Cohen says Trump told him to pay off Stormy Daniels. Key takeaways from day one of the fixer’s testimony

Donald Trump’s former attorney and one-time “fixer” Michael Cohen has been looming throughout the former president’s criminal hush money trial in New York, on the lips of nearly every witness and all over documents at the heart of the case.

He made his debut on the witness stand on Monday, testifying for nearly six hours – giving jurors the crucial connective tissue for the prosecution’s case against Mr Trump.

It was Cohen who negotiated hush money deals that kept stories of Mr Trump’s alleged affairs away from voters. It was Cohen who wired $130,000 to Stormy Daniels. And it was Cohen who sent invoices to Mr Trump and was reimbursed for his payout to the adult film star.

On Monday, he testified that Mr Trump directed him to pay Ms Daniels in the hopes of keeping his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election alive, following a series of explosive controversies involving women that threatened to derail his campaign.

Cohen has now directly linked Mr Trump to the alleged cover-up, labelling his reimbursements as “legal expenses” when they were actually, as Cohen testified, made to buy the life rights to Ms Daniels’ story.

Here are the key takeaways from Mr Trump’s day in court:

Mr Trump was furious with his attorney and feared “disaster” for his 2016 campaign when Cohen disclosed that Ms Daniels was preparing to share her story about having sex with him in 2006.

“I thought you had this under control. I thought you took care of this,” Cohen said, recalling Mr Trump’s enraged reaction to news that the adult film star’s allegations had resurfaced.

“Just take care of it. There’s a lot going on at the campaign at the time. Just take care of it,” Mr Trump said, according to Cohen.

“This is a disaster. This is a total