Michael Cohen, a key witness in the Trump hush money trial, returns to the stand

Lawyer Michael Cohen is back on the stand for a second day of witness testimony against former President Donald Trump. Once a loyal "protector" of Trump as his former "fixer," the now-staunch critic testified about receiving payments prosecutors argue are false business records.

After several weeks of testimony, on Monday jurors heard Cohen confirm two key details on the stand: Trump knew about the settlement negotiation with former adult actor Stormy Daniel to keep her allegations of an affair out of the press ahead of the 2016 election and that Trump directed Cohen to make a payment of $130,000 to her because of the election. When he's cross examined, Trump's lawyers will likely try to debunk Cohen's testimony and resurface his own convictions for lying under oath.

While on the stand on Tuesday, Cohen explained how he was reimbursed for that payment to Daniels, noting that it was not for any legal services rendered. Prosecutors walked Cohen through several of the invoices at the center of the trial. One of Trump's main arguments is that he was simply paying his lawyer.

Over and over, Cohen said that he lied and ran damage control in order to protect his then-boss, including after the news broke that a settlement had been made with Daniels.

And Cohen read over statements originally made when trying to quash the media reports of the payment — which included what he now says are false claims that Trump didn't know about the deals.

Cohen testified to Trump's knowledge of the payments

During Monday's testimony, Cohen testified to alleged conversations with Trump aimed at showing that not only was Trump aware, but he was influencing the negotiations with Daniels. He testified to directly negotiating the payment for Daniels