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

An attorney for Stormy Daniels told CNN that Daniels wore a bulletproof vest to court before her testimony last week.

"She was concerned about the security coming into New York," attorney Clark Brewster said. "She wore a bulletproof vest every day until she got to the courthouse."

Brewster said that Daniels was concerned about a rogue actor targeting her due to her testimony in the trial.

"Before she came on Sunday, I mean she cried herself to sleep," Brewster said. "She was paralyzed with fear."

Daniels testified over two days last week that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006 and that she was subsequently paid $130,000 for her silence prior to the 2016 election. Trump has denied all allegations of a sexual encounter.

Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen is set to resume his direct examination this morning in former President Trump's criminal hush money trial.

Across six hours of testimony yesterday, Cohen laid out the trial's most incriminating testimony so far regarding Trump's involvement in a scheme to hide information from voters by falsifying business records in order to disguise a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election.

Cohen testified that he helped coordinate a "catch and kill" scheme with David Pecker of the National Enquirer, making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, then devising a reimbursement arrangement with then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in 2017. Trump, who has steadfastly denied Daniels' allegations, has denied all wrongdoing.

Cohen told jurors that Trump approved the Daniels hush money payment in October 2016, and that Cohen wired the money from a shell company he funded using a home equity line of credit.

He then recounted a 2017 meeting with Trump and Weisselberg in Trump Tower just days before the inauguration where Trump agreed to the plan to reimburse Cohen for the hush money payment.

"He approved it," Cohen said of Trump. "What I was doing, I was doing at the direction and for the benefit of Mr. Trump."

Former President Trump, addressing reporters on his way out of the courtroom, read a series of comments from supportive lawmakers.

"They view this as a scam," Trump said when asked why lawmakers including Sen. J.D. Vance, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis joined him in court today. "I think it's a terrible thing that's happening to democracy in this country."

Trump, reading from a stack of papers, highlighted comments that included statements from Vance and Sen. Tim Scott.

"This is four weeks you're keeping me away from the campaign," Trump said.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh and Mike Pappano

Michael Cohen recalled then-Trump Organization CFO Weisselberg saying the monthly payments to reimburse him for the Stormy Daniels nondisclosure payment would be recorded "as a legal service render since I was going to be given the title as personal attorney to the president."

Cohen told jurors that Trump and Weisselberg were like "Frick and Frack." Regarding his meeting with the two men about the monthly reimbursement plan, Cohen surmised "this conversation had already taken place between the two."

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen, "Did Mr. Trump try to renegotiate?"

"No," Cohen replied.

"He approved it at that point?" Hoffinger asked.

"Yes," Cohen responded.

A few days later, Trump left for Washington to assume the presidency.

Hoffinger concluded by asking Cohen whether the $420,000 he would receive in monthly installments was meant to be compensation for any future legal work he did for Trump.

"No," Cohen said.

Testimony then ended for the day.