Defense attorney Todd Blanche opened today's questioning by asked Cohen about his communication with reporters.

"Since that time [when your last testimony ended], how many reporters have you talked to?" Blanche asked.

Cohen said he's spoken to reporters "who called to say hello, to see how I'm doing," but that he didn't talk about the case.

"Didn't speak at all about your testimony last week?" Blanche asked.

"Correct," Cohen responded.

As Cohen resumed his testimony, jurors appeared attentive, with several taking notes. Trump sat slouched at his chair with his eyes closed.

Following the break, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has entered the courtroom.

He took his seat in the witness box to resume his cross-examination as Trump looked on.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked to approach the bench about an ongoing discovery issue.

Both legal teams leaned in as Blanche spoke to the judge.

With the sidebar completed, the judge called for a ten-minute break.

Judge Merchan denied a request from defense lawyers to broaden the scope of testimony from their expert witness Bradley Smith, who is an expert on campaign finance regulations.

On Thursday, defense lawyers asked Merchan to allow Smith to testify about various terms related to federal campaign finance laws. Merchan denied the request, citing long standing precedent prohibiting witness testimony about the law.

"An expert is not permitted to present or interpret the law," Merchan said.

Merchan also expressed concerns about Smith's testimony prompting a "battle of the experts" between Smith and an expert called by prosecutors, which Merchan said would confuse the jury.

Merchan said that Smith could still testify, as long as he follows the limits imposed in his pretrial ruling on the case's motions in limine.

"The court will monitor this testimony closely to ensure full compliance," Merchan said in a pretrial ruling. "Any deviation from this ruling could result in sanction up to and including striking the expert's entire testimony."

Trump, sitting at the defense table, shook his head after the judge announced his ruling.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen about the large sums of money he made through his consulting work with other companies in 2017 -- an apparent effort to legitimize the money Cohen made from Trump as the being the result of legal work.

Cohen testified he was paid $600,000 by AT&T in 2017, communicating with them just 20 times.

"And there's nothing wrong with that?" Blanche asked.

"I don't believe so," Cohen said.

Cohen said he was paid $100,000 per month from Novartis, $100,000 per month from an aerospace company, and $150,000 a month from a bank.

Cohen was also paid $50,000 by a company in 2017 to help restart a nuclear power plant formerly run by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

On direct examination, Cohen had testified he did less than 10 hours of work or Trump in 2017 -- an attempt by prosecutors to cast doubt on the fact that the payments Cohen received were for any legitimate legal work.

Blanche appears to be trying to rebut those assertions by painting Trump's payments as just another one of Cohen's lucrative consulting jobs, in which he made hundreds of thousands of dollars while doing little work for his clients.