blitzer in washington. i ll be back in two hours, 6:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. starts right now cnn s breaking news. and welcome to the lead. i m 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 trump s criminal trial, michael cohen is detailing exactly how he came to pay $130,000 to adult film star in director stormy 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 cohen s testimony to present both an offensive and defensive case offensively by establishing the cohen was the man behind the payments, not just to stormy daniel s, but also to 1998 playmate of the year, karen mcdougal and defensively by trying t