"President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes," defense attorney Todd Blanche said to begin the defense's opening statements.

"The Manhattan district attorney's office should never have brought this case," Blanche said.

"You will hear me and others refer to him as President Trump. That is a title he has earned because he was our 45th President," Blanche added.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury, during his opening statement, "During this trial you're going to hear a lot about Michael Cohen.”

Trump's former personal attorney, Cohen is a key witness -- perhaps the only one that will testify to Donald Trump’s intent when he agreed to pay Stormy Daniels hush money.

The defense “will go to great lengths” to convince the jury Cohen is not credible, Colangelo said.

He acknowledged that Cohen had earlier lied regarding the matter. “He lied about it to protect his boss,” Colangelo said. “You will also learn that Michael Cohen has a criminal record.”

Colangelo told jurors they can believe Cohen despite his past mistakes.

“Cohen's testimony will be backed up by testimony from other witnesses you will hear from, including David Pecker, Keith Davidson. It will be backed up by an extensive paper trail. And it will be backed up by Donald Trump’s own words,” the prosecutor said.

Colangelo concluded by saying, “This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up, an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election and then the steps that Donald Trump took to conceal that election fraud. At the end of the case we are confident you will have no reasonable doubt that Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records.”

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked jurors to ponder why Donald Trump did not negotiate the $420,000 repayment scheme allegedly proposed by Michael Cohen and then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

"Donald Trump was a very frugal businessman. He believed in pinching pennies. He believed in counting every dollar. He believed in negotiating every bill," Colangelo said. "It's all over all the books he's written. He ran the Trump Organization with total control."

But when it came time to set Cohen's repayment, Trump did not question the proposal from Cohen and Weisselberg, Colangelo said.

"This might be the only time that ever happened," said the prosecutor.

According to Colangelo, Trump consented to the arrangement because he knew the scheme was to cover up the hush money payment to Daniels and other expenses.

"It was instead what they thought was a clever way to pay Cohen back without being too obvious about it," Colangelo said.

Colangelo said that the jurors will see handwritten notes from Weisselberg laying out the entire scheme.

"They agreed to cook the books," said Colangelo.

"It was election fraud, pure and simple," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury during opening statements as he outlined the hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and how it was logged by the Trump Organization

Dylan Howard, then editor of the National Enquirer, had called Trump attorney Michael Cohen to inform him about Daniels and the story that she had of a sexual liaison with Trump, which the former president has long denied.

"Cohen then discussed the situation with Trump who is adamant that he did not want the story to come out," Colangelo said. "it could have been devastating to his campaign."

At the time, Trump and the campaign were "deeply concerned" about the "Access Hollywood" video, the prosecutor said. Cohen wired the $130,000 to Daniels' lawyer to keep her quiet.

"Cohen made that payment at Donald Trump's direction and for his benefit and he did it with the special goal of influencing the election
This was not spin or communications strategy. This was a planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election to help DT get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad about his behavior. It was election fraud, pure and simple," Colangelo said.

Former President Trump, sitting at the defense table, softly shook his head "no" when prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jurors that Trump formed a "conspiracy" with Michael Cohen and David Pecker to "help him get elected."

It was one of the most notable reactions from Trump as he sits and listens to prosecutors lay out their story of the case.

Colangelo then brought up the "Access Hollywood" tape and said it showed Trump "bragging about sexual assault," Trump shook his head no again, pursing his lips. He did not react when Colangelo, quoting Trump on the tape, said, "grab them by the p----."

Earlier, as Colangelo brought up a former Trump doorman who was he said was paid off as part of the alleged catch-and-kill scheme, Trump -- looking annoyed -- leaned over and tapped his lawyer Todd Blanche. When Colangelo said the doorman was paid $30,000 to bury his story, Trump raised his eyebrows and grabbed onto a pen.

The former president has been passing notes and sliding papers between Blanche and attorney Emil Bove, and leaning side-to-side, whispering to them. Blanche at one point pulled out his own sticky note and slid a note back to Trump.

At other times he has hardly seemed engaged at all, slumping in his red leather chair looking straight forward with no facial expression, or fidgeting with his head tilting back and forth. At one point during jury instructions he let out a yawn.