New York. Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe, Michael Cohen, characterized his celebrity client as a hands-on manager and said he sometimes lied for him and bullied others on his behalf during highly anticipated testimony Monday in the former president's hush money trial.

Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and by far the Manhattan district attorney's most important witness in the case, took the stand in an appearance that signals that the first criminal trial of a former American president is entering its final stretch. Prosecutors say they may wrap up their presentation of evidence by the end of the week.

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 politically, Trump is likely to seize on prosecutors’ reliance on a witness with such a checkered past -- Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the payments and to lying to Congress -- as he raises money off his legal woes and paints the case as the product of a tainted criminal justice system.

Cohen is expected to testify about his role in arranging hush money payments on Trump's behalf during his first presidential campaign, including to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who told jurors last week that the $130,000 that she received in 2016 was meant to prevent her from going public about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in a hotel suite a decade earlier.

He also matters because the reimbursements he received form the basis of the charges against Trump -- 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors say the reimbursements were logged as legal expenses to conceal the payments' true purpose in what they allege was an effort to illegally interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has denied the sexual encounter and has pleaded not guilty.

Trump did not appear to make eye contact with Cohen as the lawyer began his testimony by recounting his upbringing on Long Island as the son of a Holocaust survivor and his career experience with Trump, including a decade-long tenure as a Trump Organization senior executive.

Cohen testified that Trump wanted to be updated immediately on any developments in the tasks he assigned.

“When he would task you with something, he would then say, ‘Keep me informed. Let me know what’s going on,’” Cohen testified. He said that was especially true “if there was a matter that was troubling to him.”

“If he learned of it in another manner, that wouldn’t go over well for you,” Cohen testified.

Cohen said Trump had an “open-door policy” allowing executives to meet him in his office, without appointment, and keep him apprised of developments.

Asked how he and other executives referred to Trump, Cohen said: “We’d call him boss, Mr. Trump.”

Even as he spoke warmly of his time with Trump, he also acknowledged that his job required him to lie and bully on his boss’s behalf.

“The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task and make him happy,” Cohen said, referring to Trump.

Defense lawyers have teed up a bruising cross-examination of Cohen, telling jurors during opening statements that he's an “admitted liar” with an “obsession to get President Trump.”

Add as a preferred source on Google +