“What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump asks, later adding: “What financing?”

“We’ll have to pay him something,” Cohen said.

The recording was made by Cohen and has been previously released, but it was the first time the 12-member jury heard Trump’s voice since the trial began almost three weeks ago.

A separate recording was also played that related to a $US130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels, to stop news of her own tryst with Trump leaking on the eve of that election.

In that conversation, Cohen can be heard telling Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson that Trump “hates the fact that we did it”.

Asked who this call referred to, Davidson told the jury it was a reference to the former president, appearing to corroborate the prosecution’s claim that Trump was involved in a conspiracy to sway the election.

Trump currently faces 34 counts of falsifying business reports – and the prospect of jail – over the payment to Daniels, which Cohen says he paid using a shell company set up to conceal its true purpose.

Prosecutors allege Trump then reimbursed Cohen by fraudulently filing the money as a legal expense, even increasing it to $US420,000 ($643, 700) paid in instalments, so it looked more legitimate.

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As the jury heard the recordings, Trump, wearing a dark suit and yellow tie, watched silently from the defence bench.

After the hearing, he once again claimed the trial was a witch-hunt, before heading to a New York fire department to deliver pizza to first responders on his way back to his Fifth Avenue penthouse.

The evidence capped off another day in a trial that has laid bare the seedy world of backroom celebrity deals and tabloid publishing.

Last week, Howard, who is currently in Australia and will not be appearing in the trial due to a spinal condition, was named as a co-conspirator in the case, with text messages read in court showing him discussing potentially being pardoned for electoral fraud if he was ever charged.

And on Thursday, Davidson – who was one of Howard’s key sources – painted a picture about the celebrity-driven media world in which they lived.

In a bid to undercut Davidson’s credibility as a witness, Trump’s lawyer fiercely pressed the lawyer about several former clients he had, accusing him of aggressively “extracting” money from them.

For instance, the jury heard how Davidson helped a client try to get a $US2 million payment out of Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen, and that he had been investigated for extorting wrestler Hulk Hogan over a sex tape.

Davidson also texted Howard in 2016 to tell him: “I have a blockbuster Trump story” – a reference to Trump’s affair with McDougal while married to his current wife, Melania.

Howard responded immediately.

“Talk 1st thing,” he replied. “I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why...”

About the “oh, my god,” text message exchange, Davidson told the court it was “sort of gallows humour”.

“It was on election night as the results were coming in. There was sort of surprise among the broadcasters and others that Donald Trump was leading in the polls and that there was a growing sense that folks were about ready to call the election,” he said.

“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way – strike that – our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”

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