Cohen grilled relentlessly about past crimes at Trump trial

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Today's testimony, while important, was not the most enthralling of the trial.

There was a lot of repetition from Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, as he brought up again and again Cohen's past crimes, prison time, and "lies", in an effort to discredit him.

Blanche played recordings from Cohen's podcast where he said: “I want this man to go down” - referring to Donald Trump going to prison.

This was all in an attempt to portray Cohen as a man obsessed with fame and hating Trump.

There were also many questions about a phone call in 2016, which Cohen said was when he spoke with Trump about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Here, we saw Blanche try to test Cohen's memory of the call.

Today, we also saw a large gaggle of Republican politicians at court to support Trump - including Anna Paulina Luna, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs and Lauren Boebert.

Their presence at the courthouse had very real implications for business in Congress, which you can read about here.

“I think it was a very interesting day, a fascinating day,” Donald Trump says to the waiting cameras outside the New York courtroom.

He reads from pieces of paper he has held in court all day.

They are quotes from various political commentators who agree with Donald Trump’s views on this trial.

Lawyer Todd Blanche stands slightly behind his client during the speech, with a slightly furrowed expression.

Trump continues to read quotes, flicking from the first page to the next.

He pauses in between reciting quotes to say "it's all political".

The former president has frequently used this approach throughout this week, reading others' comments about the trial. It's perhaps to avoid a potential breach of his gag-order.

As he finishes his speech, a reporter asks Trump if he will testify. But he does not answer.

Lawyers from both sides are really getting into the weeds of case law and previous precedents around expert testimony here, but it appears they are wrapping up their arguments.

Judge Merchan asks for a moment to collect his thoughts, and then says - after quoting from his previous guidance that experts can provide very basic definitions - that the defence appears to be asking him to greatly “enlarge” his earlier decision.

“We’re definitely not going to do that."

But he says he would take the weekend to consider the arguments.

Until then, “my ruling has not changed.”

That means that if the defence calls an expert witness, questioning would have to be limited to discussing general definitions and terms that relate to campaign contributions and other terms that relate directly to this case, Merchan says.

Donald Trump walks slowly out of the courtroom, again surveying those in attendance.

One does get the sense by his demeanor that these long days are slightly wearing him out or he's over being in court day after day.

Prosecutors rebut defence lawyer Bove’s request to call an expert witness to define legal terms, saying the expert will give the jury an interpretation of the law favourable to Trump's team.

One of the prosecutors say they also have retained an expert witness who can provide their own interpretation to back up their claims.

But, the prosecutor says, there would be "three people telling the jury what the law is instead of one”.

In an appeal to the judge, prosecutors say they would rather stick to Merchan’s interpretation of the law.

If you are wondering why Michael Cohen won't be back on the witness stand until Monday, it's because Friday is Barron Trump's graduation ceremony.

At the start of the trial, Donald Trump requested the day off to attend his youngest son's high school graduation.

With the jury now out of the courtroom, Trump's lawyer Emil Bove is talking through a potential expert witness the defence would like to call.

Trump's legal team believe the expert could help define some statutory terms related to the case.

For example, they could explain the statute around influencing an election for federal office and terms like “contribution“, “expenditure” and “coordinated expenditure”, among others.

Bove says he fears treading on the judge’s legal instructions, so they want to work this out now.

Justice Juan Merchan has suggested we stop for the day. He's instructing the jury to not communicate with anyone about the case or to research it, which are his standard instructions. With that, he wishes them a good weekend.

And - as he does every day - Justice Merchan tells his jurors “to keep an open mind” about the testimony that they have heard today.

Michael Cohen leaves the courtroom without looking at Donald Trump after a full day of cross-examination.

He'll be back on the stand for a fourth day when court resumes on Monday.

Michael Cohen continues to politely answer questions as Todd Blanche moves quickly through various key points.

Prosecutors have noted that Cohen never had a legal retainer in 2017, despite the notation in business records that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Cohen agrees that he never had a legal retainer at any point that he worked for the Trump Organization.

Blanche says that under New York ethics rules, a legal retainer is not needed to do work for a client.

Cohen is asked about Trump’s alleged alias - David Dennison - which appears in the contract that established the hush-money payment with adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

Cohen appears to smirk slightly when he recalls that Daniels' then-lawyer, Keith Davidson, came up with the alias. He says he believes Davidson once knew someone with that name.

We’ve heard the name David Dennison come up a few times now, as it appears in the non-disclosure agreement, which states who should be protected by the deal - in this case it's Donald Trump.

Todd Blanche began his questioning after the break by focusing on the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.

He asks Michael Cohen if he recalls once saying that Daniels and her lawyer Keith Davidson were extorting Trump.

He acknowledges that he did.

In relation to the agreement with Daniels, Blanche repeats a number of times that it is a completely legally binding contract. Cohen agrees.

Reuters/Jane RosenbergCopyright: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg

A new sketch from court artist Jane Rosenberg shows a moment from earlier today, when Justice Merchan spoke at length with lawyers from both sides.

The sketch show's Trump seated, with his eyes closed.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Donald Trump and Todd Blanche walk back in to court together.

The judge briefly spoke to both sides about the alternate juror who had a scheduling conflict, but agreed to play it by ear as to whether to dismiss them early that day.

Michael Cohen has just returned to the stand.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Before the break, I was looking at video screens in the overflow room that show what’s happening in the courtroom.

Trump is on one screen and Cohen on another.

From what I can see, Trump has been staring at his ex-lawyer and is watching his testimony closely.

The former president often leans back in his chair, but his gaze is practically unflinching.

He only stopped at one point to say something to his lawyer, Emil Bove.

The court is taking an afternoon recess for 15 minutes.

Jurors just left the courtroom after listening intently to the cross-examination.

Donald Trump shuffles slowly out.

Todd Blanche brings up that Cohen previously testified during this trial that he had a “specific recollection” of a phone call he had with Trump in June 2016.

“You don’t have a specific recollection... do you?” Blanche asks now.

“No, sir,” Cohen admits.

He asks Cohen to estimate how many phone calls he might get a day - Cohen says hundreds.

“So when you testified on Monday and Tuesday about specific conversations that you had with different folks - Mr Pecker, Mr Howard, President Trump - you were not testifying about a specific recollection about that phone call, were you?” Blanche asks.

And here Cohen again grows defensive.

He says he may not know the exact time of a phone call, but he always remembers “the specific substance” because of the importance of what he and Trump discussed.

A reminder that Cohen testified it was over the phone that he received approval from Donald Trump for making the hush-money payment.

Todd Blanche touches briefly on the story of Donald Trump’s alleged affair with the former playboy model Karen McDougal.

He tries to establish that Trump did not share Cohen’s view that it would have a significant impact on his campaign.

“I’m not sure I agree with that,” Cohen says.

Cohen acknowledges, after reviewing evidence, Trump did not initially think the story would hurt him.

And just a reminder, the hush-money payment surrounding McDougal is not a part of the charges of this case.

In his questioning, Todd Blanche suggests that Cohen knew about ex-tabloid publisher David Pecker’s testimony ahead of time, because Cohen had mentioned it on his TikTok account.

Cohen appears to grow a little tense here and responds quickly.

He says that he knew that Pecker “corroborates my story”, adding that it was story he has been talking about for six years.

Getting other witnesses to provide corroboration was key here for prosecutors, as Cohen’s credibility is, perhaps, the biggest question in this trial.

This exchange about secret recordings is fairly intriguing.

Trump's lawyer asked whether Cohen regularly recorded people secretly, and Cohen confirms that he did - including his ex-client Trump and former CNN executive Jeff Zucker.

Blanche asks Cohen whether he knows that recording his client would be considered unethical.

Cohen responds that if he'd recorded a “crime” happening, it would be “an exception to the rule” of ethics, which led to a few gasps here in the overflow room.