Trial. The prosecution star witness, Michael Cohen, back on the stand. Todays burning question, will cohen keep his cool when trumps lawyers begin what could be an intense Cross Examination, which could start any time today. Could his trademark temper flare under pressure . Yasmin vossoughian is outside the courthouse for us. Yasmin, take us inside right now. Whats happening . Reporter yeah, a lot happening so far, right . Were 30 minutes into this thing. We already got a lot. Were getting to the crux of this whole thing. Yesterday we heard a lot of incredible testimony from Michael Cohen. We got to the intent as to why essentially donald trump would have wanted to pay off Stormy Daniels. We talked about the january 16th and or 17th meeting, Michael Cohen is unclear about the date in which donald trump, Allen Weisselberg, Michael Cohen were in the room in trump tower saying were going to say Legal Services rendered, paying you monthly, 35,000 a month per the math done by Allen Weisselb
Michael cohen picking the stand to testify about the hush money deals he helped to arrange at the direction of his former boss in order to benefit mr. Trumps 2016 president ial campaign according to the Associated Press mr. Cohen told the jury everything required mr. Trumps sign off as he was questioned by prosecutors. Crossexamination by the defense is still to come in the trial five years ago Michael Cohen testified for house lawmakers house lawmakersabout his work fn President Trump. Highlighting the actions he took at the direction of his former boss heres a portion of the and thank him for participating in todays hearing. Mr. Cohen, if you would please rice and i will begin to swear you in. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Let the record show the witness answered in the the affirmative. Thank you. You may be seated. The microns are sensitive to please speak d
You in. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Let the record show the witness answered in the the affirmative. Thank you. You may be seated. The microns are sensitive to please speak directly into them. Without objection your written statement will be made part of the record. With that, mr. Cohen, you are recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony. Is your mic on . Yes. Chairman cummings, Ranking Member jordan, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today. I have asked this committee to ensure that my family be protected from president ial threats and that the committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. I thank you for your help and for your understanding. I am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the committees questions truthfully and to offer the American People what i know about Pres
Said on hannity that the president reimbursed Michael Cohen for the 130,000 payment as the nondisclosure agreement. But he cast the payment as a retainer for Services Rendered and expenses incurred on Michael Cohens behalf, that the president was not reimbursing him for paying off Stormy Daniels. Merely reimbursing Michael Cohen for expenses he said he had. At the heart of the case is the potential for the violation according to Rudy Giuliani. A that is what he believes he is pursuing. And the fact that the president reimbursed cohen for the payment to Stormy Daniels takes it off the table. Listen to what he said. He was definitely reimbursed. No doubt about it. Why did he say he wasnt . Maybe, maybe first of all, if we had to defend this as not being a campaign contribution, we could do that. This was for personal reasons. The president had been hurt personally. Not politically. Personally so much. And the first lady by some of the false allegations that one more false allegations six
These xwreements are common among celebrities and people of wealth. This morning, guiliani pushing back against claims he contradicted the president , who said last month he did not know about the payment cohen made to the porn star ahead of the 2016 election. Watch. I dont think theres any contradiction of that, thats what i said last night, people were surprised, i think this is a tweet that is valuable, the president indicates he understood it. He didnt know the details of this until we knew the details of it, which is a couple of weeks ago. We had to defend this not being a campaign contribution, i think we can do that. This is personal reasons. Melissa john roberts joins us from the north lawn. A lot of news today, break it down. Gee, what a difference compared to a regular day, huh . Right. Usually nothing happening here. There are a lot of people who say that what Rudy Guiliani dropped on Sean Hannitys show is a direct contradiction of what the president told the White House Pre