Trump trial live updates: Michael Cohen to take the stand in testimony that could make or break the case against the former president

Michael Cohen has departed his New York home to head to the lower Manhattan court.

He left with his attorney Danya Perry and is set to take the stand just after 9.30am.

Cohen once described himself as Trump's 'spokesman, thug, pit bull and lawless lawyer'.

The fixer could now be a problem for his old boss.

Even before he set foot inside courtroom 1530, Michael Cohen's role as a key witness in Donald Trump's hush money case put the former president's lawyer-cum-fixer at the center of proceedings.

Celebrity lawyer Keith Davidson, for example, was asked about a message he received asking him to 'call that jerk back.'

'Who was that jerk?' he was asked by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass during the second week of the trial.

'Michael Cohen,' he replied to laughter in the public gallery.

It is one thing for Trump's defense to start to case doubt on the testimony of a disbarred lawyer who has changed his story about paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels; it is quite another for the prosecution, which will rely on Cohen's testimony to draw a direct link from Trump to the payment, to highlight his shortcomings.

The Manhattan District Attorey's office prosecutors indicated on Friday that this would be the final week of their case.

Michael Cohen's testimony could last several days and is expected to deliver fireworks.

The prosecution's final witnesses are set to be less dramatic and could be procedural.

Then the defense will take over. It is not yet clear who they will bring to the stand.

There is a chance Trump's lawyers may not call anyone.

Cohen walked into the court in downtown Manhattan just after 8am.

Donald Trump is yet to leave Trump Tower for his routine motorcade trip.

Cohen worked for the Trump Organization from 2006 to 2017, serving as Trump's fixer. He once proudly proclaimed he'd 'take a bullet' for his boss.

Cohen took the lead in arranging the payment to Daniels, passing it through a corporation he established for the purpose. He says he was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the payment and related bonuses as 'legal expenses.'

A few months earlier, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer to make a similar $150,00 payment to McDougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump.

Cohen made recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump spoke about the arrangement to pay McDougal through the tabloid publisher. At one point, Trump said: 'What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?' Trump denies the affair.

After Trump became president, Cohen held himself out as someone who could potentially advise corporate clients on the new administration, collecting hefty fees from companies seeking influence in the new White House.

Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with evading taxes related to his investments in the taxi industry, with lying to Congress and with campaign finance violations related to the hush money payments.

Cohen, who blamed Trump for his legal problems, pleaded guilty and served about a year in prison before being released to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is now a key prosecution witness in the Manhattan district attorney's investigation.

The jury in Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial has already heard three weeks of testimony.

They have listened to a range of witnesses from Stormy Daniels - who went into lurid detail about her alleged tryst with the former president - and paralegals and cell phone company workers who have entered evidence.

In the next two weeks, they will likely be sent out to deliberate to decide guilt in the first trial of a former president.

Here is who they are:

A pair of lead Republicans in the House are demanding to know why the Department of Justice has not yet investigated Michael Cohen despite the former Trump fixer admitting he lied to Congress.

Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik wrote  the Justice Department (DOJ) six months ago with a criminal referral for Cohen. The DOJ confirmed receipt of the letter but has never followed up.

Cohen admitted in October to lying to Congress in 2019 when he falsely told the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors that he was not instructed by Trump to inflate his net worth.

Cohen may have been undermining his own credibility as a witness, as he's been taking to TikTok to talk about the case and requesting donations.

'Trump 2024?' Cohen said on the video-sharing platform. 'More like Trump 20-24 years.'

The reimbursements Cohen received form the basis of the charges — 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — against Trump.

Prosecutors say the reimbursements were logged as legal expenses to conceal the payments’ true purpose.

Defense lawyers have teed up a bruising cross-examination of Cohen, telling jurors during opening statements that the fixer-turned-foe is an 'admitted liar' with an 'obsession to get President Trump.'

His checkered past is focal in the case. The testimony of a witness with such intimate knowledge of Trump’s activities could heighten the legal exposure of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee if jurors deem him sufficiently credible.

But prosecutors relying on someone who was jailed for pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payments and lying to Congress is a risky strategy.

Donald Trump left his criminal trial with a smile on Friday after a judge told the prosecution to control their star witness Michael Cohen.

The former president nodded as Judge Juan Merchan urged the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to direct the lawyer at the center of the case to stop discussing it.

The good news for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee came at the end of a grueling week in court where he sat through six hours of testimony from Stormy Daniels.

The porn star went into detail with her salacious and sometimes lurid claims about the night they allegedly had sex in a hotel room in 2006 - a story Trump has denied.

She finished her appearance on the stand on Thursday afternoon, with Friday a far more subdued affair with witnesses who gave less dramatic but still crucial evidence.

They bore witness to some of the most extraordinary moments of the Trump presidency: The decision to take out Abu Abkr al-Baghdadi. The first statements from the White House about a strange new virus. A ridiculous storm path bearing down on Alabama redrawn with a Sharpie pen. And the president’s ruminating about injecting bleach.

Some cabinet members, longtime aides and top White House personnel remained loyal until the bitter end and still support him. Others bailed out in the last days of his administration, both before and after January 6.

A smattering landed book deals they used to unload on the administration they once served, or penned op-eds denouncing Trump. Others followed him to Mar-a-Lago, helping the former president regroup as he plotted a way forward that took him to the cusp of the Republican presidential 2024 nomination.