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

Michael Cohen testified about the fallout from his work for Trump, telling the jury he is no longer a lawyer.

"I lost my law license as a direct result of this," he said.

He said he wrote his book, "Disloyal," to "pass the time" in prison, then wrote his second book, "Revenge," which he described as a "forensic dissection of the prosecution ... against a critic of the president."

The jury then saw a 2023 social media post by Donald Trump about "convicted liar and felon" Michael Cohen.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger questioned Cohen about Trump suing him in Florida for half a billion dollars -- and for the first time in a while, Trump, at the defense table, opened his eyes, took notes, and passed them to his attorney Todd Blanche.

Cohen told the jury that he regrets what he did for Trump.

"I regret doing things for him that I should not have. Lying. Bullying people in order to effectuate a goal," Cohen said. "I don't regret working with the Trump Organization, as I expressed before some very interesting great times."

"But to keep the loyalty and do things that he had asked me to do -- I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family," Cohen said.

Trump appeared to have his eyes closed for the majority of Cohen's last answer. The prosecution completed its direct examination of Cohen, and the court recessed the lunch.

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.