The striking amount of time and energy that went into covering up Donald J. Trump’s alleged affairs in the run-up to the 2016 election, and the panic among his aides over their impact on female voters, returned front and center in the testimony of Michael D. Cohen on Monday.

Mr. Cohen and a team at The National Enquirer spoke seemingly constantly about how to keep these women quiet, even as new accounts surfaced that required awkward conversations with the candidate. Accounting departments were engaged, front companies were created, and misleading invoices were produced, according to witnesses for the prosecution.

The “Access Hollywood” tape, a recording of Mr. Trump talking about groping women with impunity, landed like a bombshell in 2016. Mr. Trump urged Mr. Cohen, who was in London, to reach out to his contacts in the news media. Chris Cuomo, then with CNN, in a text exchange seen in court on Monday, told Mr. Cohen it would be “too late” if he waited long to defend Trump on TV, and said, “He is dying right now.”

Mr. Cohen said Trump described the language heard on the “Access Hollywood” tape as “locker room talk,” a characterization he credited to his wife.

“The spin that he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended,” Mr. Cohen testified.

Then came Stormy Daniels and the possibility of her going public with an account of a sexual liaison with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump told him that he had met Ms. Daniels at a golf tournament and that she liked him, and that women preferred him even over football stars, like those at the tournament.