Dramatic day in court as defense begins to present case in Trump trial

Former US President Donald Trump and attorney Todd Blanche speak to the press before departing Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Monday, May 20.

The prosecution rested its case against Donald J. Trump on Monday in the former president’s hush money trial, which is barreling toward a conclusion as soon as next week. Michael Cohen’s testimony wrapped up after four days — and 17 hours — on the witness stand.

It wasn’t long after the defense began its case for things to get heated. Judge Juan Merchan admonished a witness for the defense, Robert Costello, after he audibly complained when the judge sustained objections to the questions he was being asked.

Here are the key takeaways:

The transcripts from Day 19 of Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial give a little more detail about what happened between Judge Juan Merchan and Michael Cohen’s former legal adviser, Bob Costello, who was the defense’s second witness on Monday. 

“I will strike his entire testimony; do you understand me?” Merchan then asked Trump defense attorney Emil Bove.

“Yes, Judge. I understand,” Bove responded.

The transcript also notes that court officers had “great difficulty” clearing the courtroom, which is “made up primarily of the press.”

Merchan acknowledged that and said, “I can appreciate that the press wants to be present for every part of these proceedings, therefore, this record is not sealed. The press will have access to this record.” 

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:

Former Michael Cohen adviser Robert Costello declined to comment about his behavior on the stand Monday.

Judge Juan Merchan had asked Costello not to talk about the case. 

Merchan cleared the courtroom about 14 minutes into Costello’s testimony over “proper decorum in my courtroom.” 

Costello could be overheard saying “ridiculous” while attorneys were at a sidebar and later let out a “jeez” over an objection. After another sustained objection, Costello made an audible sigh and rolled his eyes, side-glancing at the judge. 

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

The hush money criminal case against former President Donald Trump is just one of four criminal cases he faces while juggling his presidential campaign.

The former president faces at least 88 charges over the four criminal indictments in Georgia, New York, Washington, DC, and Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to every charge in these cases. 

Here’s a recap of each case: 

Read more about the four criminal cases Trump faces. 

The prosecution rested its case in the hush money trial against Donald Trump on Monday.

The day started with Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, back on the stand as the defense finished its cross-examination and the prosecution worked to patch up doubts on redirect. Cohen admitted to stealing from the Trump Organization and was grilled about his financial interest in the trial.

The defense then called its first witness, Daniel Sitko, a paralegal for defense attorney Todd Blanche, to submit a phone chart into evidence. The calls in the chart were between Cohen and his former legal adviser, Bob Costello.

Costello was then called to the stand as the defense’s second witness.

Here’s a recap of what happened in court today:

Michael Cohen:

Bob Costello called for the defense:

What happens next: The prosecution will continue its cross-examination of Costello on Tuesday. Hoffinger said she has up to 45 minutes left of questioning and then the defense will have the opportunity to conduct re-direct. Bove said the defense doesn’t expect to call any more witnesses, which suggests at this point Trump will not testify in his own defense. Merchan said he expects closing arguments will be next Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump praised Bob Costello in his remarks after court wrapped for the day.

This raises the possibility of Trump running afoul of the gag order he is under by talking about a witness.

What happened: Bob Costello, the defense’s witness, is a lawyer who advised Michael Cohen. During his testimony, Costello could be overheard making comments while attorneys were at a sidebar, and over objections, and glaring and rolling his eyes at Judge Juan Merchan. The judge cleared the courtroom mid-testimony to address “proper decorum”

Former President Donald Trump speaks outside of court on Monday, May 20.

Former President Donald Trump called the hush money criminal trial a “witch hunt” on Monday after court wrapped.

He also said he hoped that Judge Juan Merchan grants the motion to dismiss the trial. “This case should be dropped by the judge,” he added, saying if Merchan did that, he could “gain the respect back.”

Trump also highlighted commentary from some conservatives that questions and dismisses the merits of the case.

Trump is still writing as his lawyers are packing up. He’s got a note he’d folded earlier, too.

Judge Juan Merchan says he will reserve his decision on the defense’s arguments for a dismissal of the charges.

“Thank you both,” he tells the attorneys.

“As I said I’m going to reserve my decision. I’ll see you tomorrow at 9:30,” Merchan says as he leaves the bench.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo is now up for the prosecution and arguing that several documents corroborate Michael Cohen’s testimony, namely the records brought in through Jeffrey McConney “memorialize” the reimbursement plan.

Colangelo says “at minimum a reasonable juror could conclude the invoices, the ledger entries, the signed checks with check stubs — all contain false information.”

The prosecutor now says that there is also an “overwhelming record of concealment” that supports an intent to defraud on Trump’s part.

As the defense makes its case for a dismissal of the charges, Judge Juan Merchan jumps in to ask, “So you’re asking me to find Mr. Cohen not credible as a matter of law?”

“Yes,” says attorney Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche.

“OK,” Merchan says.

“You want me to take it out of the jury’s hands and decide before it even gets to the jury, that as a matter of law, this person is so not worthy of belief?” Merchan asks again.

“We didn’t just catch him in a lie, your honor, he came in here with a history of lying,” Blanche responds.

“He testified and he lied under oath in this courtroom,” Blanche says, adding: “The consequences of that lie, if accepted, by the jury is a conviction.”

Merchan is skeptical.

“You said his lies are irrefutable,” he says to the attorney. “But you think he’s going to fool 12 New Yorkers?”

Attorney Todd Blanche is now going through his arguments. Here’s what he saying:

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking for a dismissal of the charges.

Blanche is arguing that the prosecution did not prove their case against Trump.

Donald Trump is staring at Blanche as he’s speaking. His body is turned almost around to watch his attorney.

Remember: This is routine. It is typical practice that after the prosecution rests, a defendant’s attorneys will move to dismiss the case.

Judge Juan Merchan has three options:

He can grant the motion dismissing the case or a particular count on the ground that the evidence is not legally sufficient to establish the offense charged or any lesser included offense, can deny the motion, or can reserve a decision until after the verdict has been rendered by the jury.

Trump attorney Emil Bove says he will have re-direct of Robert Costello tomorrow, but doesn’t expect it to be long.

The defense also does not expect to call any witnesses after Costello, Bove added.

The judge notes that can change.

Robert Costello in court on Monday, May 20.

Bob Costello, a lawyer who advised Michael Cohen in 2018, testified under the prosecution’s cross-examination for about 15 minutes on Monday afternoon before court ended for the day. Here are the key points:

Costello said Cohen was suicidal: When the two lawyers met in April 2018, Cohen was “suicidal that day and acting very manic,” Costello testified.

Costello to resume Tuesday: Costello is set to return to the stand on Tuesday morning for more cross-examination. The defense said they will have re-direct after that but do not expect to call any further witnesses.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said she has half an hour, possibly 45 minutes left in her cross-examination of Robert Costello.

Hoffinger also asked the judge to instruct Costello not to talk. The judge said he doesn’t generally give that instruction. Costello then walked out of the courtroom without looking at Trump.

Before the judge calls it a day, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Robert Costello about his impression of the meeting with Michael Cohen at the Regency Hotel in 2018.

Costello says Cohen explained to them that two nights earlier he was on the roof of the hotel and was going to jump off and kill himself “because he couldn’t handle the pressure of the ongoing criminal case coming his way.”

“Sure,” Hoffinger replies sarcastically.

“You just don’t like drama queens?” Hoffinger asks.

“I just didn’t know. I didn’t know the guy,” Costello says.

Judge Juan Merchan asks the attorneys to approach the bench.

Two jurors looked at one another when Robert Costello asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger to “speak into the microphone, please.”

Hoffinger went on to ask if Robert Costello can be empathetic to someone who’s apartment has been raided given his experience as a defense lawyer.

Costello said, “Yes.”

Rudy Giuliani “wasn’t in the picture at all” at the time that he met with Michael Cohen, Robert Costello said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger pushed Costello to say Cohen would be a big get for his firm at the time. Costello after a pause said, “I would say no I didn’t want him as a client.”

Hoffinger challenged Costello, saying that he would’ve been happy to announce Cohen as his client.

Email records show on April 20, Costello sent an email to his son about representing Cohen.

Costello’s son responded to the email congratulating him.

Costello testified that the quote in the email to his son was a statement Cohen intended to release at the time, pushing back on the notion that he personally held any excitement about representing Cohen.

Robert Costello reviews an email string between his partner Jeff Citron and Michael Cohen. He is cc’ed on the chain.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks him if he was hoping to represent Cohen.

Costello responds, “I wasn’t hoping anything, it wasn’t my email.”

Costello says it arose from his partner’s longtime relationship with Cohen.

“I didn’t know Michael Cohen from a hole in the wall,” Costello says

Hoffinger asks, “So you weren’t hoping to represent Michael Cohen?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

Costello says he met with Cohen “because Jeff Citron made an arrangement with Michael Cohen, and he asked me to come along” because Citron was primarily a real estate lawyer, Costello says.

Hoffinger asks if it was a “high-profile” case for him?

“Probably, yes,” Costello responds.

Bob Costello engaging in behavior that caused Judge Juan Merchan to clear the courtroom is “shocking,” CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said.

“The fact that Costello would conduct himself in a trial like this, potentially jeopardizing a case like this, I am actually pretty surprised, but it validates the concerns that have been expressed by members of Trump’s defense teams” about why they didn’t want to call Costello to the stand, she explained.

Reid also noted that his behavior undermines everything the defense has tried to do for their client for the past week or so and it’s unclear what kind of impact this is going to have on the case.

Reid also said that she personally has “dealt with (Costello) for a decade” and she is “pretty shocked” that he behaved this way on the stand. Despite having animus toward Michael Cohen and ill will toward judge, “the fact that he would engage in this kind of behavior in a criminal courtroom, in a historic case of this nature is truly shocking.”

Bob Costello, a lawyer who advised Michael Cohen after Cohen’s home was raided by the FBI, testified as the defense’s second witness on Monday afternoon. Here are the key points:

Limited questioning: Judge Juan Merchan ruled Costello can testify about “two prior inconsistent statements” related to Cohen’s testimony. However, he said he did not want the questioning to become “a trial within a trial” so limited the scope.

Costello and Cohen’s meeting: Costello testified that he met with Cohen in April 2018 for two hours and that Cohen swore Trump was not involved in the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

“Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments. That he did this on his own. He repeated that numerous times,” Costello said.

Judge lectures witness on decorum: On the stand, Costello audibly reacted negatively several times to rulings from Judge Juan Merchan. Costello said “ridiculous” after one objection was sustained, said “Jesus!” after another and rolled his eyes and sighed at a third.

Finally, Merchan asked the jury to leave and then criticized the witness’s decorum. Costello held a long glare at the judge, and a furious Merchan asked “Are you staring me down?” and then said, “Clear the courtroom.” After several minutes, everybody was allowed back.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking about the initial contact with Michael Cohen and if Robert Costello’s partner reached out to Cohen.

Costello responds twice, “The email speaks for itself.”

Trump attorney Emil Bove asked Robert Costello if he considered Michael Cohen his client.

“Absolutely. I had to treat him that way.”

Costello also said that his firm had sought payment from Cohen for his services.

Trump attorney Emil Bove showed the jury an email from June 7, 2018, and phone records. The call lasted 46 minutes.

The email from Costello says that “after you called me back … I left a message for Rudy.”

Costello testified after reading the email that Cohen directed him to call Giuliani on his behalf.

“Mr. Cohen was making constant complaints about Rudy Giuliani and what he was saying to the press,” Costello said.

As he began to say Cohen was also complaining about his lawyers not being paid by Trump at this point in 2018, Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection from Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger. Merchan then cautioned Costello again to answer only the question he’s asked. 

“Again, please just answer the question,” Merchan said.

Trump attorney Emil Bove, who asks Robert Costello to keep his answers narrow, questions him about a lengthy phone call with Michael Cohen over Memorial Day weekend in 2018.

He asks Costello if he gave legal advice on the 96-minute call, without getting into details.

“Yes,” Costello says.

Defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his questioning of Robert Costello.

There was no discussion of what just transpired.

Meanwhile, Bove has brought up an email between Michael Cohen and Costello.

Judge Juan Merchan has said to get the jury.

Most of Trump’s entourage got to stay in the room while the press was taken out.

Reporters wait in the hallway after Judge Juan Merchan ejected reporters and others from the courtroom and admonished the second witness called by the defense in Trump’s hush money trial.

There is a burst of yelling by security officers in the courtroom and they’re telling the media to leave after the judge said, “Clear the courtroom.”

Court security just said, “Nobody can come back in.”

Shortly afterward, the media was allowed to return to their seats in the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan has asked to “take a minute” and told the jury to step out.

“Mr. Costello you’re to remain seated,” the judge told witness in a raised voice.

After another sustained objection, witness Robert Costello rolled his eyes and let out an audible sigh side, glancing at Merchan.

“I want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom,” the judge says.

Merchan also said, “You don’t give me a side eye and you don’t roll your eyes.”

“When there’s a witness on the stand, if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say ‘jeez,’ you don’t say strike it,” Merchan says.

Then Costello held a long glare at the judge.

Then Merchan said “clear the courtroom.”

The jury is seeing an email brought up earlier during Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Robert Costello testifies that Cohen asked him to reach out to Rudy Giuliani on his behalf about the issue.

“He told me I was authorized to tell Giuliani that my firm was quote ‘on the team.’ That’s the phrase he used, but that he wasn’t going to announce it publicly,” Costello says.

There is another objection to a defense question for Robert Costello, which is sustained by Judge Juan Merchan.

There is a big audible laugh in the court’s overflow room to Costello’s exclamation.

Trump attorney Emil Bove resumes his questioning of the one-time legal adviser to Michael Cohen.

There is no further discussion of the comment.

Roberto Costello testified, “Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments. That he did this on his own. He repeated that numerous times.”

“Was Rudy Giuliani discussed at this meeting?” Trump attorney Emil Bove asked.

Merchan then overruled an objection from Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

Costello said his name came up “very briefly.”

Remember: During Cohen’s testimony earlier in the trial, he said he repeatedly denied Trump’s involvement in the payments to protect the former president.

Donald Trump’s attorney Emil Bove asks what Michael Cohen said about Trump’s family at the meeting at the Regency Hotel on April 17, 2018.

Judge Juan Merchan sustains an objection from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, one of several he’s already sustained.

Merchan tells the lawyers to approach the bench.

“Ridiculous,” Costello says on the mic while attorneys are at a sidebar with the judge.

Robert Costello is testifying about meeting with Michael Cohen in April 2018 and explaining to him that his legal issues would be resolved if “he had truthful information on Donald Trump and cooperated with the Southern District of New York.”

Costello said at the meeting, Cohen told him, “I really want you to explain to me what my options are ‘What’s my escape route.’ That’s the phrase he used.”

Costello went on to say that Cohen said 10-12 times during the meeting, “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.”

Robert Costello, a one-time adviser to Michael Cohen, shakes his head as if he is exasperated when Judge Juan Merchan sustains an objection from the prosecution about one of his answers.

Robert Costello says he met Michael Cohen at the Regency Hotel on April 17, 2018.

Costello says he was accompanied by Jeffrey Citron, one of his partners, at the meeting.

Cohen was “absolutely manic” throughout the two-hour meeting, Costello says.

“He kept on pacing back and forth, left and right,” Costello says, while he and his law partner were seated.

Robert Costello was just sworn in.

He did not look at Trump’s table when he walked to the witness stand.

Judge Juan Merchan rules that Trump attorney Emil Bove can question Robert Costello “as to two prior inconsistent statements. “

In addition, he says, “I will give you some latitude to explore the pressure campaign so you can elicit some inconsistencies and offer some rebuttal.”

Merchan adds:

“I’m not going to allow this to become a trial within a trial as to whether there was, in fact, a pressure campaign and how it affected (Michael) Cohen. It’s not the purpose of this trial and I don’t want it to become that.”

The jury is back in the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench after stepping away briefly.

He says he is going to take five minutes.

He told the parties to stay in the courtroom.

Donald Trump is leaning to whisper with his attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, at the defense table.

Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn is leaning over the gallery rail and calls Blanche over to talk briefly before returning to his seat in the second row.

Prosecutors have rested their criminal hush money case against Donald Trump, capping off weeks of a trial that could result in a historic felony conviction against a former president.

“That’s a big moment in a trial. And this is very much like you’d see in a movie. You get to — as the prosecutor — stand up and say, ‘your honor, at this point, the prosecution rests.’ That means they are done putting on their case,” he added.

Remember: The prosecution called 20 witnesses, including high-profile ones like Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Hope Hicks in an effort to convince jurors that Trump falsified business documents to cover up a payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election which they claim impacted the outcome.

The trial started on April 15 with jury selection. The prosecution’s first witness, David Pecker, was called a week later on April 22.

Donald Trump glares at Judge Juan Merchan as he debates attorney Emil Bove about what Robert Costello can testify to.

Trump attorney Emil Bove says that Robert Costello is being called to rebut the prosecution’s argument about a “supposed pressure campaign from President Trump.”

Bove also says Trump’s legal team let the prosecutors know they were likely to put Costello on the stand “days ago.”

From that initial meeting, Bove said Costello’s recollection is different from Michael Cohen’s.

“Costello recalls Cohen saying President Trump did not know about the payment to Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels). That’s extremely probative of the core issues in this case,” Bove said.

Judge Juan Merchan asks Bove “you don’t think the whole pressure campaign theory is collateral?”

Bove says not at all.

“The whole purpose of this was to make president trump sound threatening,” Bove says. Merchan says he disagrees that was the purpose.

“I disagree that Mr. Costello can testify about Cohen’s state of mind. I’ll consider some of your other arguments but I’ll disagree to that,” judge says.

Prosecutors are seeking to restrict the questioning of Robert Costello, a lawyer who once advised Michael Cohen.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says:

Hoffinger adds that Cohen testified he didn’t tell Costello the truth because he thought it would get back to Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.

Judge Juan Merchan is asking the jurors to step outside. Lawyers from both sides are at the bench before the defense’s next witness, Robert Costello, is brought into court.

“I do wish that we had discussed this earlier,” judge says.

Daniel Sitko, a paralegal for defense attorney Todd Blanche, testified on Monday as the defense’s first witness and said he put together a summary chart of calls between Michael Cohen and attorney Robert Costello.

Here are the key points:

Cohen-Costello calls: Cohen previously testified he spoke with Costello a number of times but never formally retained him. The jury in this case has already seen emails from Costello offering to serve as a backchannel to Trump after Cohen’s home and office were searched by the FBI.

The record shows there were 75 calls between Cohen and Costello, answered and unanswered, in April, May, and June of 2018, Sitko testified. One call on May 27, 2018, was 96 minutes long, the record shows.

No further call info: On cross-examination, Sitko confirmed there’s no way to tell who was on the calls because they came from the general line of the firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron.

The defense has called Robert Costello to testify. The prosecution and defense just wrapped up their questioning of Todd Blanche’s paralegal Daniel Sitko.

Michael Cohen testified for about 10 minutes under a re-cross-examination on Monday afternoon, his 4th day on the stand in the former president’s hush money trial. Here are the key points:

Cohen still blames Trump: Cohen lost his law license after pleading guilty to a felony. “Is that President Trump’s fault?” defense attorney Todd Blanche asked.

“In part,” Cohen said, adding he blamed Trump because of the “totality” of the crimes he was convicted of, including the campaign finance violations.

Focus again on October 2016 call: The defense on Thursday accused Cohen of inventing an October 2016 phone call with Trump just before he sent $130,000 to Stormy Daniels’ attorney, and returned to that point on re-cross.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s direct questioning of his paralegal Daniel Sitko is over.

Becky Mangold is doing the cross-examination for the prosecution.

She confirms with Sitko that there’s no way to tell who was on the calls listed from the general line of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron.

Remember: Cohen says he’s on a board with Jeffrey Citron who worked at the same firm as Costello at the time.

Michael Cohen, the last witness prosecutors called, testified for more than 17 hours over four days – the longest of any prosecution witness. 

Both the direct and cross-examination of Cohen lasted about eight hours.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger conducted a redirect for just under an hour, and Todd Blanche’s recross was 10 minutes.

David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc., was the prosecution’s first witness with the second-longest testimony time: more than 10 hours over four days.

Paralegal Daniel Sitko says he created a summary chart of phone calls.

He says he built the summary chart from one of the prosecution’s exhibits, a call log for one of Michael Cohen’s phones involving Robert Costello.

The record shows there were 75 calls between Cohen and Costello, answered and unanswered, in April, May and June of 2018.

Blanche asks Sitko to highlight a 96-minute call on May 27, 2018, the Sunday before Memorial Day. 

Some context: Costello once advised Cohen, but Cohen never formally retained him. The jury in this case has already seen emails from Costello offering to serve as a backchannel to Donald Trump after Cohen’s home and office were searched by the FBI.

The defense has called Bob Costello, an attorney connected with Michael Cohen, to the stand.

Costello has been brought up numerous times during the trial, including earlier today, when Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen to confirm instances in which the two communicated and met.

Costello testified on May 15 in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee and consistently criticized Cohen, saying “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.

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

The defense’s first witness is Daniel Sitko, a paralegal in Todd Blanche’s law firm.

Blanche is questioning him.

“You work for me?” Blanche asks. “I do,” Sitko says.

Sitko has been in court every day and is generally the one who lugs the huge binders of materials to the defense table.

Prosecutors called 20 witnesses in their case and called one witness, a paralegal, twice.

The prosecution’s case included high-profile witnesses, including Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Hope Hicks.

The prosecution has rested its case, capping off weeks of a trial that could result in a historic felony conviction against a former president.

The trial started on April 15 with jury selection and the prosecution’s first witness, David Pecker, was called a week later on April 22.

Trump had no visible reaction. Trump did not look at Michael Cohen as he left the witness box for the last time.

Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s main witness in the hush money criminal case against Donald Trump, has finished his testimony in the case.

Michael Cohen answered several more of the prosecution’s questions on redirect on Monday afternoon. Here are the key points:

Cohen says he acted for Trump: Cohen testified he had “no doubt” that Trump told him to work out a deal with former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg and that Trump gave him approval to make the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Audio recording played in court: To end the redirect, prosecutors played an audio recording of a conversation between Cohen and Stormy’s attorney Keith Davidson in which Cohen said, “I can’t even say how many times he said to me – I hate the fact that we did it. My comment to him was every person that we’ve spoken to tells you it was the right move.”

On the stand, Cohen confirmed the “he” in that conversation was Trump.

“I was referring to the payment to Keith Davidson that I made on behalf of Mr. Trump for the Stormy Daniels matter for the nondisclosure agreement,” he explained.

Both sides may rest today: Prosecutors have already indicated Cohen is their last witness, and the defense said Monday they may rest their case today as well. “We have a few witnesses here. There is a likelihood that we will rest today,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said. It remains unclear if Trump will testify.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is returning to the photo of Donald Trump and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller on October 24, 2016, that prosecutors entered into evidence.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen said

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about his life being turned upside down.

Blanche asks him, “You lost your law license. Is that President Trump’s fault?”

“In part,” Cohen says.

Blanche asks whether Trump had anything to do with the tax crimes and false statements Cohen made to a bank. “No sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche confirms with Cohen that if you’re convicted of any felony you automatically lose your law license in New York. But Cohen still blames Trump for losing his. “Correct,” Cohen confirms.

Cohen has said he blamed Trump in part because of the “totality” of the crimes he was convicted, including the campaign finance violations.

No cameras are allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway, but sketch artists are capturing the scenes.

This sketch from court shows attorney Todd Blanche continuing his cross-examination of Michael Cohen on Monday.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger completed her round of re-direct questions to Michael Cohen.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now back at the podium to ask the prosecution’s key witness more questions, which is known as a re-cross.

It is the lawyers’ opportunity to question the witness again before the person wraps up their testimony.

The key line in the audio recording of the conversation between Michael Cohen and attorney Keith Davidson is when Cohen says:

“I can’t even say how many times he said to me – I hate the fact that we did it. My comment to him was every person that we’ve spoken to tells you it was the right move.”

When asked to explain that line, Cohen says:

Hoffinger also asked Cohen to confirm who the “he” was in the line from the conversation between himself and Davidson.

“Mr Trump,” Cohen says.

The jury is back and the audio issues appear to be resolved.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now playing a recording of a conversation between attorney Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen.

Judge Juan Merchan stops the recording briefly because Cohen was supposed to have the transcript on his screen and he did not.

It’s playing now.

We’re now taking another break because prosecutors can’t get audio to work.

Donald Trump remains at the defense table with his attorneys.

He’s chatting with Todd Blanche as the prosecution’s paralegals come up to try to get the audio to play.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger went through a series of questions asking if Michael Cohen had any doubt that Trump told him to work it out with Allen Weisselberg and that Trump gave him approval to make the payment to Daniels.

Cohen replied, “No doubt.”

“Would you have paid Stormy Daniels the $130,000 had Mr. Trump not signed off?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

Michael Cohen says he recalls speaking with Donald Trump “more than 20” times in October 2016 about Stormy Daniels.

When asked, Cohen says records “helped to refresh my memory,” about when he spoke to Trump about the matter.

Trump smiles as Cohen says this.

Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s witness, identified Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller and Trump in the 2016 photo before the alleged key phone call about the Stormy Daniels payment.

The screenshot is now being shown in court for the jury and the public.

The photo is a screenshot from the end of the Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, on October 24.

Michael Cohen entered the courtroom and walked to the witness box.

Trump was whispering with attorney Todd Blanche as he entered.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass indicated that the jury will hear the stipulation and then prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will ask Cohen to confirm on the stand that Trump’s former bodyguard Schiller is in the photo.

Hoffinger is at the podium and showing the photo to Cohen.

The two sides have found a way to avoid recalling the C-SPAN archivist.

“We may be able to short-circuit this process,” Joshua Steinglass says.

He said the photo “will come in with Mr. Cohen,” referring to the prosecution’s main witness, Michael Cohen.

“We will not call a paralegal and we’ll agree to the following stipulation.”

They will show the photo and tell the jury:

Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial has seen a number of so-called custodial witnesses.

Their testimony, while dry, is a way for prosecution to enter records they hold as evidence for the case. They can bring things like receipts, book excerpts and other things that are key to the case.

This matters because there was a long debate on the need to fly in a C-SPAN archivist to be able to enter new evidence into record.

Why is this solution in use during this trial: The prosecution has to take this approach because “Trump’s lawyers would not agree to admit the evidence.” CNN’s Jeremy Herb explained.

Some other examples of custodial witnesses that we have seen in the trial: Tracey Menzies of Harper Collins, Sally Franklin of Penguin Random House publishing group, Digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus and paralegal Georgia Longstreet from the district attorney’s office.

Donald Trump is huddling with his lawyers.

Judge Juan Merchan told attorney Todd Blanche it was up to him whether to proceed with his case this afternoon or wait until tomorrow morning until after the C-SPAN archivist is recalled.

Trump was gesturing and talking in the huddle.

Blanche is now huddling with prosecutors Susan Hoffinger and Joshua Steinglass.

“Ok people what did you find out?” Judge Juan Merchan asked as he returned to the bench after a short break, referring to the status of the C-SPAN archivist the prosecution may bring back to the stand.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold said C-SPAN is preparing to book travel for Robert Browning, the C-SPAN archivist, so he can testify about the photo of Donald Trump and his former bodyguard, Keith Schiller.

According to his testimony from April 30, Browning lives in Thibodaux County, Louisiana, which is west of New Orleans.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the trial has adjourned early several times because the prosecution hasn’t had witnesses ready.

“That’s not the way a trial is supposed to work,” he says.

Judge Juan Merchan smiles and says “OK” in response.

Judge Juan Merchan asks the prosecutors to determine whether the C-SPAN witness can be in the courtroom by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Prosecutors say they’ve reached out and are waiting to hear back.

Merchan says we’ll break for a few minutes to see if the DA’s office can get a hold of Robert Browning, the C-SPAN archivist.

Rebecca Mangold, the prosecutor who told Merchan they were trying to contact Browning, had her phone out as she exited the courtroom.

According to his testimony from April 30, Browning lives in Thibodaux County, Louisiana, which is west of New Orleans.

As prosecutors finish their re-direct of Michael Cohen, they need to bring the jury’s focus back to the charges, a CNN legal analyst said.

Prosecutors “have to undo some damage” to Cohen’s credibility that the defense worked to undermine during its cross-examination earlier this morning and they also “have to get the jury to focus back on the indictment, back on the charges,” CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.

Honig said the prosecution should keep their re-direct short and try to shift the focus back to the criminal charges against Trump.

Remember: Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payment to Daniels. Prosecutors need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime — in this case, to influence the 2016 election — but they don’t have to prove that Trump committed that crime.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is indicating that both prosecutors and defense may rest their cases today.

“We have a few witnesses here. There is a likelihood that we will rest today,” Blanche said.

“So here we are on Monday and they’re about to rest, and they’re asking I guess to see if this witness can come back,” Blanche says regarding the prosecution’s request to call back an earlier witness. “We very much object.”

Judge Juan Merchan said he wants to know why the defense’s witness wasn’t sorted out sooner.

“It doesn’t seem like Mr Blanche is contesting the fact that they were together so I don’t understand why they’re jumping through all these hoops. They have the right to put us through the burden,” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.

“They don’t have to stipulate that Mr. Schiller was with Mr. Trump at that day and time, though it does not sound like they’re contesting that,” Steinglass added.

Merchan asked what is the prejudice to the defense? Blanche said its “patently unfair.”

Judge Juan Merchan is not allowing the district attorney’s office to bring in the photos as it is seeking to through a paralegal.

“I don’t see how the people can get past the heresay objection,” he says.

Donald Trump points to something in front of his attorney Todd Blanche and the two share a quick laugh as the judge explains his decision on the C-SPAN evidence.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said the prosecution may recall the C-SPAN archivist to testify. Merchan asks for a timeline.

Remember: Before the break, prosecutors argued that one of the photos they want to introduce as evidence of Trump and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller is pulled from the C-SPAN archives of a rally from October 24, 2016.

Judge Juan Merchan said that he reviewed the testimony of the C-SPAN archivist during the lunch break.

Merchan is re-reading the archivist’s testimony, including how C-SPAN verifies video is accurate and saves videos to the C-SPAN archives.

Trump is leaning back with his eyes closed as Merchan continues to read the transcript.

Remember: Before the break, prosecutors argued that one of the photos they want to introduce as evidence of Trump and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller is pulled from the C-SPAN archives of a rally from October 24, 2016.

Natalie Harp, the former OAN anchor turned assistant, just walked out of the courtroom to grab a sheet of paper, returned and walked directly to former President Donald Trump to hand it to him.

This is the aide who carries around a printer (and cartridges) so she can print out his articles for him.

While looking at the sheet, Trump raised his arm and gave a thumbs-up without turning around after she handed it to him.

Former President Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz is also back.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench.

Prosecutors are back in the courtroom ahead of the resumption of the trial this afternoon.

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court May 16 before his trial in New York.

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 allege 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 tried to attack the credibility of Cohen and Daniels during cross-examination, and paint them as liars who are motivated by grudges and money.

Michael Cohen answered the prosecution’s questions on redirect on Monday morning for just under an hour before breaking for lunch. Here are the key points.

There was no retainer agreement: Cohen testified the $420,000 he received was a reimbursement and that he never actually sent a legal retainer agreement to ex-Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg, contrary to what Trump’s signed checks stated. “There was no legal work that I was to be paid for,” he said. “There was no representation agreement within which to send.”

“Despite cheating,” Trump felt he didn’t get his money’s worth for the work, Cohen said. CNBC ended up not moving forward with the poll, “and so (Trump) didn’t feel he had gotten the benefit” for the services they had provided.

Cohen explains stealing from Trump Org.: Under cross-examination, Cohen testified he was reimbursed $50,000 for payments to Red Finch but only paid them back $20,000, effectively stealing from the Trump Organization. On redirect, explained that he did so because he was upset about getting a surprisingly low annual bonus.

He admitted it was wrong to do so.

Cohen says Trump approved false statements: Cohen confirmed that parts of a letter he sent to the Federal Election Commission and a public statement about the Stormy Daniels hush money payment were false and intended to be misleading.

“Did Mr. Trump approve the substance of these false statements by you?” Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cohen said.

Prosecutors and the defense have been zeroing in on the hush money payment at the center of the case, with Donald Trump’s lawyers trying to poke holes at Michael Cohen’s testimony.

According to prosecutors, on October 27, 2016, 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 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 American Media Inc., 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.

After the prosecution and defense argued for and against admitting into evidence a photo of Donald Trump and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller, Judge Juan Merchan said he believes the photo is relevant but he is going to think about hearsay.

The court is taking a lunch break.

One of the photos prosecutors want to introduce as evidence is pulled from the C-SPAN archives of a rally from October 24, 2016.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argues the photo is inadmissible as evidence because prosecutors did not follow the rules of evidence by issuing a subpoena to C-SPAN as prosecutors did for the other material earlier in the trial.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says that the photo shows that Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller and Trump walked off the stage together at 7:57 pm, ahead of the 8:02 pm phone call in question.

“Who knows what they’re going to say in their summation. We’re entitled to establish and I realize it’s not wholly responsive to … what happened on that phone call,” Steinglass said.

Blanche said that the C-SPAN record custodian didn’t authenticate information on the website, only what was in the archive and said a paralegal from the DA’s office cannot properly authenticate the photos in testifying that they found the photos on the website.

Steinglass said it’s an exercise in futility to question the C-SPAN custodian again but says they could fly him out for two questions to lay the proper foundation to admit the exhibits.

“That’s not the way the rules of evidence work,” Blanche argued.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger moved to discuss a call at 8:02 p.m. ET to Donald Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller’s phone, which was a big moment from Thursday during the defense’s cross-examination of Michael Cohen.

Hoffinger is seeking to admit into evidence a photo of Trump and Schiller, when Trump attorney Todd Blanche objected.

The jury was excused to discuss the issue outside of their presence.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said there are two photos taken on October 24 at 7:57 p.m. “which shows that they’re together.”

Blanche said he never asked or implied that Schiller wasn’t with Trump. “What we argued and implied that the phone call that was made was to Keith Schiller about a completely different topic than what was testified to on direct,” he said.

They’re arguing over whether the photos are admissible.

More context: On Thursday, Blanche confronted Cohen with text messages he sent with Schiller – whom Cohen had said put Trump on the phone – which were unrelated to anything having to do with Trump or Daniels.

It was the most dramatic moment of the cross-examination of the key witness in the hush money case, and the clearest example yet of the defense’s effort to cast doubt on Cohen’s memory of phone calls and other significant interactions with Trump in 2016.

Read more about Thursday’s exchange.

Judge Juan Merchan just told the jury that they are breaking early for lunch today.

He’s instructing them to keep an open mind. “I’ll see you at 2:15,” he says.

Michael Cohen will return to the stand and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will resume her round of questions after the break.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger brought up Michael Cohen’s fake AI cases in his briefing last year, asking whether he intended to mislead anyone by doing the Google Bard searches.

“No,” Cohen said. He’s now explaining what he did to generate the fake cases.

“After I just copy and pasted the first three, because they were on point, I sent them over to my lawyer’s office to review and incorporate into the document,” Cohen said.

“I was just trying to be helpful,” he adds, noting he does not have access to WestLaw or Lexis Nexis.

Cohen said that his lawyer discovered the error and notified the court that the citations were inaccurate.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger moves on to the text messages, emails, audio recordings obtained from Michael Cohen’s cell phone.

She confirms with him that he turned his phones over voluntarily and was advised all the material would be copied by prosecutors and turned over to the defense team.

More on this: Trump’s lawyers have suggested at trial that Cohen’s phones have been tampered with and he could’ve likely deleted materials from them.

Michael Cohen again said he never retained Bob Costello and never paid him any money.

“I didn’t like the way he kept invoking Rudy Giuliani and my concern was anything I would say to him would go immediately back to President Trump,” Cohen said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger entered into evidence a waiver Cohen signed in February 2019 with the Southern District of New York, stating that he did not sign a retainer and did not believe his communications with Costello were subject to attorney-client privilege.

Cohen read the statement in court.  

“Did 420,000 have anything to do with legal services” in 2017, Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“No,” Michael Cohen said.

When you submitted each of your 11 invoices to the Trump Organization stating each was for services rendered pursuant to a retainer, was that true or false, Hoffinger asked.

“False,” Cohen said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is moving quite quickly through her redirect of Michael Cohen to help rehabilitate him, CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said.

Reid added that the prosecution believes that “this is the best way to rehabilitate their witnesses; don’t get dragged down into the weeds, just got back to the point, try to rehabilitate and move on.”

Michael Cohen again confirms he never put together a retainer agreement for Trump when he left the Trump Organization and became Trump’s personal attorney, “because I never expected to get paid.”

Cohen added, “You’re an employee it’s not necessary.”

Michael Cohen testified that the former president’s trial is different from his own situation in 2018 because he said his “life was on the line, my liberty, and here, I’m just a non party subpoenaed witness.”

Cohen pled guilty to charges in 2018 on campaign finance violations related to the Stormy Daniels payment.

Earlier, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked, “I know it may feel like you’re on trial here after cross-examination but are you actually on trial,” Hoffinger asked.

“No ma’am,” Cohen said.

Judge Juan Merchan overruled an objection from defense attorney Todd Blanche. Trump smiled at this and did another stretch.

“Did Mr. Trump approve the substance of these false statements by you?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Michael Cohen.

Cohen replies, “Yes ma’am.”

“Under the circumstances of this NDA with Stormy Daniels that you testified to, was it perfectly legal under those circumstances?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

Cohen confirmed he pled guilty to charges in 2018 on campaign finance violations related to the payment.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now pulling up the 2018 public statement Cohen released explaining the Stormy Daniels payment.

Hoffinger asks if the statement is largely false. Cohen says it was.

Cohen confirms it was misleading in the same way as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) letter by leaving out Trump and just saying the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization.

He again confirmed that he intended it to be misleading.

Judge Juan Merchan instructs the jury that they can consider Michael Cohen’s attorney’s letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in evaluating Cohen’s credibility.

“Mr. Cohen’s plea is not evidence of the defendant’s guilt and you may not consider it it when determining” Trump’s innocence or guilt,” Merchan said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger reads a line from his attorney’s letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), “The payment in question does not constitute a campaign contribution.”

“Was that a true statement?” she asks Michael Cohen.

“No ma’am,” he says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is returning to the letter Michael Cohen’s attorney sent to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2018 on the Stormy Daniels payment.

Cohen had testified under cross-examination that he said there was an “omission” in that letter, Hoffinger notes, and during direct that it was misleading and deceptive.

Trump has a pen in his hand and is tapping the back of it on the paper in front of him on the desk.

Michael Cohen was asked why he took a $50,000 pay back from former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg for Red Finch, even though he only paid the guy $20,000.

“For a long time, I had been telling him about the 50,000 so that I could collect it for the president of Red Finch,” Cohen said.

Hoffinger then asked, “but you admitted on cross that it was wrong.”

“It was,” Cohen says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen what Red Finch did for Trump.

Cohen said Trump was polling low in the CNBC poll.

“And it upset him,” Cohen says.”And he had me come to his office and provide me a sheet of paper that showed it.”

“I reached out to Red Finch who assured me he was able to go through the acquisitions of IP addresses to create an algorithm that would ensure Mr. Trump would rise and rise significantly into this poll,” Cohen added.

Cohen is now looking directly at the jury as he’s answering Hoffinger’s question to explain the Red Finch situation. Cohen said Trump wanted to be number one in the poll but after Red Finch’s work, he ended up at nine.

The former Trump fixer said “despite cheating” Trump felt he didn’t get his money’s worth for the work.

Cohen added that Trump did not pay Red Finch because CNBC ended up not moving forward with this poll, “and so he didn’t feel he had gotten the benefit” for the services they had provided.

Michael Cohen was asked if he ever sent Allen Weisselberg a retainer agreement.

“No ma’am because there was no legal work that I was to be paid for. There was no representation agreement within which to send,” Cohen explained.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger followed up and asked if the $420,000 owed as reimbursement had anything to do with a retainer agreement.

“No, ma’am,” Cohen said.

Hoffinger asked Cohen if he was ever paid, or billed Trump, for the work he did for him or Melania Trump.

“No ma’am,” Cohen said.

She also asked if the $420,000 he was paid in 2017 covered any of that work.

“No ma’am,” Cohen said.

Michael Cohen testified about his ongoing financial interests in the trial before the end of his cross-examination Monday morning. Here are the key points from his final stint on cross-exam.

Financial interests: Cohen said he helped pitch a TV show about his life called “The Fixer,” is considering a run for Congress and may write a third book. He also said he has a financial stake in the trial because he talks about it on his podcasts and on TikTok.

“Whether Mr. Trump is ultimately determined innocent or guilty is not going to affect whether I speak about it or not,” Cohen said.

“It’s better if he’s not (found guilty), for me, because it gives me more to talk about in the future,” he added.

Cohen admits he lies: Cohen again admitted he has lied. “It’s true that you will lie out of loyalty, correct?” defense attorney Todd Blanche asked.

“Yes sir,” Cohen responded.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen if it was possible he talked to Donald Trump about the Stormy Daniels issue in October 2016 as well as the other matters proposed by defense attorney Todd Blanche on cross-examination.

Cohen confirms.

Hoffinger notes that the defense counsel brought up how busy he was in October 2016, asking if he was busy all the time. Cohen confirms he was.

“Were you too busy in October 2016 to finalize the Stormy Daniels payoff with Mr. Trump?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

“Were you too busy to get his approval to make that payoff?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger corrects Michael Cohen’s testimony when he said he lied to Congress in 2019. Cohen says he lied in 2017, not 2019.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now questioning Michael Cohen following the defense’s cross-examination.

Cohen has been on the stand for nearly 16 hours over the course of four days.

“It’s true that you will lie out of loyalty, correct?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked.

“Yes sir,” Cohen responded.

Blanche ended Cohen’s cross-examination with this exchange.

The defense’s cross-examination wrapped up after 8 hours over three days.

Attorney Todd Blanche continues to press Michael Cohen on whether it would benefit him financially if Trump is found guilty.

“It’s better if he’s not, for me, because it gives me more to talk about in the future,” Cohen says.

Blanche confirmed with Cohen he’d like to get revenge on Trump and has said “revenge is best served cold.” Cohen confirms he meant it when he said it on his own podcast and now again in court.

“Do you have a financial interest in the outcome of this case?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked

“Yes sir,” Michael Cohen said.

As this exchange was happening, Donald Trump turned toward the witness stand, with his arm perched on the back of his chair, looking intently at Cohen.

“Because if President Trump is convicted, that would benefit you personally and financially, right?” Blanche asked.

“No sir,” Cohen said.

Cohen said: “I talk about it on my podcasts, I talk about it on TikTok and they make money and that’s how I was viewing your question. Whether Mr. Trump is ultimately determined innocent or guilty is not going to affect whether I speak about it or not.”

CNN’s Abby Philip contributed reporting to this post.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is revisiting the $420,000 payment to Michael Cohen.

Cohen agrees $150,000 is the Daniels payment and what he paid to Red Finch.

“You testified that Mr. Weisselberg told you that that was being grossed up because you’re in a 50% tax bracket?” Blanche asks.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objected, after which attorneys approached the bench for a sidebar.

Trump attorney Emil Bove and Trump chatted briefly after Bove returned from sidebar.

Trump smirked at what Bove said and shifted in his chair.

Michael Cohen is asked about a run for Congress.

“Is that true?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked. “Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

Cohen confirmed he told a reporter one of the reasons he should run for Congress is he’s got the “best name recognition out there.”

“My name recognition is because of the journey that I’ve been on, is it affiliated with Mr. Trump, yes — not because of Mr. Trump,” Cohen said.

Trump smiled as Cohen said this.

“Your journey has been near daily attacks on President Trump, at least since 2020?” Blanche asked. “Sure,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked him to answer yes or no, not sure. “Yes sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche went on to ask Cohen a series of questions confirming Trump’s trust in Cohen.

After returning from a short break, Trump attorney Todd Blanche continued to ask Michael Cohen about a TV show pitch about his own life.

Cohen said he worked about three months to help pitch the show “The Fixer.”

Cohen added that he worked on the show seven to eight months ago after it was shot.

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

Michael Cohen walked past Donald Trump’s table without glancing over. Trump was speaking with his attorney Todd Blanche when he passed by them.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, testified under cross-examination Monday morning, his fourth day on the stand. Here are the key points from his testimony.

Cohen stole from the Trump Organization: Cohen was paid $420,000 by Trump over the course of 2017, bank records show. According to Cohen and several handwritten notes, the money broke down to $130,000 to reimburse him for the payment to Stormy Daniels, $50,000 to reimburse him for unrelated tech services to a company called Red Finch, $180,000 to account for estimated taxes and a $60,000 bonus.

However, Cohen testified Monday he only paid back Red Finch $20,000 – in cash in a brown paper bag – and kept the rest for himself.

“So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asked.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

He said he has told the district attorney’s office about the theft but did not face criminal charges.

He previously said Trump didn’t know about hush money: Cohen admitted that when the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels became public in 2018, he repeatedly told reporters and others that Trump was not aware of the payments at the time – the opposite of his testimony in this trial.

Lots of meetings with prosecutors: Cohen testified he met with prosecutors about 20 times this year, most recently the weekend before he took the stand.

Business is good: Cohen testified he’s made about $4.4 million since the fall of 2020, including $3.4 million from books and about $1 million from podcasts.

Cohen-Costello chats: Defense attorney Todd Blanche walked Cohen through messages, emails and phone calls he exchanged with attorney Bob Costello. Costello testified last week in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee that “virtually every statement” Cohen made on the stand about Costello was a lie, and he could be a defense witness.

It doesn’t matter whether the jury likes Michael Cohen as a person, their job is to be arbitrators of this case based on the facts, Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, told CNN.

“The winning argument here is, ‘Here are the facts of the case. Here are the receipts of the case. Do you think the defendant is guilty or innocent based on the facts and is Mr. Cohen lying to you right now and right here. And I don’t think there’s one of those 12 jurors that are going to say, ‘He’s lying,’ because, remember, he’s saying stuff that hurts him,” Scaramucci said.

The court is taking a short break this morning. The defense is expected to continue to question Michael Cohen when his testimony resumes after the break.

Cohen’s head was down as he passed by Trump’s table to leave.

Attorney Todd Blanche is now asking if Michael Cohen is pitching a TV show about his own life.

Cohen says “there is a TV show” but he’s not pitching it, personally. 

Blanche asked whether Cohen would expect to make money if the TV show was picked up. “Has it been picked up?” Blanche asks. Cohen confirms it has not been picked up.

Michael Cohen says since the fall of 2020, he has made about $4.4 million from podcasts and books.

Cohen says he’s made about $1 million in total from his two podcasts. He added that he earned about $3.4 million from the two books which he’s testified to previously.

“Did you stop making money when you plead guilty in 2018?” Trump attorney Todd Blanched asked

Cohen confirmed this.

Referring to the time he was Trump’s personal attorney and when he made money consulting, Blanche asked if that was the most money he’s ever made in an 18-month period.

Cohen said no, and after a pause, he said there was a time he made more than $5 million in a similar timeframe.

In between the time he pled guilty and the time he wrote his book, Blanche asked if Cohen didn’t have any income.

Correct, Cohen said.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche has shown the jury another email from Michael Cohen to Bob Costello asking him to talk to Rudy Giuliani about the Trump Organization not paying his current attorneys at McDermott Will & Emery.

Cohen confirms to Blanche that this is around the time that his relationship with Costello ends.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is walking Michael Cohen through a series of messages he exchanged with Bob Costello.

Here are some of those messages:

Blanche asks whether these were the types of messages consistent with his interactions with Costello. Cohen agrees that’s fair.

Attorney Todd Blanche turns to the YouTube video Bob Costello shared with Michael Cohen, which prosecutors focused on last week. Blanche turns to another email Cohen sent in response to Costello.

On June 14, 2018, Cohen wrote to Costello: “Since we are sharing this morning…they are again on a bad path.”

Blanche follows up and asks Cohen in court, “You were talking about President Trump and his team trying to discredit you correct?”

“Correct,” Cohen says.

The article Cohen was sharing in the email to Costello was headlined: “Trump’s campaign to discredit Michael Cohen is already underway.” 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm even though he didn’t sign a retainer agreement with Bob Costello, it didn’t mean that those phone calls and meetings weren’t privileged.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Cohen agreed the communications were privileged because of “anticipation of potential representation.”

Blanche showed more emails between Costello and Rudy Giuliani, including from April 2018 when Costello wrote that Giuliani had joined Trump’s legal team and he said his relationship with him “could be very very useful for you.”

In response to Costello, Cohen wrote, “Great news for Rudy. I know I owe you a call. I have been working with lawyers all day and just now coming up for air. I will try you tomorrow.”

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asks whether it would surprise Michael Cohen that he spoke to Bob Costello for more than nine hours over the course of a few months.

“No sir,” Cohen said.

“So would it surprise you to learn that you actually communicated on the phone either you calling Mr Costello or Mr Costello calling you 75 times?” Blanche asked.

“Seems excessive but (long pause) possible,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked Cohen who initiated more phone calls at the time, Costello or himself.

Cohen said “to the best of [his] recollection,” Costello reached out more than he did.

Cohen said he also met with Costello, “I believe once or twice” in person.

Trump slapped his attorney Emil Bove on the arm to lean in to talk to him.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is bringing up more emails Michael Cohen exchanged with Bob Costello. He wrote to Costello on May 15, 2018:

Costello responded to Cohen on May 16 and concluded his email, saying, “I will not pester you. If you want to talk, you know how to reach Jeff or myself.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm he then met with Bob Costello on April 17 to discuss representing him.

Cohen pushed back and said, “I received communications from Jeffrey Citron asking to set up a meeting with him and Bob Costello in order to discuss possible representation of me.”

Blanche asked him to confirm though that they met on April 17 at Cohen’s hotel where he was living at the time.

“Yes they came to me,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he spoke with Costello 10 times on the phone, “maybe a few more.”

Cohen said the person he wanted him to speak to was Rudy Giuliani. Blanche pointed out that it was Cohen who was asking Costello to go to Giuliani for information.

More context: Blanche appears to be getting at the point that Cohen voluntarily was working with Costello more than Cohen is letting on (as was referenced in defense arguments over the Citron email about Costello this morning).

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going through a conversation Michael Cohen had with a friend who was in jail in New York, asking whether he insisted to the friend that Trump knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels.

“I don’t recall specifically saying that, but it would have been what I would have said at that time,” Cohen said.

Cohen agreed that he recorded multiple conversations with reporters telling them that Trump knew nothing about the payment.

“You said it to family?” Blanche asks. “Correct,” Cohen said.

Blanche asked if Cohen recalled telling one reporter, “your wife and kids had just found out two weeks earlier.”

Cohen said he doesn’t remember but he wouldn’t be surprised if he said that at the time.

Blanche asked Cohen if before April 9, when the FBI raided his office and residence, he “had told anybody who asked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment at the time, correct?”

“That’s what I said, yes,” Cohen says.

Former Federal Prosecutor Alyse Adamson said she was “quite frankly shocked” when she heard the revelations that Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen had stolen from the Trump account.

Adamson said now the prosecution will have to work extra hard to change the narrative for the jury.

“If this were my case I would be feverishly writing my ideas for rehabilitation and redirection,” she said.

Adamson added that she didn’t understand why the prosecution hadn’t addressed the issues earlier in the case, especially when they had been meticulous with their explanation of some of Cohen’s other lies.

“I think here, there has been so much damage that they are going to have to go in.”

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is now asking about 2018 and when the Stormy Daniels payment became public.

“You told multiple people when it first leaked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment, correct?” he asked. Michael Cohen confirmed that was correct.

Blanche asked, “You even called Melania, the first lady, and told her that President Trump didn’t know about it.” Cohen said he told The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman on the record that Trump was not aware of the payment at the time.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche continues to review Michael Cohen’s other legal work.

Cohen said that he was paid $1.2 million from Novartis. Cohen agreed he spoke with them about 6 times.

Blanche asked if that’s “$200,000 a communication?”

“Correct,” Cohen said.

“Were there clients that you started talking to but ultimately didn’t agree to work with?” Blanche asked.

“Yes sir,” Cohen said, adding that “happened quite often.”

Blanche also asked about KAI, Korean Airspace Industries, where Cohen had a deal to be paid $100,000 a month for a year.

Cohen said it ended after six or seven months. He added that he had “approximately a dozen” communications with the company.

Blanche also walked Cohen through the other companies he consulted for in 2017, including BTA Bank, who paid him for two to three months, he says, and a client he met through Trump at Mar-a-Lago looking for help to restart a nuclear facility.

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a “bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecution’s case.”

During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.

CNN’s Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen’s testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to “take the sting out” when it had a chance during direct examination.

“We’re talking about 420,000 – it’s not 15 bucks,” Coates said.

Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.

RedFinch is a political organization that Cohen said helped the Republican party goose bogus internet polls about which candidate was in the lead, and provided fans for Trump’s announcement of his candidacy in June 2015.

“It was Mr. Trump who introduced the CEO of AT&T to me, that’s how I ended up retaining them as a client,” Michael Cohen said.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche said that’s not what he asked, he wanted to know if Cohen ever told Trump about the six consulting clients.

“I did not specifically tell President Trump that, no,” Cohen says.

Blanche asked if Trump was frustrated when he eventually found out about Cohen’s consulting agreement with AT&T.

Merchan sustained an objection to this question.

Attorney Todd Blanche is moving on to Michael Cohen’s other consulting work.

Cohen said he made $4 million in 2017 from six other clients.

Cohen confirms that he was paid $50,000 monthly for a year by AT&T, while they were trying to acquire Time Warner.

Blanche confirms Cohen received $600,000 in all from AT&T. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, correct?” Blanche asks. Cohen stops for a moment, before saying, “I don’t believe so.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche walked through the payments Michael Cohen received again, asking “How much were you paid” directly by Trump in 2017.

“Nine checks,” Cohen says, $35,000 apiece.

Cohen confirms the other two checks came from the trust.”

“You continued to get paid all 12 months?” Blanche asks.

“Yes sir,” Cohen says.

Michael Cohen is being asked about the work he’s done for Melania Trump.

Cohen says he met with Melania Trump in New York in March and April of 2017 over legal matters.

Attorney Todd Blanche confirms with Cohen that he helped Melania Trump with her Madame Tussauds’ negotiation in February, March and April of 2017.

Blanche says that these were all things that lawyers would do for a client.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking whether Michael Cohen helped figure out how to serve subpoenas on government agencies, like the State Department.

He showed Cohen an email that Trump leaned in to look at.

Blanche noted that Trump initially appointed Marc Kasowitz as his attorney to handle the Mueller investigation. Blanche asked if Cohen played a role in that?

“No sir,” Cohen says.

Blanche asked if Cohen was “happy, sad or indifferent” about the initial Kasowitz hire. Cohen said probably happy because he had a good relationship with him.

Michael Cohen is answering a lot of questions with “yes, sir” and “correct” maintaining the same measured tone as he had the prior three days on the witness stand.

The jury is being shown Michael Cohen’s goodbye email to the Trump Organization dated January 27, 2017.

In the email, Cohen announces his new role as Trump’s personal attorney and notes he’d no longer be working with them at Trump Tower.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked whether Cohen continued representing Trump in legal matters after moving into his new role.

“You had a matter with Marc Kasowitz representing President Trump?” Blanche asked.

“Yes sir,” Cohen said.

Attorney Todd Blanche confirmed with Michael Cohen that his email signature after Trump took office announced his title in every message he sent. “It always said personal attorney to President Donald J Trump.”

Blanche continued, “His job changed — meaning President Trump’s job changed — your job didn’t.”

“Correct,” Cohen confirmed.

“You told everybody that was happening, Correct?” Blanche asked.

“Not everybody, but I was certainly proud of the role and I announced it,” Cohen said, confirming on follow-up questions that he told TMZ, the New York Times, and when he went on Sean Hannity’s show to announce it.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche pulled up an email from Allen Weisselberg to Jeff McConney, noting that the checks were signed off by Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. He asked why they signed them and not former President Donald Trump.

“Because they were the trustees,” Cohen said.

Judge Juan Merchan told the lawyers that a verdict will not be reached this week, which means there could be a long break between the summation of arguments and instructions — this is not ideal either side, Diane Kiesel, former New York Supreme Court judge said.

“I think it’s kind of a wash,” Kiesel told CNN, adding that both the defense and prosecutors want summations to be fresh in the minds of the jurors.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now showing emails to Michael Cohen from Allen Weisselberg on January 31, 2017, with the subject: “Note and mortgage modification agreement for Trump Park Avenue Condominium.”

“Thank you. You never stopped on for a bro hug. Anyway please prepare the agreement discussed” so we can pay you monthly, Weisselberg wrote.

“So, the conversation that you had with Mr. Weisselberg about the retainer agreement and the fact that there would not be one all took place in the meeting you had,” along with the meeting with Trump, Blanche asked

“Yes sir,” Cohen said.

“If you would have had one, would have it been between you and your client?” Blanche asked.

“Correct,” Cohen said.

“Who would that have been?” Blanche asked.

“Mr. Trump,” Cohen said.

As Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche walks Michael Cohen through the reimbursement of the alleged hush money payments, Trump is now paying attention and looking toward Cohen.

Trump is watching Cohen through this line of questioning about stealing the Red Finch money from the Trump Organization.

Trump shakes his head with a smirk at this answer.

To cover up this $130,000 payment, “you lied to (Allen) Weisselberg about how much you needed for Red Finch?” Blanche asks. Correct, Cohen says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is walking Michael Cohen through the calculation to reach the $420,000 he said he was paid in 2017. Cohen testified earlier in the trial that he worked on the payment with former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

“You were shorted on 100,000 on your bonus that year, ” Blanche asked.

“That’s correct,” Cohen said, confirming he normally got $150,000 as an annual bonus around the holidays.

“So the $50,000 that you got back from Red Finch… you only paid the Red Finch owner $20,000, right?” Blanche asked. “Yes sir,” Cohen said.

Blanche is now walking Cohen through how he paid the $20,000 to the Red Finch owner in cash. Cohen confirmed he withdrew the money over a couple days. “I just didn’t want to take out $20,000” at once, Cohen said.

“I don’t recall if it was exactly $20,000,” Cohen added to clarify.

Cohen said that Red Finch wanted the full payment of $50,000, but they accepted the money they received.

“You didn’t just steal the 30,000, Because it was grossed up, it was 60,000,” Blanche asked. “Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

Cohen agreed that he has told multiple prosecutors with the district attorney’s office about it.

“Did you ever have to plead guilty to larceny,” Blanche asked.

“No, sir,” Cohen said.

Attorney Todd Blanche also asked if the “Access Hollywood” tape fallout was still an issue and if Trump was speaking to the media that Michael Cohen might have spoken with Trump about that.

“My recollection is that I was speaking to him about Stormy Daniels because that is what he tasked me to take care of and that’s what I’ve been working on,” Cohen replied.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche questions Michael Cohen if he still maintains that he only spoke to Trump on the phone on October 26 about the Stormy Daniels issue.

Cohen says yes, “because it was important to me.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen of his recollection of what the former president was up to on October 26.

Cohen said he doesn’t remember.

“Do you remember that morning… that Trump was going to sit down and do an interview with ABC right after 9 a.m. ET. Does it ring a bell?” Blanche asked.

“No sir,” Cohen said.

Blanche tried to use a document to support this, but it was sustained and not allowed.

Michael Cohen made two calls to Donald Trump the morning of October 26, around 8:30 a.m. ET.

The first call was at 8:26 a.m. ET and lasted three minutes and one second.

The second call was at 8:34 a.m. ET and lasted one minute and 28 seconds.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche cites October 2016, when Michael Cohen made the payment to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer.

“You talked multiple times that day with folks associated with Dr King’s statement and the fact that she was now going to be supporting President Trump,” Blanche asks.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now turning to the litigation involving David Pecker, ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, and iPayments.

The litigation was filed September 30, 2016.

Cohen said he doesn’t recall the specifics of the litigation.

Cohen said he worked to help try to settle the litigation because he was friends with everyone.

“You were also exploring getting a job at iPayments,” Blanche asked.

“It was floated. Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

This sketch from court shows former President Donald Trump, left, Michael Cohen, right, and Judge Juan Merchan.

Judge Juan Merchan denied two Trump defense requests on Monday, rejecting a request to introduce an email related to Michael Cohen and restricting the scope of a potential defense expert witness.

The defense had requested to introduce into evidence an email to Cohen from attorney Robert Costello’s associate after Cohen and Costello first met. Cohen testified in the trial that he didn’t like Costello after their first meeting, but defense attorney Todd Blanche said this email speaks positively about that meeting.

However, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger argued against allowing the email, saying, “this doesn’t disclose what’s in Michael Cohen’s mind” because it’s an opinion from the associate about the meeting.

Judge Merchan agreed and said he will not allow it because it doesn’t say anything about Cohen’s state of mind.

In addition, Merchan denied the defense’s request to allow their election expert to expand his testimony beyond the limited scope already set by the judge in March.

The judge said allowing him to do so would result in the jury hearing legal instructions from three different people.

He cited Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan’s ruling barring this same expert from testifying to similar topics at the Sam Bankman-Fried trial.

Merchan directed them back to his original decision, reiterating that their witness Brad Smith can testify as to what the Federal Election Commission is, its purpose, background, what laws if any it is responsible for enforcing and general definitions and terms.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche and Michael Cohen are getting into a back-and-forth exchange about a business opportunity Cohen was working on in October 2016, which Blanche says involves taxi medallions but Cohen says is related to a mortgage in Florida.

Blanche then walked through all the other business Cohen had going on during the time that the hush money payment occurred in October 2016.

Donald Trump appears to be tuned out of this part of the cross-examination, sitting with his eyes closed and not looking in Michael Cohen’s direction at all.

Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche asks whether Michael Cohen worked with former tabloid executive David Pecker in October 2016 and about another matter, litigation involving attorney Marc Kasowitz.

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Blanche also asked Cohen if he remembered right around October 26 whether Cohen was also helping Tiffany Trump with a potential extortion issue over photographs.

Cohen confirms.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now focusing on October 2016.

“You agree with me that you had a lot going on both in your personal life and with President Trump in those first few weeks of October,” Blanche asks.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen said.

Cohen also agreed that he was dealing with a potential restructuring of his taxi medallion business, a sale of an investment with his brother, working on the national diversity coalition for Trump, and obtaining an endorsement from the Martin Luther King Jr. family.

More context: October 2016 is a critical month in the hush money case. On October 7, the Washington Post released an “Access Hollywood” video from 2005. Fallout from the tape prompted Trump’s inner circle to do damage control of any more potentially bad press like an alleged affair story from adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to prosecutors.

According to prosecutors, on October 27, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to her attorney through a shell company in exchange for her silence about an affair she allegedly had with Trump in 2006. The payment is at the center of the hush money case.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche now asks about other prep Michael Cohen has done for congressional testimony, including with Dan Goldman, the former prosecutor-turned-investigator for the House during the 2019 impeachment of Trump who is now a New York congressman.

Cohen confirms he met with Goldman ahead of his 2019 congressional testimony.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen how many times he’s met with prosecutors this year.

Cohen puts the number at more than a dozen, most recently last weekend before he took the stand.

When pressed by Blanche, Cohen said it was closer to 20 times.

Trump had a smirk on his face as he watched Cohen say this.

Cohen said he heard several questions from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger for the first time during the direct examination last Monday and Tuesday.

Attorney Todd Blanche starts off his questions this morning and asks Michael Cohen, “Since that time until right now how many reporters have you talked to about what happened last week?”

Cohen says, “I didn’t speak to reporters about what happened last week.”

Blanche follows up. Cohen says, “I’ve spoken to reporters who just called to say, ‘hello,’ to see how I’m doing, to check in, but I did not talk about this case.”

Blanche pushes the issue further, asking Cohen to confirm the reporters “just greeted you and asked how you’re doing, didn’t ask at all about this case?”

“Correct,” Cohen says.

Judge Juan Merchan has called for witness Michael Cohen.

As Cohen walked past Trump’s table, Trump’s head turned to look at him. It didn’t look like they made eye contact.

Cohen is currently under cross-examination in the historic criminal trial against Trump.

What is expected in court today: The defense said they expect to finish cross-examination of Cohen before the mid-morning break. The prosecution would then have a chance to conduct more questioning.

Prosecutors have said Cohen is their last witness. The defense would then be given an opportunity to present their case.

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

Judge Juan Merchan says the court will take a 10-minute break and start at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Trump is leaving the courtroom.

“You’ve known for months what my position would be” based on his pretrial rulings on this issue months ago, Judge Juan Merchan told Donald Trump’s attorneys with regards to the expert witness they want to testify.

Trump attorney Emil Bove jumped to interrupt him, and Merchan said smiling “just relax.”

Bove crossed his hands across his chest apologetically and smiled back at the judge as Merchan continued speaking.

“I’m going to be consistent with my earlier rulings,” Merchan said.

Merchan now tells Bove, “make me an offer of proof as to what he would say in response and I’ll be in a better position to determine if it’s an appropriate response or not. “

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said, “As the court has just said the judge will and should charge on appropriate legal definitions. The defense is not entitled to have an expert front-end that process.”

Trump attorney Emil Bove said he’d like to elicit from the expert witness a definition “for the purpose of influencing the election,” as it pertains to several campaign finance terms like “expenditure.”

Judge Juan Merchan’s ruling presently does not allow them to touch on a definition of influencing the election if the expert testifies.

Defense attorney Emil Bove is asking Judge Juan Merchan if he can give a sense of how he plans to instruct the jury on the campaign finance issues they want the expert witness to testify to.

Merchan says, “you must remember the people are not required to prove these offenses beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore that reduces the need or the burden to define every term or every phrase.” 

The judge says he doesn’t see how the expert witness can testify to the issues without invoking the law and creating the issues Merchan has already detailed.

Trump attorney Emil Bove argued that the information the defense wants to get into the record through their campaign finance expert is “absolutely critical to the jury understanding the government’s allegations in this case.”

Bove also said, “We’re restricted in what Mr. Smith can say and frankly Mr. Smith reading the text of those statutory definitions is not going to help the jury grapple with the issues that these charges present.”

Donald Trump briefly leaned forward and shook his head as Judge Juan Merchan read his ruling on the expert witness. Trump’s hands were crossed and he looked upset.

As defense attorney Emil Bove argued his points, Trump looked up to watch Bove.

Judge Juan Merchan said that allowing a Federal Election Commission (FEC) expert to testify on the additional subjects that Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking would lead to a “battle of the experts,” which would “only confuse and not assist” the jury.

Merchan also cited Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan’s ruling barring this same expert from testifying to similar topics at the Sam Bankman-Fried trial.

“I direct you back to page three of my decision,” Merchan said, reiterating that Brad Smith could testify as to what the FEC is, its purpose, background, what laws if any FEC is responsible for enforcing and general definitions and terms that relate to this case, including contribution and expenditure. 

Former President Donald Trump’s defense team has still not made a final decision over whether to call Robert Costello to testify once the prosecution rests its case, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. 

After Costello testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week and disputed Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen’s testimony, it became an open conversation about whether to call him. But there has been a divide inside Trump’s orbit over whether it would be worth doing so, given it could also further prolong the trial.

Costello once advised Cohen, but Cohen never formally retained him. The jury in this case has seen emails from Costello offering to serve as a backchannel to Trump after Cohen’s home and office were searched by the FBI. On April 21, Costello wrote to Cohen: “I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani and told him I was on your team. Rudy was thrilled and said this could not be a better situation for the President or you.

Costello later told Cohen to sleep well given he had “friends in high places.”

Sources told CNN’s Paula Reid and Kristen Holmes last week a decision would likely not be made until Cohen’s testimony wraps. 

Costello testified before the grand jury before Trump was ultimately indicted in New York.

Judge Juan Merchan is moving on to discussions regarding an expert witness.

Trump has been sitting back in his chair with his eyes closed throughout much of the debate about evidence.

Judge Juan Merchan says he will not allow the email into evidence because it doesn’t say anything about Michael Cohen’s state of mind.

Lawyers for both sides are beginning today’s court proceedings by debating about an email from Robert Costello’s associate to Michael Cohen after Cohen’s first meeting with Costello.

Prosecutors are objecting to introducing it into evidence.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the email that speaks positively about Cohen’s first meeting with Costello impeaches Cohen’s testimony that he didn’t like Costello after their first meeting and didn’t want to retain him.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says “this doesn’t disclose what’s in Michael Cohen’s mind” because it’s an opinion from Jeffrey Citron about that initial meeting, not Cohen.

More context: Costello once advised Cohen, but Cohen never formally retained him. The jury in this case has already seen emails from Costello offering to serve as a backchannel to Trump after Cohen’s home and office were searched by the FBI.

Judge Juan Merchan says he expects closing arguments will be next Tuesday.

“It’s become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,” he says.

“It was either have a long break now or have a long break then, and unfortunately, the calendar is what it is,” Merchan says.

Judge Juan Merchan has returned to the bench this morning.

“Good morning Mr. Trump,” he said.

“As you know there were a couple of issues that came up over the weekend and I wanted to address them before the jury got here,” Merchan said.

Donald Trump has entered the courtroom. Eric Trump trailed behind him along with the former president’s allies.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger are chatting before the judge enters.

Trump is facing the galley and smiling toward his group.

Former President Donald Trump has spoken ahead of court beginning today, beginning his remarks noting that he “was supposed to be in a very different state this morning.”

Trump has repeatedly taken aim at the case as interfering with his political campaigning, however CNN has found that he had spent many of his court-free days without public campaign events.

Former President Donald Trump will be accompanied by several allies today in court for his New York criminal hush money trial.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Rep. Eric Burlison, Rep. Andrew Clyde, Rep. Mary Miller, Rep. Keith Self, John Coale, Alan Dershowitz, Will Scharf, Steve Witkoff, Bernie Kerik, Kash Patel, Vernon Jones, Jerry Kassar and Chuck Zito will join Trump in court, according to a Trump campaign official.  

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

Court is beginning earlier today to address evidentiary matters. 

Before leaving for the weekend, Judge Juan Merchan told the lawyers to be prepared to give summations, also known as closing arguments, on Tuesday – meaning the jury could have the case as early as this week.

Prosecutors told Merchan they have no other witnesses to call after Michael Cohen is off the stand, and the defense said it plans to call one campaign finance expert, though that is not set in stone.

Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said the defense could still choose to call additional witnesses to challenge testimony, and Trump’s team maintains it has not made a decision on whether the former president will testify in his own defense.

There’s also the possibility, as CNN has reported, that former Cohen attorney Bob Costello could appear. Costello made an impression during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday where he repeatedly attacked Cohen and said “virtually every statement” Cohen made on the stand about Costello was a lie.

The other complicating factor is there are only three days of court next week leading up to the Memorial Day holiday.

Merchan didn’t say what that would mean for next week’s schedule – an early start or going later was one option, he suggested – but it all indicates that the judge believes the jury could end up beginning deliberations this week.

Donald Trump departed Trump Tower notably earlier Monday en route to court where his former lawyer and “fixer” is back on the stand to resume a fourth day of testimony.

But first the court has some evidentiary matters to address — hence the early departure time.

Court will resume at 8:45 a.m. with the evidentiary issues, and the defense is expected to continue its grilling of Cohen at approximately 9:30 a.m., after critical testimony Friday undermined his credibility.

The prosecution will then have a chance to undo some of the testimony with an opportunity for redirect.

There are signs this historic trial of a former president is nearing a close. Prosecutors have said this is their last witness. The Trump defense will then have a chance to present their case, and have floated calling two witnesses though nothing is set in stone. It is yet to be determined whether Trump himself will testify. The judge asked attorneys to prepare for summations potentially Tuesday, but everything is fluid.

Reminder: Court is shorter this week, with no proceedings Friday due to a juror flight ahead of the Memorial day holiday.

Michael Cohen departed his Manhattan residence early Monday, making no comment to the media, on the day he is expected to return to the stand for a fourth day.

Cohen is currently under cross examination in the historic criminal trial of his former employer Donald Trump.

Defense said they expect to finish cross of Cohen before the mid-morning break. The prosecution would then have a chance to re-direct, and then there will be an opportunity for re-cross and so on.

Prosecutors have said Cohen is their last witness. The defense would then be given an opportunity to present their case. Cohen departed just after 7:30 a.m.

Former President Donald Trump sits next to his lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove as he arrives for his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14 in New York.

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 this morning. Blanche conducted the questioning last week.

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:

The court is starting earlier than usual today at 8:45 a.m. ET to deal with outstanding evidentiary issues.

But the jury will start at 9:30 a.m. ET, as usual. 

Donald Trump is expected to depart Trump Tower earlier than usual as a result, according to sources.

The biggest questions as Donald Trump’s first criminal trial resumes Monday are whether his attorneys have destroyed the credibility of star witness Michael Cohen — and how much of the damage prosecutors can fix.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is due back in court amid clear signs the hush money trial is drawing toward a close — unless he takes the risky decision to testify in his own defense, a step that would lengthen and complicate the proceedings.

Defense lawyers say they expect to complete their bruising cross-examination of Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and enforcer, on Monday morning.

Prosecutors will then use their second chance to question Cohen to try to patch up any doubts the ex-president’s team may have sown in the minds of jurors about his version of events.

New York state prosecutors allege Trump broke the law by falsifying financial records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. This, they say, was to deceive voters in 2016 in an early example of election interference. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty.

Read the full analysis.

In this court sketch, attorney Todd Blanche, left, questions Michael Cohen, right, as Judge Juan Merchan and former President Donald Trump listen at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 16 in New York.

Donald Trump attorney Todd Blanche raised his voice and flailed his arms at Michael Cohen, accusing the prosecution’s star witness of making up a phone conversation with Trump just before he sent $130,000 to Stormy Daniels’ attorney in October 2016.

Blanche confronted Cohen with text messages he sent with Keith Schiller – whom Cohen had said put Trump on the phone – which were unrelated to anything having to do with Trump or Daniels.

It was the most dramatic moment of the cross-examination of the key witness in the hush money case, and the clearest example yet of the defense’s effort to cast doubt on Cohen’s memory of phone calls and other significant interactions with Trump in 2016.

Court was off on Friday so Trump could attend the high school graduation of his son, Barron. Cross-examination of Cohen will resume Monday and it’s possible summations could begin as soon as Tuesday.

Here are the takeaways from Day 18 of the Trump hush money trial.

Judge Juan Merchan is photographed in his chambers in New York on March 14.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York denied the former president’s request to make public documents related to a dispute over whether records were withheld before the trial was underway.

Judge Juan Merchan initially delayed the start of the trial so he could hold a discovery hearing to understand whether any documents were improperly withheld or turned over late by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Trump’s lawyers said prosecutors were late to provide certain records related to the production of documents from federal prosecutor’s investigation into Michael Cohen, a key witness in the case. The judge found there were no violations.

After the hearing in March, Trump’s lawyers asked for various records related to the matter to be made public, including timelines of the communications involving federal and state prosecutors. Prosecutors opposed the request saying it would reveal “work product and sensitive” communications among law enforcement agencies. Other records are correspondence among the parties and the judge.

The judge on Thursday ruled none of the records should be made public.

Several allies of former US President Donald Trump — including House Speaker Mike Johnson, center — watch Trump speak to reporters outside his hush money trial in New York on May 14. With Johnson, from left, are US Rep. Byron Donalds, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and US Rep. Cory Mills.

When his hush money trial first got underway in April, former President Donald Trump privately complained that not enough of his allies were inside or outside the courtroom to defend him, according to multiple GOP sources familiar with his thinking.

But several weeks later, Trump’s supporters are flocking to the Manhattan courtroom in droves.

GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida became the first lawmaker to make the trek up north last week, followed several days later by House Speaker Mike Johnson – who’s been under fire from his right flank – and a quartet of Republicans sporting nearly identical navy suits with red ties, which, whether accidental or not, took the coordination to the next level.

Their appearances inspired what sources say has been a mostly organic movement among Republicans. Now, the floodgates have opened, with Trump’s team fielding a deluge of interest from lawmakers and orchestrating campaign stops with Trump supporters within the city before and after trial appearances as the proceedings drag on.

“There’s been a waterfall [of people] who want to come and show support for him, and we expect more,” one Trump adviser told CNN.

This court sketch shows former President Donald Trump, Judge Juan Merchan and Michael Cohen at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 16 in New York.

Donald Trump finally had a good day in court last Thursday. The presumptive GOP nominee has often seemed embarrassed and infuriated by his first criminal trial, which has featured salacious exposés of his personal life and details of his alleged attempts to cover it up.

But on Thursday, he got to savor his former fixer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen wobbling on the stand under a fearsome cross-examination. Cohen appeared to be tripped up over an account of a call he’d previously said under oath was to discuss Trump’s hush money payment to adult film Star Stormy Daniels. It emerged under questioning on Thursday that, at least to begin with, the topic of the call was about another matter entirely.

It was the kind of inconsistency that Trump’s attorneys can use to try to sow reasonable doubt about Cohen’s truthfulness and credibility in the mind of a single juror. That’s all it would take for Trump to walk. And now, the prosecution faces a stiff challenge in repairing the damage when they get to their redirect examination of Cohen’s testimony following the close of cross-examination next week.

Trump left court after a day in which he was supported by another posse of GOP lawmakers, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, well satisfied.

His hyperbolic spin and unique take on proceedings rang less hollow than usual given several positive moments for the defense in what has largely been a grim month for Trump in the courtroom.

Read the full analysis.

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.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, leaves his apartment building in New York on his way to Manhattan criminal court on May 13.

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 last week, has served as a narrator for the prosecution and has taken 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.

We are in the sixth 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. Pecker continued his testimony.

April 25: While Trump sat in the Manhattan courtroom listening to Pecker’s testimony, 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. Michael Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro was then called to the stand.

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: Former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout’s testimony concluded. Then prosecution called several custodial witnesses to the stand.

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

May 14: The prosecution completed direct questioning of Cohen and Trump’s defense began cross-examination.

May 16: Trump’s defense grilled Cohen, putting into question a key 2016 October call and asking him about the times he lied under oath.

Read a full timeline of key moments here.