Blitzer in washington. Ill be back in two hours, 6 00 p. M. Eastern in the situation room. Starts right now cnns Breaking News. And welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper and we continue to follow the Breaking News out of manhattan and where the man at the center of the Hush Money Payments Scandal is testifying right now in Donald Trumps criminal trial, Michael Cohen is detailing exactly how he came to pay 130,000 to Adult Film Star In DirectorStormy Daniels, who came forward about an alleged episode with donald trump in the days before the 2016 Election Cohen testified, not only did trump know about the uh, hundred 30,000 payment, but trump directly approved it and said that he would pay cohen back and the prosecution is using cohens testimony to present both an offensive and defensive case offensively by establishing the cohen was the man behind the payments, not just to Stormy Daniels, but also to 1998 playmate of the year, Karen Mcdougal and defensively by trying to establish that cohen frequently lie on behalf of donald trump, getting that out there ahead of time before the defense has their say and by trying to corroborate nearly everything they can that cohen says with actual factual evidence, Text Messages, emails, Phone Records lets get straight to cnns paula reid. Paula what have been your biggest takeaways from Michael Cohens testimony . 20 so far ill take this highly anticipated appearance by Michael Cohen on the stand has paid dividends for prosecutors so far. He told the jury that at long before trump announced his candidacy for the white house, he was worried about stories from women and how they could come out and potentially impact his candidacy. Cohen testified that trump told him, quote, you know, that when this comes out, meeting the announcement about his run for the white house, just be prepared. Theres going to be a lot of women coming forward. Cohen then testified to how involved he was and suppressing negative stories about trump in the lead up to the election. And that in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape, how he personally similarly facilitated that payment to Stormy Daniels. But what was new what we havent already heard so far in this trial is how involved trump was. He testified that he he constantly kept trump updated on this ever to pay Stormy Daniels this hush money testified that he needed trumps approval, is certainly wanted credit for getting the story suppress, but he described trump as a micromanager, testified to how in the loop he was now we also testified that trump promised he would get reimbursed. He said Allen Weisselberg, the former cfo of the trump organization, and i spoke to mr. Trump. We expressed to him that i was going to front the money for the hush money to which he was appreciative. Any stated to me, dont worry, youll get the money back now in the timeline the testimony we are in late 2016 right now, cohen is expected to wrap up the next half hour or so. So we havent quite gotten to 2017, which is of course when these dots im convinced at the heart of this case were allegedly falsified apollo, what do we know about the Defense Strategy for crossexamining cohen . Obviously, a lot of us are backing it to be rather brutal yeah, it totally fair. It will be brutal. Michael cohen knows its gonna be brutal and crossexamination of Michael Cohen is the trump defense, which is why todd blanche, the lead attorney here. He hasnt been doing very many of the crossexaminations of witnesses. He has been exclusively focused on this crossexamination. We can expect that this will go as long if not longer than the direct examination and it will be a multimedia presentation. Many of the things cohen has said about trump can well be used against him, really jake, the greatest challenge for prosecutors or excuse me, for Defense Attorneys is just calling down all of the statements, all of the attacks that cohen has launched against the defendant in the past several years. Really, most of his identity is attacking trumps Defense Attorneys are going to seize on that and try to paint him as a liar. Sure. Who was out for revenge, which is of course the name of one of his books. All right paula reid, thanks so much. Lets bring in our panel we have with us victoria nurse who served his Chief Counsel for then Vice President joe biden former Trump Payroll Corporation attorney bill brennan, former federal prosecutor, gene rossi, and cnns jamie gan, gail, right now, just to give you an update on whats going on inside the courtroom right now. Michael cohen is testifying about the reimbursement of 130,000 and hes talking similarly about the calculations. The back of the envelope as it were calculations by Allen Weisselberg, the chief Financial Officer of the trump organization. I think we have a copy of that document that we can show you that theyre referring to. Its its 130,000 plus additional funding that went into what cohen was paid. And and just to just to get you up to speed, one of the things thats been going on is it Michael Cohen is talking about how a day or two before trump left for the inauguration in january 2017 trump officially made Michael Cohen his personal council. He found out that his its bonus, which usually was included in the christmas card, the check for the bonus was he was angry beyond angry because trump has slashed is bonus by twothirds. Trump laughs to himself in the courtroom when this happens and nodded, as cohen testified, he was beyond angry. He said i was truly insulted personally hurt by it, didnt understand. He said he immediately went to weisselbergs office and in some colorful language expressed to him how truly off and angry i really was. I use quite a few expletives. I was even for myself unusually angry. So one of the ideas here that theyre trying to establish is this anger that Michael Cohen had and theyre trying to get it out on their terms. The prosecution because obviously anything negative that there is about Michael Cohen, the defense is going to introduce evidence that the feeling obviously better that the prosecution get it out there first, let me start with you, victoria, if i could, because the Stormy Daniels payment right before he went to the bank to make the Stormy Daniels payment, cohen says he had to phone calls with trump cohen says he would never have made the payment without trumps approval. And that quote, everything required. Mr. Trumps sign on top of that i wanted the money back that seems like a point that the jurors can relate to wanting to be paid back uhhuh. Yeah. Im gonna think cohen has been doing a good job of explaining that this was all about the election that this is not just we call it hush money and all that tawdry stuff that my republican mother rest your pieces rolling over were in her grave about this is really about the 2016 election and what theyre doing it stepbystep, showing through the admission of the documents and all this boring stuff about who said what when that trump was there. Trump ordered this and cohen wanted to be repaid so lets bring up that weisselberg note that i referred to earlier, which has been introduced into evidence, and its Allen Weisselberg, the cfo paying back Michael Cohen and figuring out how much should be paid back if they grow up the number. So that after he pays the taxes on this check cohen would get back the full amount of money. He owed if they gave me the hundred 80,000 and they didnt grow sit up after taxes onto it. It would be 90,000. Cohen says, but i suspect that you have a different take on how credible mr. Cohen is seeming. I do. Jake is surprisingly enough i mean this guy is a polluted source. He could be the Dictionary Photograph for polluted source. Hes a narcissistic sycophant that put his star on trumps wagon. And when he didnt get what he wanted, which was a dc job, he turned on him and now hes got an extra grind and jake, those jurors dont leave their common sense of the door. What they see a witness like hope hicks will apparently has no ax to grind they take her testimony, has the ring of truth. This guy wrote a book called revenge. This guy, Michael Collins about Michael Cohen. He said earlier, i think in todays testimony from what we saw on the screen, he was hoping to monetize his role as the president s attorney i mean, i think blanche will have him on the stand for days and collins got an allergy to veracity. So its going to be an interesting cross. One of the things that theyre trying to establish here is that the money was actually he was paid in excess of 130,000 because it gets getting into the weeds a little bit but if they they did it as an untaxed expense reimbursement, then he would it would be less money than if he took it as income because reimbursements were not grossed up any in any case, theyve already lost me, but thats why thats why i have an accountant. This all comes after cohen failed to pay Stormy Daniels by in the first agreed upon deadline . Yeah. And what it looked like Stormy Daniels might take her story somewhere else. Cohen says, trump told him, quote he stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, smart people, and that its 130,000. Your a billionaire, just pay it. Theres no reason to keep this thing out there. So do it. Thats what people said to trump as trump to Michael Cohen he expressed to me just do it, meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out, right . Does that have the ring of truth to you . Does that sound right . Well, heres the thing. I want to go to what bill said. Theres an incident in early december, i think teeth davidson talked about it. I represented davidson and Michael Cohen was so mad, believe it or not, bill Michael Cohen thought he could be Attorney General the united states. Now, we all laugh at that. But trump told them hes not going to be Attorney General and told them hes not even go into the white house. So an early december, this angers building and you get to crescendo with the bonus, but to go to the invoices, i call them the souffle invoices. They go from 132420 i think that if the prosecutors explain this rationally and we common sense because i did a lot of tax cases and cohen does reasonably well. I think theyre going to get over that hurdle of connecting the invoices to the election interference. If they do it properly, if they screw up and fohlin, her face, Donald Trumps going to have a hung jury and acquittal. Its as simple as that. So when he first learned that Stormy Daniels is looking to sell her story jamie again go Michael Cohen testifies that he went to donald trump immediately. Cohen says trump told them to handle the story and the trump said, quote, i want you to just push it out as long as you can just get past the election. Because if i win it, i will have no rela it will have no relevance because im president and if i lose, i dont even care. So this would undermine in any claim that donald trump did this because he was worried about what might happen to melania. I think testimony like that goes to guilty, guilty, guilty. I mean, it really just lays it out. Otherwise, you wouldnt you know, why did they were they waiting out until why did he want to wait until after the election . That is not about melania or his family being upset. Its about the election. Can i just address my friend bill here, who who he gets in trouble on social media for some of our conversations which he doesnt deserve we talked before we came on. You talked about Michael Cohen and his personality and veracity he and donald trump Work Together for ten years. I would say in a certain its fair to say they were a match Made In Heaven for those ten years Michael Cohen conducted himself the way donald trump conducted himself. And i think jurors, youre the lawyer, jill, tell me they look at whos on the stand . Their reaction goes beyond the evidence and the testimony theres common sense that goes into this and i think Michael Cohen has, by all accounts, his tone has been even he has said he was ashamed. He has apologize. Im not saying it gets you all the way there. But i think it helps me. I agree with you on i know. Thank but but heres a cycle of the last six or seven years with cohen. He lied to congress. He lied to the irs. He went to prison he came back. He said, im am redeemed. Ive seen the light. And then he had more allies and now hes redeeming. This guys have more comebacks and ike turner, as he testifies from that stand today, he is shopping a reality show called the fixer that anybody little pick it up. This guy always has skin in the game it makes him a polaroid. Were going to squeeze in a quick break. Im going to come back. Im gonna come back to you. You get first first shot at it out of the gate. Stay with me, Michael Cohen right now detailing how he made the payment to Stormy Daniels testifying that he took out a home equity loan. He tried to hide it from his own wife. Did he act under trumps orders or on his own as a faithful servant . Hi, attorneys are here and theyre debating whats at the heart of the case. Were going to squeeze in a quick break. Well be right back this is a secret secrets and spies premier sunday, june 2, attempt bomb cnn water would help us. Its dry spots. Thats loan disease. 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