next. but controlling your witness is so important and now the prosecution is able to control and put the words in the mouth of cohen. though i think he's smart enough about th

hoffinger, that was your email to michael cohen? costello, yes. hoffinger, email speaks for itself? costello, no, not quite. there were surrounding circumstances, but i would be delighted to tell you. hoffinger, sarcastically, no, that's all right, let's move on to the next one. so, here she is presenting him with his own communication, something that he said spoke for themselves yesterday, when the defense was asking the question, what do you make of how this is unfolding? >> ana, the defense team is held bent on snatching a mistrial from the jaws of a conviction. and what i mean by that is they're doing everything wrong at this point. there was no need to put costello on the stand. ultimately, i would not have elected to put on a case at all with any witnesses because i'm going to sort of bank on the notion of i can convince at least one juror that they have not met the highest burden of proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. when you're talking about costello, witnesses sometimes who are attorneys can sometimes be too smart for themselves, and this is a perfect example of

hoffinger. information about the door man and mcdougal, they're interwoven with the actual crime because it shows, gives background information because they were paying off people who had damaging information that would hurt his campaign. not melania. not the kids. the campaign. so that's the prosecution's argument. so eventually, probably this afternoon, they're going to get to the documents, the 34 counts that relate to, or maybe tomorrow, that relate to daniels. >> i want to ask danny as a defense lawyer, why is karen mcdougal and that whole contract being permitted in? she's not a witness. that was considered peripheral. why is that central to the case about the contract with stormy daniels? >> spoken like a defense attorney. because we're talking about that gray area of what's called prior bad acts. traditionally, or the rule is that you can't just introduce every bad thing a defendant has done in the past to prove they committed this particular crime. but there are so many exceptions so th

hoffinger was this a retainer, no. what was this for, in order to pay stormy daniels to execute the nondisclosure agreement and to obtain her story, her life rights. they introduce another exhibit, the e-mail to michael cohen from keith davidson. i confirm that i will work in good faith and no funds shall be -- it's only after you received the fedex will i disburse, fair. e-mail to cohen from keith davidson, i wanted to make sure i received the agreement. did you receive the final nda. cohen, i did. hoffinger, did you let mr. trump know when you received it. the task was finished, accomplished and done. and also taking credit for myself so he knew i had done it. that was important. >> michael cohen was always looking for a pat on the back, pat on the head, if you will, from donald trump. he wanted to make him happy. he was very much like a puppy dog. look what i have done for you. i've done a good job. see me, thank me for this. for him to say i made this payment, i made this bad thing go away, i think it's plausible,

hoffinger says you mentioned they took two phones. were those the phones containing the audio recording with trump? yes, ma'am. that was one, and they seized another. correct. the one with the audio recording. did you know the fbi was going to show up and take your phones? no, ma'am. are you prior to them showing up altered the recording? no. how did you feel about that search at the time? how do you describe your life being turned upside down, concerned, despondent, angry. frightened? yes, ma'am. you were under investigation by the southern district. at issue, the phone recording. the recording was in that phone. >> yes, and remember, one of the issues was, and this was in pretrial motions, that audio recording could have been altered. stopping and starting, had it been changed, had it been edited. is it in its authentic form? so this is what the prosecutors need to say and get on the record through cohen to show that that phone, that audio recording was preserved, was not changed, and what the jury heard in the courtroom was the aut

hoffinger, was he upset about it? cohen, very. so where do you think this testimony is taking us here, misty? >> this is also important because this is really going to serve as the basis for what the prosecution needs to prove. remember, these ndas on their face, they are not illegal. so we have to get into what the motivation, the reasoning, the intent was behind catching and killing these stories. that coupled with keeping trump in the loop and that's the piece you see them homing in on right now. you have these communications with keith davidson, did you speak to trump? what did he say about it. that's why the conversations make michael cohen such a critical witness to close the loop on so many of the other issues that the prosecutors have already set the table with with other witnesses. but cohen, he's really the one that can talk about the structure of these transactions and the why. why were they characterized that way? why were they structured that way? >> we know a lot of notes are being taken by the defense, and maybe tha

hoffinger did you make a request at that time.ohen said if he would be kind enough to make the payment, why not ask. what did he say. not a chance, says cohen. hoffinger said, did he say way, recounting pecker's words, corroborating testimony, i didn't get my money back on the 150 grand even though that did not matter. i can't do it again, it could cost me my job. >> hoffinger, how did you leave things with howard on that call. make sure it's locked down. we're going to take care of it. hoffinger, who's going to take care of it. i was. are these screen shots of the messages between you and mr. pecker. cohen says yes. an exhibit that shows a list of calls between david pecker and michael cohen. do you see a flurry of calls between yourself and david pecker. cohen, i do. on why there were so many calls blames the app's signal. signal is terrible with keeping phone calls. they drop all the time. also factual. cohen says, yes, about the resolution of the stormy daniels matter. between michael cohen and keith davidson. what was the goa

hoffinger, did you sign it? yes. she goes on, how did you seen it? stormy daniels, but not as my signature looked any other time that i've written it. why did you sign it that way? daniels says as a tip off to jimmy kimmel. is that because you were upset about signing it? yes. was the statement false? yes. then they go on to say michael cohen was making public statements in february 2018. and there was an objection there which was sustained and i'm just going to scroll forward. hoffinger says was he denying you had an encounter with mr. trump. this was what cohen was saying. no, he was saying that i did and he was the fixer. why was that upsetting to you? daniels says because he could talk an it and i couldn't. so now they're getting into some of the details following the statement. michael cohen's come up here and how he was approaching this. what stands out to you about this back and forth that we're hearing, shan? >> i think this is really trying to portray her as not being someone who's trying to initiate all this. she didn't have an ax to grind.

hoffinger, tell me about that.e's what daniels said, i got an email from a friend in louisiana, she said it was a draft campaign against republican david vitter, i got really mad, they were using my name and image for a candidate who was running on a platform, antiwoman, and said some unsavory things so i jumped on board and said i was a better choice than this guy, even i was a better choice than this guy, made for some fun campaign slogans, she said, i have to admit. so, hoffinger, and this is interesting, your thoughts, you would be running as a republican? yes, correct. >> yeah, again, the humanization of somebody, so you now see stormy daniels has a sense of humor. you see she actually was politically aware. these are things if you're a juror, if you don't know about her, creates a relatability thing. perhaps you're looking at stormy daniels in a different lens if you're on the jury. >> right now, hoffinger has focused her, let's go directly to -- take your attention to july of 2006. were you working at a cele

hoffinger says, who was the he, cohen says mr. trump. hoffinger, were you still being paid by mr. trump. cohen, yes, ma'am. and were you personal attorney for president trump, yes. defense asked you questions about how you profited. i do remember. putting aside the financial matters, how has telling the truth about donald trump affected your life? cohen says my life has been turned upside down, lost his law license, business, financial security, my family's happiness, he says. hoffinger, there have been certain attacks you have faced as a result, has it been painful to you and your family. cohen says very much so. then the prosecution rests, not rests but done with michael cohen. there's the recross. todd blanche comes back up. you were asked about a question about your life being turned upside down because you changed your view about trump. this is an objection, it's sustained. blanche, you were asked about the consequences of your conduct, lost your law license. is that president trump's fault. cohen says in part. coenhad, lost my law license because of the totality, including c

hoffinger, what was the conversation about?en, david had stated that's going to cost him $150,000 to control the story. the karen mcdougal story, to which mr. trump replied no problem. i'll take care of it. cohen, ami was going to lay out the funds and as mr. trump had stated to david, i'll take care of it. and hoffinger asks, and what did you understand that to mean? cohen, that he was going to pay him back. cohen, i just wanted to make sure i was being updated regarding the entire matter, and now there are some more texts being admitted from july 28 of 2016. so all of this happening over the course of a couple of months so far, communications between cohen, donald trump, between them and the "national enquirer" people, dylan howard, david pecker, i'm starting to wonder here, charles, if it was just him in the room with donald trump with this communication with david pecker. at some point isn't it going to be cohen's word against trump's? >> yes, but that's why you have the documents. that's why the documents become so importa

hoffinger, would you have made the payment if he did not. cohen, no, ma'am. >> so that is the whole litany of what they as prosecutors and what we when we're writing a story would be called sign posting. we want to put up the sign flag it. tell the jury this is the sequence we saw happen, and you have visual evidence you can look at while deliberating. >> that's a lie on cross-examination. >> it's a surprising clean up. did you expect it to be this -- i mean, it feels like it's quite a clap back, am i wrong to say that? >> unless he was lying, and i said there's no way he's lying, they would have known that, they'll be able to clean that up. he had to have talked to trump numerous times. >> that's what you said be just before 4:00 on thursday when everybody was abuzz on that. >> charles, if you are putting together the final argument and you're on the defense, do you bring up this picture, or do you say, the prosecution would like you to believe because there was a picture of keith schiller with donald trump around the time a phone call was

hoffinger. how did you know who she was? >> cohen? >> because it was referenced back to the 2011 scenario that i dealt with previously with david pecker. the publisher of the national enquirer on i'm sorry. with keith davidson, stormy daniel's is attorney in order to have a story removed from the dirty.com that's a blog so hearing now, after the access hollywood tape release, that her story might come out again, what if anything, did you think about the potential impact that might have on the campaign, michael cohen says catastrophic, that is horrible for this campaign very interesting. >> i encourage khardori. what's the significance of this exchange? >> well, i mean it further as the prosecution's case for this hush money payment had been been all about the election rather than any other reason. and that would further establish one of their theories, which is that the payment may itself have been campaign finance violation or a crime under new york law. so it gets them further evidence on that front. what we have yet to hear, a lot

hoffinger about get into the my -- details.ully we will get into more of what would fill in the rest of the timeline between this encounter and the $130,000 she got as part of the hush-money in this bigger picture story, the alleged crime related to the payments of stormy daniels, and not just her but the reimbursement to michael cohen specifically. we talked about it. the hush-money itself is not a crime. >> it's not a crime. it's why he did it. you know, that's the crime. he did it to keep her quiet to influence the election. the judge is right to just say, okay, enough. just say, we had next and move on and let's go to the payment. i think susan hoffinger, the prosecutor will skip her notes and move past all the details about the sex and get to the payments, her lawyer and michael cohen and all that. >> we are getting color from alicia ruben who is among those that can see directly in the courthouse, and stormy seems to be concerned over what she did that alistitted the angry response, and this was a little bit ago prior to

hoffinger. and what, if anything, did mr. trump's say at the time? cohen says he approved it and he also said this is going to be one heck of a ride in dc question from hoffinger. and did missile weisselberg say in front of mr. trump that those monthly payments would be, you know, like a retainer for legal services michael cohen says, yes so why or coates is that the most critical testimony from the de well, because we're talking about 34 counts of falsified business records the order is not whether there was an affair or whether the allegations were true about either karen mcdougal are certainly daniel's is about whether or not they intentionally falsified records to suggest that this was more than what mcconney we talked two batches, simple dropdown menu or options were this i had to put legal services down. it was an intentional act. he is alleging, of course, you're talking about always sober and cohen, this conversation. but the defendant is actually trump that's the issue. but have you looked at the words that brought me just wrote read i'm cal

hoffinger.there come a time that you learned in approximately october of 2016 that donald trump had michael cohn. we're interested in buying the rights to your account, daniels? yes. >> and hoffinger. >> was after release of the access hollywood tape question bark daniels? yes. hoffinger. now, who did you understand when gina told you that? who did you understand that michael cohn was representing at the time? daniels, donald trump, hoffinger. and did you understand at the time that they would pay for your story for you not to release it publicly, daniels? yes. let's get some analysis from former federal prosecutor and marie macro voice and see you in an legal analyst norm eisen. >> norm, you're hurt today's testimony. firsthand, you were there in the courtroom, how significant is that exchange for the prosecution's case& we'll have actually break through given all the salacious and dramatic testimony money today well, if i think it will break through and it is significant, prosecutors are attem

hoffinger, are you a witness here? cohen, yes. and again, it needs to be repeated that despite being the one whose prosecution and testimony gave birth to this case, michael cohen is essentially battling cleanup in this case against individual one, meaning the case against donald trump doesn't rest on the testimony just of michael cohen. nearly everything cohen has testified to has already been corroborated by evidence entered into the record by other witnesses, documents, emails, text messages, and audio recordings. it's likely we'll ver a lot about that evidence again by the prosecution, next tuesday, when judge merchan has scheduled closing arguments to begin. closing arguments could have started later this week, but merchan ruled this morning that due to the upcoming call day weekend, he does not want there to be such a large gap between the closing arguments, jury instructions, and the start of deliberations. joining me now is lisa reuben, msnbc legal correspondent, duncan levin, criminal defense attorney and former prosecuto

hoffinger asks false. cohen says cohen again says he never retained castello and never paid him any money. so right now, i'm laura coates, what they're doing here is underlying stop listening to all this other stuff. michael cohen's not on trial. the question is worthies business records falsified? that's all that matters. and within just saying an a challenge this jury is it you're not going to have just one count to unpack the question before the jury is not going to be. >> do you believe them that $120,000 was paid to michael cohen as a reimbursement for trying to give a hush money payment and try to avoid transparency in campaign finance it's 34 separate counts. and the 34 separate counts late to the accumulation of foreign $20,000 that had been divided by 12th. now that's important here because todd blanche tried to make a lot of different inroads that suggests that there was padding, that there was falsified invoices from cohen to trump that represented him good getting hustled, but the jury has to n

susan hoffinger, the judge says, i'm going to allow it. yes. costello asks a judge before proceeding. sounds polite, but then castello begins talking about the email and hoffer once your objects again and the judge sustained this time costello said the call from cohen was one hour, 36 minutes, and 15 seconds over memorial day weekend. sounds like a lovely way to spend memorial day weekend. costello shakes his head slightly with an open palm gesture at the ruling or sean doesn't say anything about the gesture, but they asked castello to keep his answers it's narrow. asking whether he gave cohen legal advice on the 96 minute call without getting into details? yes. castello says beauvais shows the jury an email from june 7 and phone records. the call the call acid 46 minutes. the email from costello says that after you called me back, i left a message for rudy costello testifies after reading the email that gold directed him to call giuliani on his behalf, mr. cohen making constant object a complaints about rudy giuliani and what he was saying to

hoffinger: at whose direction and on whose behalf did you commit that crime?hether the jury views michael cohen as a truth-teller or whether they view him as just spinning another one of his lies is probably going to drive this verdict. >> reporter: cohen was the target of an fbi raid in 2018, part of an investigation into the hush money payments. he said it left him despondent and angry. but trump, he testified, offered him reassurance. "don't worry, i'm the president of the united states," cohen said trump told him. it was the last time they spoke. after making his statement, speaker johnson refused to take questions, but i did ask him would he stand with trump even if trump is convicted. he rushed off and ducked into his motorcade, underscoring how many republicans are coming here to show solidarity with trump, but few want to talk too much about the details of this trial. norah. >> robert costa, thank you so much. >>> now to that tragedy over mother's day weekend when a teenage ballerina was killed in a hit-and-run while waterskiing in miami. cbs's cristia

susan hoffinger reminded the jury that michael cohen is not the defendant. you actually on trial in this case, she guessed, cohen's answer "no." late today trump lawyer todd blanche move to dismiss the entire case, telling me they don't expect trump at this point to take the stand. they see too many potential

it went down hoffinger. the prosecutor asked whether trump said anything about what would be forthcoming to michael cohen. so again, we're getting details about this conversation. adam and i apologize, i will jump in the minute we get another update from the court yes. it would be a check for january and february. cohen response. so again, he is talking about how he is getting details. cohen confirms he took photos while he was there details around this visit to the white house to corroborate he was there even if there is no one else to testify about exactly what was discussed between he and the former president atom cohen confirmed he took photos while he was there? yes. i just saw that jurors are being shown the photo of cohen in the white house briefing room, which has been displayed previously. all of this atom i imagined evidenced again to support his presence there, if not the exact contents of the discussion after the meeting with trump yeah. >> go ahead. >> very powerful. just see those photos and gr

hoffinger asks cohen. no, he says. through her questions, hoffinger made an obvious point, that the defense was seeking to make michael cohen look like a criminal but ultimately the jurors aren't here to judge cohen's criminality. they're here to judge trump. hoffinger also reminding the jury that michael cohen already pleaded guilty to the very crime that donald trump is accused of trying to cover up, campaign finance violations for the payments to stormy daniels. and prosecutors after a lengthy and tense back and forth with the defense entered into evidence this photo, it's from c-span's archives, it's a screen shot from october 24th, 2016 around 7:57 p.m. that day. it shows donald trump with his bodyguard keith schiller. now, why does it matter? well, the photo shows the two men together suggesting that michael cohen could have talked to trump about stormy daniels, and he could have talked to keith schiller too. it undermines blanche's big, whatever you want to call it, grand slam, aha moment from last week when he

cohen says, no, hoffinger asks, why not? cohen says because everything required mr. trump sign-off on top of that i wanted the money back. >> okay. so this is really important testimony and this is a good example of where michael cohen is and is not corroborated throughout the state. it's october 26, about two weeks before the election the prosecution did a masterful job of weaving and various forms of corroboration. there's the phone records that john talked about. there's certificates from the bank, there's emails that backup that that's exactly what michael cohen did that day. however, to jeffries point, how are they going to cross-examine? how are they going to suggest michael collins lying? they're going to say what you actually discussed. the content of that phone call with donald trump. all we have for that is michael cohen's word and folks on the jury, can you trust him at his word? yeah. there's other stuff scaffolding is a good expression you used earlier. there's scaffolding around him, but to fill that in, you have to take the word of this man at face val

prosecutor susan hoffinger, then asked him, did mr.ed you to take any action with respect to the story, cohen replied, yes avengers says, what did he ask you in general to do? cohen answers, make sure it doesn't get released. here's what mcdougal's said to me in 2018 do you think? the presidential race had anything to do with this deal getting done what i'm looking back, at it now, possibly, yeah. if donald trump hadn't been running for president, do you believe this deal would have been made with ami knowing what you know now, probably not. >> know. how often you're pretty you're convinced. now this was an effort to do a favor for donald trump in the last few months of the presidential race unfortunately, yes. it's tough cutting from that shot of me in 2018 to this, i'm just saying rather been ravaged by time as john oliver one said joining south jury trial consultant around i was to be or not appreciate you being with us. one of the things that the courtroom sketch artist who was here said christine cornell, which is something a lot

hoffinger: "at whose direction and on whose behalf did you commit that crime?"en: "on behalf of mr. trump." >> whether the jury views michael cohen as a truth teller or whether they view him as just spinning another one of his lies is probably going to drive this verdict. >> reporter: cohen was the target of an fbi raid in 2018, part of an investigation into the hush money payments. he said it left him despondent and angry, but trump, he testified, offered him reassurance. "don't worry. i'm the president of the united states," cohen said trump told him. it was the last time they spoke. after making a statement, speaker johnson refused to take questions, but i did ask him, would he stand with trump even if trump is convicted? he rushed off and ducked into his motorcade, underscoring how many republicans are coming here to show solidarity with trump, but few want to talk too much about the details of this trial. norah? >> norah: robert costa, thank you so much. israel targeted hamas with an intense round of strikes in gaza today, including in the south, where hund

district attorney hoffinger quoted another email to his partner about michael cohen. this is a quote from the email. what should i say? he is playing with the most powerful man on the planet. now that email certainly speaks for itself, does it not, mr. costello? answer, yes it does. it is clear that costello was interested to be not on the team of michael cohen, but the team of the man who costello thinks of as the most powerful man on the planet. the man sitting across the room from robert costello in the defendant's chair. robert costello left the witness stand in disgrace at 10:11 a.m. this morning after 42 minutes on the witness stand this morning, establishing absolutely nothing. for donald trump's defense against the criminal charges of falsifying new york business records in order to illegally help his 2016 presidential campaign. the judge then explained the scheduling dilemma he faced. he told the jury that he likes to keep the final arguments by the defense and prosecution together so that they are not separated by a day or a weekend and that he would need ad

. >> reporter: inside court and under questioning by prosecutor susan hoffinger, cohen testified about a 27 to an oval office meeting, where he and trump allegedly discussed his reimbursement for the $137,000 payment to stormy daniels. cohen, who took a picture during his visit, said trump knew the financial records would be cast as ordinary legal expenses. harbinger: if not for the campaign, mr. cohen, would you have paid that money for stormy daniels? >> nome xp 21 no, ma'am. harbinger: on whose direction and whose behalf did you commit those crimes? cohen: on behalf of mr. trump. >> whether they view him as a truth teller or just spitting another one of his lies is probably going to drive this verdict. >> reporter: cohen with the target of an fbi raid in 2018, part of investigation into the hush money payments. he said it left him despondent and angry, but trump, he testified, offered him reassurance. "don't worry, i'm the president of united states," cohen said trump told him. it was the last time they spoke. after making his statement, speaker johnson refused to take questions, bu

hoffinger. she is a prosecutor. >> did you call mr. trump before you went and set up the account to make a transfer, cohen? >> yes. hoffinger. what in substance did you discuss with him on these two calls cohen, i wanted to ensure that once again, he approved what i was doing because i required approval from him on all of this hoffinger would do have made the bet payment to stormy daniels without getting sign-off from mr. trump cohen know, hoffinger, why not cohen? because everything required mr. trump's sign-off on top of that, i wanted the money back. i'm going to start with, you. bill because i want you you to kind of dissect that from the perspective of your in donald trump's choose your the defense you're the defense attorney watching this moment, maybe watching the jury that the way that they took this in how critical was this moment? >> well, if you dissect that statement, dana, there's a lot of mumbo jumbo in there. he saying, on the one hand this was a crucial importance to donald trump

i know because i was with susan hoffinger for almost a year. all right. it's fully corroborated everything. although cohen is testifying pursuant to a subpoena, it says that's even if he's co-operative, he's testifying pursuant to a subpoena in the case of the congressional testimony, we decided until chairman cummings no subpoena. >> we under oath, but voluntarily trump looked up at cohen after he walked by the defense table. >> we're also told that when cohen. walked in. he is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, light pink tie. his face was facing forward, his eyes are darting around the gallery cohen right now is giving his family background. he's been married for going on 30 years. >> he says back in 2019 when michael cohen testified before congress he said that donald trump doesn't give firm instructions per say. he said mr. trump did not direct directly, told me to lie to congress in 2017. that's not how we operate. so he doesn't give you questions. he doesn't give you orders. he speaks in a code and i understand and the code because i've been around

that was his explanation when he talked about it with susan hoffinger under direct.i want to read an exchange that i think it was important when it came to a post made on social media, on truth social specifically that michael cohen responded to. it was in reference to a truth social post that was actually not even an authentic truth social post. it was a fabricated truth social post by donald trump referencing michael cohen as a jailbird. but michael cohen did, nflt, respond to it on x, and here was the exchange. do you remember prosecutors showing this to you. yes, i'm not on truth social, sir, cohen says. you don't have a recollection of responding on x to that truth? cohen says, yes, sir. >> blanche says you responded in kind calling him a name right back? cohen says that is correct. blanche says you called him an expletive donald, sounds correct, cohen says. we talked a little about your statements on podcast and tiktok. on april 21st of 2024, you said you have mental excitement about the fact that this trial is starting. cohen says, yes, sir. so again, it is th

hoffinger asking were you paid that $100,000? no, but instead, he was offered $375,000 which blanche reiterates here, you have money. donald trump has been paying you quite well over the last couple of years or while you were working for him. the bonus of course of $125,000. just to remind folks of that transaction, when he was hired, how long he worked for donald trump until he left the organization subsequently in 2017 by the way. so for quite some time, he worked alongside donald trump kind of seeing him as a father figure and todd blanche taking us through that cross-examination right now and building it seems kind of this idea not only loyalty, which is what they did during direct, but now more so how donald trump treated it seems michael cohen quite well. leaving him with a heck of a lot of money and a high salary to many people in this country. >> blanche, at the time, you weren't lying? cohen says at the time, i was knee deep into the cult of donald trump. yes. this is about 2015 when he was running for president. you sai

yeah prosecutor hoffinger, what in substance did he say michael cohen? >> what he said was that he could keep an eye out for anything negative amount mr. trump, and that he wouldn't be able to help us know in advance what was coming out and try to stop it from coming out prosecutor hoffinger. and who did he say? he would get in touch with if his if he was able to identify those types of stories, cohen the answer was me, mr. trump, also, knowing my relationship with david pecker, the tabloid king, the two of you should work together and anything negative that comes out, you let michael know and we'll handle it. that's michael cohen quoting donald trump. now a lot of this has been corroborated by david pecker's testimony, what does that tell you that the jury requested this because if i recall correctly, the prosecutor the other prosecutor, steinglass, said in his summary that that trump tower meeting was a really important meeting to view this entire case. thrilled. an important lins so what you can glean from that note is that at least one juror, you can

i mean, he was brought into undermine michael cohen's credibility and prosecutor susan hoffinger spent the morning trying to undermine costello's and she asked him seemingly off the bat a somewhat innocuous question to set things up, asking costello if in that first meeting he had with michael cohen, if he had mentioned his connections to rudy giuliani, who was very close to trump, not yet on the legal team. and the costello had said that no, he hadn't. so then she brings up an email and shows it to him and says, you sent this email, correct? this is correct. i did say to mr. cohen that's correct. two days after meeting him? that's correct, yes. she said, i'm going to read this for the jury. i'm sure you saw the news that rudy is joining the trump legal team. i told you my relationship with rudy, which could be very, very useful for you. so confronting him with this to get him on the back foot suggests you did tell this to michael cohen in that first meeting. why are you not saying to the jury right now that you did this all this was a pattern that she used all day asking him questions

do you expect hoffinger, spend a year prepping him for this. >> yes, she's spent 20 years as a defensean she's been a prosecutor so i'm sure she beat him up a little bit and took care of him. the one thing, sorry, susan, i would have leaned more into his hatred for trump. he talked about a moral compass but he's been acting a fool on tiktok and wearing t-shirts. there's nothing wrong with saying yes, i hate him, he ruined my life. >> stormy daniels did that, too, and given the story they told and their relationship with donald trump and both believe he ruined their lives -- >> it would have been natural. of course i hate him. look what he did to me. it wasn't really an attorney client relationship. he was in many ways sorry, michael cohen, a lap dog for donald trump. he tried to please him then donald trump just tossed him away. so of course, he hates him. so i thought a little meaning into that, but other than that, i thought it was a very good direct. >> how do you get someone, andrew, under their skin. how do you prepare to do that? has he watched every interview that cohen has ever

he always said back to hoffinger. ma'am, i think that jury probably got a good impression of him and like norm said, he put all the evidence in addition to the paul logs. we have the checks, the invoices, the vouchers all of that is lana chart and the jury can see that. and so everything that michael cohen said has been corroborated by all of the other evidence and he connected those dots and obviously there's going to be more on direct, never mind cross, which they've promised. >> we'll go as just as long which i want to ask about, but stephanie, when you see trump's reaction today, obviously in court, he was listening or his eyes were closed, but he was irate afterwards when he spoke to the cameras. i rate more so than we have seen him thus far after any other day in core what do you read into that in terms of his ability to keep his composure in that courtroom i think that he probably saw the news coverage after stormy daniels was was up on the stand and his reaction was covered pretty widely and it wasn't it wasn'

we're supposed to be your first loyalty hoffinger that's the prosecutor says. so what decision did you make? michael cohen says that it was time to listen to them hoffinger what did you decide about where your loyalty should be going forward? cohen to my wife my daughter, my son, and the country. there was a critical moment for the jury to understand what's going on in his head and maybe you've had a lot of people working. having everything to trump in the past he has a command of people psychologically, the jury is seeing this yeah, i think that that is a great story on the direct it we'll see how it holds up through the rest of cross because yeah there's a lot more to the story than just that. and i think that if they if todd blanche does a good job of going through the facts of when he first had the raid and he was first offered the opportunity to cooperate and he didn't he said, very emphatically, i don't i don't know anything about donald trump. >> no, he wasn't involved. he didn't know about these checks. i did it to protect melania and then go through wh

susan hoffinger knows what she's doing.will call the fact portion of his testimony, you will hear about all sorts of crimes. if she's smart, she will bring out that they're not all for donald trump. you want to pull the teeth on that. tomorrow, they will learn both from the prosecution a lot of bad acts, crimes he had committed including perjury. the -- there will be a lot of cross examination. that tape recording will be used to say he will do something behind donald trump's back. it will be a rough cross examination but that's part of the system. >> one of the challenges of this from the defense perspective is, whatever you think of michael cohen and whatever the defense wants the jury to think of michael cohen, donald trump hired him. donald trump kept him on for 10 years. donald trump made him a republican party official for a while, in fact. this guy is here because donald trump made the choice for him to be here. >> donald trump tested him from the first interaction they had. michael cohen testified today the first he

than hoffinger asked at who's direction and on whose behalf did you commit that crime? >> and then cohen says on behalf of mr. trump, i do wonder if that gets to the point you bring up michael, you're talk about that in a second. >> i just want to very quickly say they also gotten the direct examination into the oval office visit, which is something caitlin been talking about for some time, or cohen says i was sitting with president trump and he asked me if i was okay in the oval office. he asked me if i needed money. i said no. all good. he said because i can get a check and i said no. i said i'm okay. he said. all right, just make sure you deal with allen as an allen weisselberg and hoffinger asks, did he say anything about what would be forthcoming to you? cohen says yes, it will be a check for january and february, and then at that point in time, you had not yet been reimbursed for the payments you had made history daniels cohen says, no, ma'am. >> this is a perfect example of what temidayo and michael were just talking about that meeting. the fact that that meeting

it's the first time that i've noticed that in this trial again and again, susan hoffinger was tryingo get cohen to talk to the jury and he started talking to the jury several times today, they put down there writing instruments and they just listened to him and it felt to me like a conversation you'd never know wellies constantly reminding me you can't read the minds of the jury. i did bring my jury consultant with me which i haven't common with travel, susan susan nicholas, i brought her one day because i wanted but her insights on what this jury was thinking, but i do think that michael cohen had a little bit of a bond that was established over his examination with the jury that is very dangerous for donald trump. todd blanche had to knock cohen afi had one shot at a first impression as my mother always said, you only get one chance at a first impression. >> he blew it. >> what did your jury and consultants say to you she said that she did not think we were gonna get a hung jury in this case by very first cnn trial diary was about trump stroke brad, a g, one angry juror. >> what yo

the lawyer for the prosecution, susan hoffinger asked cohen, quote, what if anything did you think about the potential impact that might have on the campaign? catastrophic, cohen says, quote, horrible for the campaign. cohen testified that when he shared with his then-boss the fact that stormy's story had resurfaced with just weeks to go ahead of the 2016 presidential election donald trump said, quote, i thought you took care of this. i thought this was under control. that was trump. to which he followed up to cohen, quote, just take care of it. the ex-president told michael cohen to work with david pecker. from david pecker's testimony responded when it came to paying off stormy daniels by drawing a line in the sand and saying, quote, i am not a bank. leaving him berated by his boss, michael cohen, to figure out what he could do to take care of it at trump's direction. so michael cohen then testified that stormy daniels' lawyer, keith davidson, wanted an immediate wire transfer of the hush money to keep that stormy story out of the news. michael cohen was trying to push it beyond the el

about former trump aide for pigs testimony where hague said worried about his family and his wife hoffinger and the stormy daniels story resurface which is important because during jury instruction last week judge merchan said that if the jury found that the smacks other than politics that it cannot be considered a campaign contribution. trace? >> trace: nate foy live outside the courthouse. must bring in fox news on the anchor and chief legal correspondent shannon breen, she's been inside the courtroom today, now she's outside. some others are inside. in one of those who is now inside is trey gowdy and he dusted the following, "if you are wondering about the definition of the word speculation we just got it." going on to say, "the prosecution said trump will likely not have won of doreen di nino story not been suppressed." tracing, "stupid me that it might have been a number of times hillary clinton visited wisconsin or maybe her e-mails." to receive kind of pattern forming inside for closing arguments but what you think about that? >> yeah, sew prosecution needs people to believe that thi