Cohen asks why Republicans are focusing on his tax crimes - which he's already pleaded guilty to.

North Dakota's Kelly Armstrong says he's making a point about credibility.

"These are not isolated incidents," he says. "My question is was it exhausting keeping track of all the lies you were telling people?"

Cohen said: "I don't have an answer for him. Thank you for continuing the narrative."

Mark DeSaulnier, a California Democrat, asks Cohen about his work rigging opinion polls for Trump, hiring a techie named John Gauger to help him do so.

"Yes, I spoke with Mr Gauger about manipulating these online polls," Cohen confirms.

"Did the president have any involvement in directing you to do this?"

Cohen says yes. And the results ended up "exactly where we wanted them to be," he adds.

Republican Greg Steube says nothing in Cohen's evidence today shows Trump actually directed him to make the payments to Stormy Daniels.

"Other than the NDA that has been seized by government authorities," Cohen points out, adding: "I don't believe there's anybody out there that believes I just decided to pay $130,000 on [Trump's] behalf."

Steube replies: "It doesn't also mean he wasn't paying you for representation of counsel."

The witness says he's fearful because of Trump's ability to rile up his supporters.

During his testimony, Cohen has thrown cold water on several of the wildest unsubstantiated claims about Trump's personal life.

He said that Trump does not have a love child, though he acknowledged a Trump-friendly tabloid, the National Enquirer, paid $15,000 to kill such a story.

Cohen also says Trump never assaulted Melania Trump in a lift, adding that domestic violence is not in his nature.

Despite a claim in the Trump-Russia dossier, a private investigative effort to dig up dirt on Trump, Cohen says he himself has never been to Prague in his life, let alone went there to pay Russian hackers for their services.

Stacey Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands, is going viral for the look she threw at Republican Congressman Jim Jordan.

Cohen says he sought to hide the payment to Stormy Daniels from his wife who oversaw their banking accounts.

That's why he took out a loan to make the payment, which prosecutors have determined to be a campaign finance violation.

"I didn't want her coming to me and asking what the $130,000 was for," he said.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Donald Trump wrapped up his day in Vietnam around the time Cohen began his congressional committee testimony.

After a lavish dinner of chilled shrimp, grilled steaks and “chocolate lava cake” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he returned to his hotel room, where if past history is any guide, he probably reviewed the day’s news coverage.

What he saw couldn’t have made him happy.

US media – including his favourite, Fox News - are giving the Cohen hearings wall-to-wall coverage. The president’s second summit with Kim, being billed as “historic” by the White House, has been relegated to a secondary story.

That might change on Thursday, when the two leaders hold a joint press event where they could announce the results of their negotiations.

But for one day at least his former lawyer – who he once said was a “fine man with a wonderful family” and later called a “rat” – held the national stage.

Cohen has given Democrats on the Oversight and Reform Committee a number of threads to pursue in further hearings and investigations. It isn’t a stretch to imagine that portions of his testimony could someday be cited by Democrats as evidence for impeachment hearings.

In addition, Cohen hinted of other potential presidential wrongdoing and illegalities - including a conversation with the president in June 2018 - that he couldn’t discuss because they are currently being investigated by US attorneys in New York.

The president is half a world away, but the fallout from Cohen’s day on Capitol Hill - a day when Cohen called the president a racist, a conman and a cheat, and Republicans called Cohen a liar - will be waiting for him when he gets home.

Read more: Takeaways from testimony of Trump's ex-lawyer

"How many times did Mr Trump ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf?" asks Democrat Jackie Speier.

"Quite a few times," Cohen says.

The congresswoman throws out a number, and Cohen replies "more".

He eventually estimated he made threats on Trump's behalf about 500 times over the last decade.

Cohen has repeatedly described Donald Trump as speaking in code - not explicitly stating what he wanted, but talking around it.

It's similar to how James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump, described conversations with the president.

In his memoir, Comey said Trump gave him "flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob".

Andrew McCabe, who took over as acting FBI chief and was later fired, made similar remarks about conversations with Trump.

Trump told McCabe he heard he wasn't a Comey supporter - McCabe denied this and later told 60 Minutes: "I knew I'd given him the wrong answer."

Asked if he has ever been to Prague in the Czech Republic, Cohen says he has not.

The question centres on an unconfirmed allegation from the Steele dossier that he travelled there to pay Russian hackers to work for the Trump campaign.

He does say that he travelled to Europe in 2016, but did not meet any Russians, or anyone involved in the Trump Tower Moscow project.

He said the trip was personal and he was there to visit his daughter who was studying in London at the time.

Image source, Getty Images

Democrat Peter Welch of Vermont asks for more Wikileaks details.

"It was a short conversation and [Stone] said 'Mr Trump, I just want to let you know I just got off the phone with Julian Assange and in a couple of days there's going to be a massive dump of emails that's going to severely hurt the Clinton campaign'", Cohen recalls.

Cohen's not aware that Trump and Stone knew where those emails came from.

Trump also never expressed to Cohen the idea of reporting the leak to law enforcement.

Cohen says he doesn't believe Trump knew what the substance of the leak was going to be but knew there was going to be a dump of some kind.

Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana starts by saying he feels for Cohen's family, before asking him about the alleged documents that prove any wrongdoing by Trump.

"Where are those boxes that contain documents worthy of evidence to be presented to Congress?" he asks.

The boxes "were in my law office when the FBI entered and seized documents," Cohen says.

"How many lawyers has Mr Trump had over the years?" Higgins asks rhetorically.

"Quite a few. And you're the one in a trap right now."

He then asks if Cohen is seeking to profit from his predicament by turning his story into a book deal.

"This is an attempt to injure our president and lay some sort of soft cornerstone for future impeachment proceedings," Higgins says after turning to face the audience in the chamber.

Image source, Reuters

Journalists who have been on the receiving end of Cohen's attacks over his years as a Trump lawyer are expressing surprise and scepticism at his apologetic demeanour today.

Somewhat surprisingly, the first tweet below was shared by Donald Trump Jr.

Democrat John Sarbanes of Maryland begins by telling Cohen: "I can't think of anything you have to gain at this point from lying."

Sarbanes asks Cohen about "edits" made by the White House to his testimony before his first congressional hearing about Trump Tower.

Cohen says the document was circulated and he couldn't recall off the top of his head what edits were made.

"The goal was to stay on message. Limit the relationship whatsoever with Russia. It was short - there's no Russian contact, no Russian deals. That's the message. That's the same message that existed well before my need to come and testify," he said.

Sarbanes asks if he toed the line about false testimony in line with that message.

Cohen says yes, and he's going to continue to suffer for it.

Michigan Republican Justin Amash asks: "What is the truth Cohen knows that Trump fears the most?"

"That's a tough question, sir," says Cohen after a pause. "I don't even know how to answer that question."

Cohen says he is trying to be different now and thanks Amash for his less hostile questions, in contrast with other Republicans who Cohen says are making it hard for him to "show some redemption".

Image source, EPA

Republican Bob Gibbs attacks Cohen for railing against the president while he's abroad trying to negotiate a deal to make Americans safer.

"You call him a racist, a cheat - it's an attack on his character," Gibbs says. "I've been with the president a little bit and I didn't see that."

Cohen says: "Just for your personal edification here, I was asked to come here."

Gibbs interrupts and says it's "political theatre".

"It's not political theatre to me," Cohen says. "I take no pleasure in saying anything negative about Mr Trump. You've met him for a short period of time - I've been with him for over a decade. It doesn't make me feel good about what's going on here."

Democratic Congresswoman Katie Hill, the vice-chairwoman of the committee, says Cohen is only required to disclose contracts with foreign government entities and not just any foreigner, as Republican Mark Meadows claimed in an earlier exchange.

She called upon Cohen to review his disclosures over his lunch break, to see if any amendments are necessary.