Michael Cohen: Stormy Daniels payment needed Trump sign off and he told me to ‘figure this whole thing out’ – as it happened

Donald Trump is walking back into the courtroom with somewhat pursed lips again. No papers in his hands this time.

Michael Cohen is walking back into the courtroom. He did not look in Trump’s direction as he made his way back to the witness stand.

The court is taking a short break.

Per pool reports, Donald Trump did not answer questions as he left the courtroom for the morning break. The former president “pumped his fist three times” as he walked.

They’re playing the September 2016 tape in which Michael Cohen and Donald Trump can be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.

In the tape, Cohen can be heard explaining to the then presidential candidate his plans to open a company through which he would finance the purchase of the rights to McDougal’s story.

Trump can be heard saying:

Let me know what’s happening, OK? … For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it’s so false what they’re saying, it’s such bullshit.

We’re fast forwarding to 6 September 2016. Michael Cohen said he had a conversation recorded with Donald Trump about American Media Inc.

Cohen said he had taped this conversation so he could show it to David Pecker to show him that he would be getting reimbursed, and that “I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr Trump”.

I had my mobile phone in my hand, I had [hit] record on voice memo, and I walked in.

Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, sent Michael Cohen an email in early August 2016, asking Cohen to call him.

“Great job, [the] Boss is obviously very happy about it. The matter’s now resolved,” Cohen recalled telling Davidson.

Cohen is now talking about repayment to American Media Inc. “David had asked me when he should anticipate receiving, being paid back the $150,000,” Cohen said. Pecker needed the money, Cohen said:

It was too much money from him to hide from the CEO of the parent company and he had also just laid out 30,000 previous so he was putting pressure on me to speak to Mr Trump and get the money back.

They had lunch in September 2017, where Pecker pressed Cohen more.

He asked me if I would meet him at his favorite Italian restaurant and I went to meet with him and again, he expressed his anger that I need to get this money back. And I said look, Mr Trump told you he’d pay it back.’

The prosecution asks Michael Cohen if David Pecker told him that he thought the Karen McDougal agreement was bulletproof? Cohen says yes, adding:

We prevent this story from being leaked on ABC news and effectively, the story has now been [killed.]

What was Trump’s reaction to hearing that an agreement had been done?

Fantastic! Great job!

Enter Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the payment for McDougal, again. He reached out, this time as an attorney for Stormy Daniels.

They’d already corresponded before regarding a 2011 story about Daniels and Trump that she wanted taken down. Cohen said that he and Davidson worked together to get that story taken down.

Michael Cohen says he repeatedly asked questions of former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about developments on the scheme to bury the Karen McDougal story.

Cohen says he wanted to know what the number was, because he would have to report that to Trump. He also said that he wanted the know the day of a planned meeting with McDougal.

Was there a particular reason why he was so worried about this? Cohen says:

There was the campaign and we were concerned that this story was going to find its way to ABC.

Cohen said he’d learned in 2016, from Howard and David Pecker, that an agreement had been reached with McDougal for $150,000 and that they were going to provide her with 24 penned articles that would bear her name, as well as the fact that she was going to be on two covers of those various magazines that they owned.

In June 2016, Michael Cohen said he was present when Donald Trump had a conversation with former American Media Inc chair David Pecker.

Trump “had the call put through and he had a speakerbox on his desk and instead of lifting up the phone, he used the speakerbox so I was able to hear,” Cohen testifies.

What did he recall from that conversation? Cohen says:

He asked him how things were going with the matter and David said, ‘we have this under control and we’ll take care of this.’

Cohen continues:

David had stated that it’s going to cost him $150,000 to control the [Karen McDougal] story to which Mr Trump replied, ‘no problem, I’ll take care of it.’

Cohen said that AMI as going to lay out the funds and as Mr Trump had stated to David, said ‘I’ll take care of it.’ It hadn’t been sorted out exactly how Trump would repay Pecker, he said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now showing a log of calls between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump. There was one on 16 June 2016.

Hoffinger asks: “Did you have that call right after you contacted '[Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith] Schiller? Cohen says: “Yes.”

Hoffinger is now asking about texts on 20 June 2016. He got one from National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard.

I’m about to meet her...name is Karen McDougal, former Playboy playmate.

Cohen says:

I then respond to Mr Howard, ‘OK, we need to speak.’ He then responds to me, ‘Yes.’

In one text, Howard says, “spoke to DP (American Media Inc CEO David Pecker), I’m wrapping up with them, and then we will convene a three-way call between us …understand I’ve got this locked down for you, I won’t let it out of my grasp.

During the three-person call, Howard and Pecker said “that they believed they had this under control,” Cohen says.

Do you recognize these texts with Keith Schiller, Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks of Michael Cohen’s exchanges with Trump’s longtime bodyguard. Cohen says: “I do.”

She asks Cohen to read texts from 16 June 2016:

This is from me to Keith Schiller asking, ‘Can we speak? I need you.’ I didn’t receive a response back and so I followed it up with another that says, ‘you there?’ He then responds to me, ‘on Dallas,’ [he] meant in Dallas.

Cohen says he then responded to Schiller asking “Where’s the boss?” referencing Donald Trump.

He then responds to me, ‘next to me,’ and then I then ask, ‘is he free to speak?’

The prosecution asks: “Why were you trying to reach Mr Trump?” Cohen replies:

Regarding the Karen McDougal matter.