Trump Trial: Michael Cohen's Revenge, Day 1

Week 4 of testimony in Donald Trump's first criminal trial (of 4) started off with the most anticipated - and volatile - witness: Michael Cohen. Fully prepared and clearly ready for the day, Cohen was cool, calm and collected, delivering devastating testimony that rebuts most, if not all, of Donald Trump's defenses. He methodically laid out a narrative, in chronological order, complete with documents, texts and even recordings of Trump himself.

Ok, before I start summarizing the day, let me start by saying there was A LOT of information. I am going to try to hit the high notes, but I fear I will not get everything. I am going to set the scene.

As Michael Cohen took the stand, reports are that Trump was sitting with his eyes closed. Self soothing is my guess. Not sleeping. Cohen is asked to identify Trump - he does.

The prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, walks Cohen through a bit of historical information about himself. His life, his family, college, professional career. Standard stuff. Ironically, Cohen shares that he really didn't want to be a lawyer. Rather, he wanted to work on Wall Street. His grandmother told him "that's not going to happen" and Trump's fixer was born. He started working for Donald Trump in 2007 making about a half million a year.

Cohen talks about how he was the lawyer who did the shady stuff, negotiated lower payments to vendors, helped shape media reports about Trump more favorably, acted as his personal "fixer" for all problems that a reputable lawyer could not do.

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