Lawyers for ex-President Donald Trump painted Michael Cohen on Thursday as a man who lies about anything and everything in a cross-examination that sought to eviscerate the credibility of the prosecution’s main witness to a 2016 hush payment and alleged crimes to cover it up.

For hours, defense lawyer Todd Blanche jabbed Mr. Cohen over his history of falsehoods and conflicting statements, from misleading Congress about his efforts to seek a potential pardon to claims he felt pressured to plead guilty to tax crimes in 2018 despite taking responsibility in front of a judge.

In a heated and pivotal moment, Mr. Blanche attacked Mr. Cohen‘s claim that he told Mr. Trump that he was finalizing a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and wiring $130,000 to her lawyer. Oddly, the call included Mr. Cohen‘s complaints to Mr. Trump‘s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, that a prankster identifying himself as a 14-year-old was calling him too much.

“You had enough time in that one minute and 36 seconds to update Mr. Schiller about all the problems you were having with this harassing phone call and also update President Trump on the status of the Stormy Daniels situation?” Mr. Blanche asked Mr. Cohen, who served as Mr. Trump‘s loyal lawyer and “fixer” before turning on the ex-president.

Mr. Cohen said that was his belief, based on records he was able to review that he said refreshed his memory.

“Yes, I believe I was telling the truth,” Mr. Cohen said.

“We are not asking for your belief. This jury does not want to hear what you think happened,” Mr. Blanche said, even louder, prompting an objection from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

Mr. Blanche said Mr. Cohen was bitter after Mr. Trump went to Washington in 2017 without giving him a plum White House position. And he used Mr. Cohen‘s love of the limelight against him, pulling up old media interviews and clips from his “Mea Culpa” podcast in which the star witness took glee at Mr. Trump‘s legal problems.

Mr. Blanche has one main goal: Instilling enough doubt about Mr. Cohen to make at least some jurors unwilling to convict Mr. Trump, resulting in a hung jury or acquittal.

The cross-examination is critical because Mr. Cohen is the linchpin of prosecutors’ case against Mr. Trump.

On direct examination, Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump directed him to pay hush money to Ms. Daniels to suppress a story about a 2006 sexual encounter in Lake Tahoe, which Mr. Trump denies. The state says the scheme showed an intent to commit election and financial crimes.

Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. While Ms. Daniels’ salacious claims dominated early coverage of the trial, the defense is trying to put distance between Mr. Trump and the accounting tactics used to reimburse Mr. Cohen after he used a home equity credit line to pay Ms. Daniels.

Mr. Trump signed a series of $35,000 checks to Mr. Cohen, though he says he believed the payments were for legal services and he was busy running the country as president when he signed them.

The former president, dressed in a navy suit and red tie, looked directly at Mr. Cohen while his attorneys confronted the witness with past comments to undermine his credibility. Mr. Trump tapped his lawyers’ arms at times or passed notes to them.

A battery of House Republicans attended the trial Thursday to support Mr. Trump — including Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Both are known for being outspoken thorns in the side of GOP leadership.

Mr. Gaetz said prosecutors put together the “Mr. Potato Head of crimes, where they had to stick together a bunch of things that did not belong together.”

In the courtroom, Mr. Blanche said Mr. Cohen makes a living off attacking Mr. Trump through ads on his podcast. The jurors heard a clip in which Mr. Cohen revealed his animus for Mr. Trump.

“It won’t bring back the year that I lost or the damage done to my family. But revenge is a dish best served cold,” Mr. Cohen, who went to prison after pleading guilty to election offenses, says in the clip played for the jury. “You better believe that I want this man to go down.”

Mr. Cohen sounded more animated in the clip than he did in the witness box, where he’d mostly been calm and measured.

The defense says Mr. Cohen is going after Mr. Trump, in part, to sell books and raise money through advertising on his podcasts.

“You called him ‘Dumbass Donald,’ is that right?” Mr. Blanche said.

“Sounds correct,” Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Blanche said Mr. Cohen explored ways to shorten his supervised release from prison by helping prosecutors go after Trump.

The court will not convene on Friday because Mr. Trump is attending his son Barron’s high school graduation.

Mr. Cohen will be one of the last witnesses for the prosecution before Mr. Trump mounts his defense.

Lawyers could deliver closing arguments as soon as next week before the judge gives the jury instructions on the law and sends them into the deliberation room.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.