Defense attorney Todd Blanche turned the cross-examination to the topic of Stormy Daniels' $130,000 hush payment.

Jurors were shown the nondisclosure contract between Daniels and Trump.

“In your mind, then and now, this is a perfectly legal contract, correct?” Blanche asked Michael Cohen, hammering at a key defense argument that the agreement was fully legal.

“Yes sir,” Cohen responded.

Under questioning, Cohen conceded that he told the Manhattan district attorney's office that before he paid Stormy Daniels her hush money, he thought Daniels was "exploiting Mr. Trump."

"In your mind, there was either two choices: Pay, or don't pay and the story comes out?" Blanche asked COhen.

Cohen affirmed his thinking.

"But you went a long time without paying?" Blanche asked.

"Yes, we went several weeks without paying," said Cohen.

"Ultimately, though, you did. You paid," Blanche said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche questioned Michael Cohen about his secretly made recording of the September 2016 conversation between him and Trump. Cohen testified earlier that be believed the recording ended abruptly because he got a phone call.

Blanche asked Cohen what Trump meant, on the recording, when he told Cohen to use "cash" to repay David Pecker for the Karen McDougal catch-and-kill agreement, suggesting that Trump was talking about not using financing, rather than going "down to the bank with bags full of cash."

"That's not what he was talking about, was he?" Blanche said.

Following up, Blanche asked, "You're recording him but the phone rings and you just answered that call?"

"I did," Cohen said, adding that he remembers being the victim of identity theft.

"When you hung up with the bank you were still talking to President Trump?" Blanche asked.

"For a few seconds," said Cohen. He said did not restart the recording.

Trump, angled toward the witness stand to get a better view of Cohen, appeared attentive during this questioning.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche pressed Michael Cohen on the hush money payment made to Playboy model Karen McDougal, whose story Cohen said he thought could be damaging to the Trump campaign.

"President Trump at least initially didn't think it would hurt him?" Blanche asked.

"Initially yes," Cohen said.

Blanche attempted to cast doubt on how Cohen could remember a specific phone call with Trump about McDougal in June 2016 when he was getting a hundreds of calls a week at the time.

Cohen agreed with the defense that he gets 14,000 phone calls a year.

"So when you testified Monday and Tuesday about specific conversations you had with Mr. Howard, with President Trump, you were not testifying about a specific recollection of that phone call?" Blanche asked.

"I was," Cohen said. "Because these phone calls are things I've been talking about for the last six years. They are, and they, were all-consuming."

Defense attorney Todd Blanche turned his attention to the origins of the catch-and-kill arrangement with National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. He asked Michael Cohen about his past testimony regarding the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting with Trump and Pecker where prosecutors say the conspiracy was formed.

Cohen earlier testified that the meeting was important because the "power of the National Enquirer is its placements in supermarkets."

"Had you ever told anyone that before your testimony this week?" Blanche asked.

"Not that I recall," Cohen said.

Blanche asked about Dino Saludjin, the doorman who was paid off after falsely claiming that Trump had a love child.

"The story was false, correct?" Blanche asked.

"I believe so yes," Cohen responded.

"Do you have any doubt in your mind it was false?" Blanche asked.

"No sir," Cohen said.

Blanche Cohen asked if Trump "was worried about the story getting out because of his employees?" appearing to challenge Cohen's testimony about why hush money was paid.

"He mentioned that I should speak to them as well," Cohen said.

Michael Cohen testified that as the clock ticked toward the 2016 election, it became increasingly clear he could no longer delay the nondisclosure arrangement with Stormy Daniels.

Cohen said Trump agreed.

"He stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people. It's $130,000. Just pay it. There's no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it. So he expressed to me, 'Just do it,'" Cohen said.

Then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg allegedly suggested that Cohen could fund the account that would ultimately wire the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels through one of Trump's golf courses, either through a membership or a wedding.

In a meeting with Weisselberg, Cohen said he suggested two options: "One option was to see if I knew anybody who wanted to purchase a golf membership," and a second option was for "somebody who was having a family affair, like a wedding or a bar mitzvah" pay that account and redeem the value as a "credit on their invoice."

"Why don't you pay?" Cohen testified he asked Weisselberg.

"He said to me that he wasn't financially in a position to do it," Cohen said.

Cohen said he eventually agreed to make the payment.

"I said I'll pay for it," Cohen said.

According to Cohen, both he and Weisselberg discussed the plan with Trump;

"Allen and I spoke to Mr. Trump and we expressed to him that I was going to front the money for it, to which he was appreciative," Cohen said.

Cohen said Trump replied, "Good, good."