May 20, 2024, 12:31 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich (https://www.nytimes.com/by/jonah-e-bromwich) Reporting from inside the courthouse

Michael Cohen has now suggested several times that he committed crimes in connection with the Stormy Daniels payoff. This is helpful for the prosecution, as they seek to prove to jurors that Trump caused the falsification of business records to conceal a second crime. That crime doesn’t need to have been committed by Trump — Cohen’s crimes are equally applicable.

[I’m lost there. The defense is that Cohen was a free agent. I don’t know how it helps the prosecution for Cohen to say he committed crimes in the Storm payoff.]

May 20, 2024, 12:32 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich (https://www.nytimes.com/by/jonah-e-bromwich)Reporting from inside the courthouse

The jurors look a bit more engaged than they did toward the end of the lengthy cross-examination. Almost every one of them is watching closely as Susan Hoffinger questions Cohen.