Cohen admits payment to Stormy was a legal contract as Trump attorneys cut into his credibility

Attorneys for Donald Trump on Thursday lashed into key prosecution witness Michael Cohen in cross-examination in the former president's criminal hush money trial – questioning and challenging his credibility and recollection of events roughly eight years ago. 

Under questioning, Cohen admitted that the payment to Stormy Daniels, which has been widely characterized as a "hush money" payment, was an official, legally binding contract.  

"Make no mistake, this was a completely legal binding contract, correct?" Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asked Cohen, according to CNN. 

"Yes sir," Cohen replied.

"A non-disclosure agreement, an NDA, a settlement between two parties, happens all the time?" he asked.

"Yes," Cohen answered.

This admission by Cohen may undermine a key pillar of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case, that Donald Trump's reimbursements to Cohen were improperly labeled as legal expenses. 

Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to pay off porn actress Stormy Daniel for an alleged 2005 sexual encounter – a deal Cohen, as Trump's lawyer and fixer, brokered during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. 

Blanche on Thursday also accused Cohen of lying during his testimony earlier this week when he claimed he spoke to Trump and finalized the Daniels hush money deal, according to The Hill newspaper. 

Phone records show the call was placed to Trump’s bodyguard, but Cohen says the phone was passed to the former president.

“That was a lie! You did not talk to President Trump on that night,” said Blanche said, also according to The Hill. 

Blanche says the call was about Cohen about receiving harassing phone calls. That is why he called Trump's bodyguard, according to Blanche.

Cohen insisted he had told the truth.

Thursday marked the second day of cross-examination for Cohen, whose testimony the Trump team has tried to discredit, in large part over him having pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. He is expected to be the prosecution’s last witness in the trial in Manhattan, now in its fourth week. 

It's unclear whether the defense team will call any witnesses. 

Blanche also grilled Cohen about secretly recording phone calls and about how he can accurately remember phone conversations from 2016 regarding hush money negotiations.

He pointed out that Cohen answered “I don’t recall” to questions about certain more recent events, The Hill reports.

But "You have a specific recollection of that phone call on June 16, 2016?” Blanche asked.

Cohen replied that he has been publicly discussing the case for years. 

Cohen also acknowledged having recorded people without them knowing, many of them journalists. However, he argued New York is a one-party consent state, so it was not illegal for him to do so.

He confirmed 95 “secret recordings” stored on his phone when asked by Blanche.