Blanche also pressed Cohen about comments he has made about Trump and whether he had inside information about the indictment before it was handed down.

Cohen admitted to lying about stopping Trump’s real estate deal in Moscow and later lying to a federal judge before being sentenced for his role in Trump’s hush-money scheme and tax evasion in 2018. He largely kept his responses short, merely confirming what Blanche was asking him about.

When it came to his 2018 sentencing, he explained that he did not believe he should have been prosecuted.

“I have stated again that — I don’t dispute the facts of the case but that I should not have been prosecuted,” Cohen said.

“I worked with a joint defense agreement and we crafted the two-page document in order to stay on message — the message we all knew Mr. Trump wanted,” he added.

Cohen pushed back on Blanche over how he learned of Trump’s indictment. Blanche showed Cohen some text messages he sent to a former investigator with the Manhattan district attorney’s office. However, Cohen said that he did not get any information about the then-pending indictment from the investigator. Instead, he learned of the indictment from an article in The New York Times.

Cohen said the outcome of the trial affects him personally, though he did not explain how, nor was he asked.

Judge Juan Merchan said early in Thursday’s proceedings that the jury may be called in on Wednesday, a day that they have typically had off. After a mid-morning break, Merchan said that is “off the table” as jurors informed him they are unavailable on Wednesday.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to cover up alleged affairs with adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied both affairs.

Daniels testified last week about the affair, hush-money agreement and how the news of the affair has affected her personal life.