Trump trial latest: Michael Cohen tells of 'false record' used to hide hush money payment

Michael Cohen, the ex-lawyer who paid hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels for Donald Trump, has returned to court in New York to continue his testimony against his old boss. Yesterday, he testified that he lied and bullied on the ex-president's behalf.
After the Wall Street Journal published a story on Stormy Daniels early in 2018, the paper also inquired about the previous hush money payment made to playboy model Karen McDougal.

As we learned earlier in this trial, David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, paid Ms McDougal $150,000 via a company called AMI - all on behalf of Trump and with the understanding he would be paid back.

The court is hearing how Pecker was panicking about the potential ramifications for his brand if that came to light.

Cohen tells the court he told Pecker he would assist in the matter.

"I told him that matter was going to be taken care of, and the person that was going to be able to do it was Jeff Sessions," Cohen says.

Cohen adds he had been told by Trump that Mr Sessions would handle it.

Lisa Rubin, reporting from court for our partner NBC, says: We knew from Pecker's testimony that Cohen had told him not to worry, that Jeff Sessions was in Trump's pocket, but Cohen is putting a new gloss on this conversation, saying he spoke to Trump before talking to Pecker and implying that Trump had him convey that Pecker should not worry.
As he has for much of this trial, Donald Trump is sitting with his eyes closed and his head slightly tilted.

Reporters in court notice that this is in stark contrast with much of the surrogates in the front row, who are said to be "wide awake" and following on with all the documents.
We're shown another statement - this time detailing how neither Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was party to the hush money payment made by Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels.

Again, Cohen is asked if this is false.

The lawyer says it's not entirely false, but "misleading".

He admits it was intentionally misleading, and is asked why this was the case.

"In order to protect Mr Tump, to stay on message, to demonstrate continued loyalty," Cohen replies.

He's asked if Trump approved the statement, which Cohen says he did.
Michael Cohen discusses how he pressured Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels' lawyer, to deny the hush money story that had dropped in the Wall Street Journal early in 2018.

The court is shown an official statement by Stormy Daniels denying the story.

Susan Hoffinger asks Cohen if he knew that the statement was false when it was put out, to which the lawyer says yes.

"How did you know?" he's asked.
The court is again shown a Wall Street Journal article exposing the fact that Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money on behalf of Donald Trump.

It's dated 12 January 2018.

Cohen is asked by Susan Hoffinger if he commented publicly, to which he says he did - but that he lied about Trump's role in the pay-off.

He then says he spoke with Trump to tell him that he was planning on continuing to lie - telling the media "that I had paid the money on his behalf without his knowledge".

Trump responded "good, good", Cohen says.

Cohen next says he pressured Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels' lawyer, to issue denial statements regarding the WSJ article - and the court is shown texts to this effect.