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

Michael Cohen said that after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges related to the Stormy Daniels payment -- as well as other tax charges -- he served 13 months in federal prison before being sent to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump, sitting at the defense table, had his eyes closed as Cohen testified about his time in prison.

Cohen then testified that he was sent back to prison after he declined to sign an agreement that would have prohibited him from speaking or writing publicly.

"Didn't seem like a federal document," Cohen said, adding that it did not include any numbers and included several typos.

Cohen suggested he was sent to solitary confinement around the time he was writing his book, prompting a sustained objection from defense lawyers.

Asked about the tax charges, Cohen told jurors that while he agrees his tax filings had an "error," he believes he was treated unfairly by prosecutors.

"I have constantly maintained that I did not dispute the fact there was an error in the taxable amount -- in the tax that was due," Cohen said.

"What I did dispute, and I continue to dispute, is for a first-time offender … never having been audited, that this would go immediately to a criminal charge. From the day that we found out, I was given 48 hours within which to plead guilty" -- or face an eighty-page indictment that would have included charges against his wife, he said.

"And I was going to protect my wife," Cohen said.

Michael Cohen told the jury about his 2018 guilty plea for campaign finance violations related to the Stormy Daniels payment, as well as other tax evasion charges.

"What was that day like for you?" prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

"Worst day of my life," Cohen said.

The jury then saw the tweets that then-President Trump posted in August 2018 following Cohen's guilty pleas.

"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!" one said.

"It caused a lot of angst, anxiety," Cohen said about the tweets.

Asked to describe his understanding of Trump's message, Cohen said, "Certainly displeasure. That I no longer was important to the fold."

Trump, at the defense table, leaned forward to read his own tweets as they appeared on the monitor.

Cohen told jurors that he reported to federal prison on May 6, 2019. He told the jury he was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

"I apologized to Congress, I apologized to the country, I apologized to my family" in congressional testimony in February 2019 before he reported to prison, because "the citizenry had a right to know in order to make a determination about the individual who was seeking the highest office in the land," he said.

"Did you admit that you paid that money to Stormy Daniels in order to influence Mr. Trump's electoral prospects?" Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen after he finished testifying about his decision to plead guilty to campaign finance and related charges in 2018.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche objected, prompting a sidebar. Judge Merchan sustained the objection.

Cohen reiterated that he paid Stormy Daniels "on behalf of Mr. Trump" to influence the election.

"To ensure that the story would not come out -- would not affect Mr. Trump's chances of becoming president of the United States," Cohen said.

"Why did you work with AMI to pay off Karen McDougal?" Hoffinger asked.

"In order to ensure that the possibility of Mr. Trump succeeded in the election -- that this would not be a hindrance," Cohen said.

Michael Cohen testified that in the summer of 2018, then-President Trump carried out a "pressure campaign" on him through Cohen's then-attorney Robert Costello.

"You are making a very big mistake if you believe the stories these 'journalists' are writing about you. They want you to cave. They want you to fail. They do not want you to preserve and succeed," Costello wrote in an email to Cohen that was shown to the jury. "If you really believe you are not being supported properly by your former boss, then you should make your position known."

Cohen summarized Trump's message as "Don't flip. Don't speak. Don't cooperate."

Cohen testified that he "didn't trust" Costello.

"I believed based upon all of our conversations that he would immediately run back to Mr. Giuliani and that communication would be divulged to Mr. Trump," he said.

"My family -- my wife, my daughter, my son -- all said to me, 'Why are you holding onto this loyalty? What are you doing? We're supposed to be your first loyalty," Cohen testified.

"So what decision did you make?" asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

"That it was about time to listen to them," Cohen said. "To my wife, my son, my daughter, to the country," Cohen said in emotional testimony.

Cohen testified that he pleaded guilty to federal charges in August 2018.

"I would not lie for President Trump any longer," Cohen said.