Michael Cohen to return to witness stand for 3rd day of testimony in Trump's hush money trial

Michael Cohen is set to return to the witness stand Thursday to face a full day of cross-examination in which the defense is expected to question the former Trump attorney's credibility as the prosecution's star witness in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial.

Across his two days on the witness stand, Cohen has offered the most incriminating testimony so far that Trump was aware of, and directly involved in, the criminal conduct alleged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has accused the former president of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment that Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost Trump's electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen, under direct examination, described in-person meetings and phone calls with Trump, who he said joined into an agreement with tabloid publisher David Pecker to catch and kill negative stories ahead of the election, approved a $130,000 hush money payment from Cohen to Daniels, and signed off on a scheme to reimburse Cohen in 2017. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.Defense attorneys in their cross-examination are expected to try to use Cohen's own words against him, including previous statements he's made in media interviews, on podcasts and in his books, including his 2020 memoir, "Disloyal."

Cohen told jurors that he made approximately $3 million dollars from that book, which he wrote while serving 13 months in federal prison -- in part for campaign finance violations related to the Stormy Daniels payment.

On Tuesday, defense attorney Todd Blanche began confronting Cohen with portions of the memoir to suggest Cohen was "obsessed" with Trump.

"At that time, I was knee-deep into the cult of Donald Trump," Cohen said about his decade working for Trump.

Cohen's detailed descriptions in "Disloyal" about his meetings with Trump related to the catch-and-kill scheme could be a focus of the cross-examination, as defense attorneys attempt to draw out any differences between Cohen's testimony and what he wrote in the book.

Cohen's secret recording

On Monday, jurors heard a recording that Cohen secretly made of a conversation with Trump in September 2016, when the two discussed a plan to reimburse Pecker for his company's $150,000 hush money payment to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleged a year-long affair with Trump that Trump denied took place.Asked on the stand to explain why he secretly recorded his boss, Cohen told jurors that he wanted to provide Pecker proof that Trump planned to repay him.

"It was so I could show it to David Pecker, and that way he would hear the conversation so that he would know that we are going to be paying him," Cohen said. "I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr. Trump."

In his book, Cohen offered an additional explanation for the recording: that he made it in case Trump "threw me under the bus" one day.

"First, to show Pecker that I was asking Trump to repay the obligation, and second, to have a record of his participation if the conspiracy ever came out," Cohen wrote. "I was certain that Trump would throw me under the bus in that event, claiming ignorance and laying all the blame on a rogue lawyer, namely me."

Though Cohen wrote the book three years before Bragg would indict Trump, Cohen acknowledged in the book, "I had no idea how prescient I was."

The Stormy Daniels payment

Cohen testified that Trump was angry when Cohen first shared the news that Daniels was shopping her story in the fall of 2016.

"He was really angry with me," Cohen told jurors, saying Trump told him, "I thought you had this under control."

In Cohen's book, Trump sounded more subdued.

"He didn't explode as I expected, perhaps slightly chastened by the Access Hollywood episode and his vulnerable position in the campaign," Cohen wrote.

In the book, he said that after he recounted Daniels' allegations to Trump, they called Pecker for his input regarding potential damage to the campaign.