When the November 2016 Wall Street Journal story about AMI's hush payment to Karen McDougal was published, Trump grew concerned with how his wife, Melania, would feel about it -- so he made a request of longtime aide Hope Hicks, according to Hicks' testimony.

"He was concerned about the story," Hicks said on the stand. "He was concerned how it would be viewed by his wife and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren't delivered to their residence that morning."

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks said that she exchanged a series of text messages with Michael Cohen after the November 2016 Wall Street Journal story on the Karen McDougal agreement was published.

"Michael asked me to call him, Michael asked me for updates," Hicks said.

"'Lots of innuendos with little fact,'" Cohen wrote to Hicks the night the story was published. "'Poorly written and I doubt see it getting much play." Hicks said "doubt" was a typo and it should have read "don't."

In ensuing text messages, Cohen and Hicks said they had not noticed substantial interest in other media outlets.

"I told him to 'keep praying,' because this was obviously the only reason why there were six stories," Hicks said with a laugh.

Donald Trump's longtime aide Hope Hicks returned to the stand following the lunch break for her ongoing direct examination.

Discussing her response after the Wall Street Journal told them it was about to break the story that National Enquirer parent AMI had paid Karen McDougal to buy her silence about a long-denied affair with Trump. Hicks said she ultimately provided a statement to the Journal that said the allegations were "totally untrue."

"The denial was from Mr. Trump for both women," Hicks testified, referring to both McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who was also mentioned in the Journal story. "I know very clearly that he stated the denials and wanted those included."

Hicks' statement to the Journal said she had no knowledge of the agreement between AMI and McDougal.

When prosecutors pressed Hicks on that portion of the statement, Hicks could not recall if Trump explicitly directed that statement to deny knowledge of the arrangement.

"I don't remember him verbatim saying that, but that was the consensus of the conversations we were all having," Hicks said.

Donald Trump and Hope Hicks made no eye contact when Hicks got off the stand for the lunch break. Hicks looked down at the floor as she passed Trump sitting at the defense table, and he turned to the left to huddle with his attorneys as she went by.

The former president spent a good deal of the morning session looking away while his one-time closest aide testified.

During more than an hour of testimony from Hicks, Trump at times looked straight ahead, looked down at his tie, and closed his eyes. At one point his head rolled down and his chin hit his chest, remaining there for a few moments before it quickly snapped back up straight.

The former president hardly reacted to any of Hicks' testimony, save for when Hicks shared her own personal response to the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"Just a little stunned," Hicks said of her initial reaction, prompting Trump to snap his head and whisper to his attorney, Todd Blanche.

In contrast to many other former Trump aides, Hicks has never spoken about Trump publicly before. The pair were often described as having a father-daughter relationship, with Trump calling her "Hopey".

Defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of custodial witness Doug Daus, who conducted the extraction of Michael Cohen's two iPhones for the Manhattan's DA's office.

Bove appears to be continuing a line of questioning to raise suspicions about the chain of custody related to the phones.

He asked Daus about a four-day gap between the Manhattan DA receiving the phone and delivering it to the unit that processes the phone's contents. Bove also asked about only one witness signing the receipt form for the phone.

Bove also asked Daus about a "self-destruct timer" that Cohen used for one of his encrypted messaging apps. Daus confirmed that Cohen used the setting for some chats on one his three encrypted messaging applications.