Cohen addresses why secretly made recording ended
According to Michael Cohen, the recording he secretly made of a 2016 meeting with Trump abruptly ended because he took an incoming phone call on his phone.
"I must have believed it was an important phone call," Cohen testified.
Cohen added that he believed he recorded enough to prove to Pecker that the $150,000 reimbursement was coming, which he said was the the goal of the recording.
"I didn't want to record more -- I already had enough," Cohen said.
Jurors saw a phone record from AT&T that suggested Cohen received a call around the time of the recording.
The conversation briefly continued after the recording ended, according to Cohen.
Cohen said he told Trump, "I am going to head over to Allen Weisselberg's office and I will get back to him with more of an update."
Jurors briefly saw the metadata for the recording.
"Did you ever alter that recording?" Hoffinger asked.
"No," Cohen said.
Trump, at the defense table, shook his head "no" at Cohen's response. The former president appears much more engaged now, thumbing through a stack of papers in his hands.