Trump trial: Cohen faces Trump team grilling over past lies, recollections

Jurors saw the finalized nondisclosure agreement between Trump and Stormy Daniels, guaranteeing Daniels $130,000 for her silence.

Cohen signed the document on behalf of Essential Consultants.

The agreement used pseudonyms for Trump and Daniels -- Trump's being David Dennison and Daniels' being Peggy Peterson.

"The purpose of it was to ensure his name didn't appear anywhere, as he is a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America," Daniels said.

Donald Trump's name briefly appeared on a side letter agreement to confirm that he was the David Dennison mentioned in the contract.

Both Davidson and Cohen were permitted to have a copy of the side letter agreement.

Jurors then saw a phone record showing a five-minute phone call between Cohen and Trump on Oct. 28, 2016.

Cohen said he told Trump that "this matter was now completely under control and locked down pursuant to the nondisclosure agreement."

Jurors saw the form that Michael Cohen used to create the account for Essential Consultants LLC, the shell company he used to pay Stormy Daniels the $130,000 per their nondisclosure agreement.

"MICHAEL COHEN IS OPENING ESSENTIAL CONSULTANTS LLC AS A REAL ESTATE CONSULTING COMPANY TO COLLECT FEES FOR INVESTMENT CONSULTING WORK HE DOES FOR REAL ESTATE DEALS," the form said.

Asked about the veracity of the form, Cohen responded, "It's false."

Cohen said he filled out the form that way "to hide the intent ... which is to pay for a nondisclosure agreement."

Cohen said had he been honest on the form, the account would not have been opened by First Republic Bank.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger then walked Cohen through each of the documents used to create the shell company then wire $130,000 to an attorney-trust account for Stormy Daniels.

Cohen stated that wire transfer form he used for the payment was not truthful because it stated the purpose of the wire was a "retainer."

In reality, Cohen said, the wire was "in order to pay Stormy Daniels to execute the nondisclosure agreement and to attain the story -- her life rights."

Jurors saw phone records showing a flurry of calls made by Michael Cohen in late October 2016, as Cohen finalized the Stormy Daniels payment.

The records included Cohen's calls between Keith Davidson, Allen Weisselberg, and David Pecker.

Jurors also saw a record of two phone calls Cohen made to Trump on Oct. 26, 2016, with durations of 3:01 and 1:28.

"I wanted to ensure that once again he approved what he was doing, because I required approval from him on all of this," Cohen said about the calls.

"Everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off," Cohen said. "On top of that I wanted the money back.

"Would you have ever paid the nondisclosure agreement for Stormy Daniels on your own?" prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen after he detailed his efforts to find an alternative sdolution.

"No ma'am," Cohen responded. "It's $130,000. I was doing everything I could and more to protect my boss, which is something I did for a long time but I would not lay out $130,000 for an NDA needed by someone else."

Cohen described frantic days to finalize the NDA with Stormy Daniels. "If this matter wasn't resolved it was going to be catastrophic to Mr. Trump and the campaign," Cohen said.

Cohen said he asked AMI's David Pecker and Dylan Howard to front the money, but Pecker balked. "I cannot do it again," Cohen quoted Pecker saying, consistent with Pecker's testimony that he wasn't a bank.

Cohen testified that he ultimately used a home equity line of credit to finance the Stormy Daniels payoff because he was too afraid his wife would find out otherwise.

"I elected to use money that was in the HELOC because my wife, who was CEO of the household, would not understand if there was $130,000 missing from our joint bank account."

Many of the jurors keep their eyes locked on Cohen as he responded to this line of questioning.

Donald Trump eyes remained closed.

Cohen, on the stand, let out a sigh.