TRUMP TRIAL: JUDGE REBUKES MICHAEL COHEN AHEAD OF EXPECTED TESTIMONY MONDAY

Former President Trump, on his way out of the courtroom at the end of the day's proceedings, assailed Judge Juan Merchan for declining to gag upcoming witness Michael Cohen for remarks he's been making about Trump and the case on social media.

"There is no gag order to Michael Cohen. What the judge did was amazing, actually was amazing," Trump said of Merchan telling prosecutors to ask Cohen to stop making comments.

"Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want. I'm not allowed to say anything about anybody," Trump said.

Trump also reiterated that his repayments to Cohen for Stormy Daniels' hush payment were properly recorded in his company's ledger. Prosecutors have said the repayments were unlawfully marked as a "legal expense" to conceal their true nature.

"I didn't do the bookkeeping. I didn't even know about it, but a very good bookkeeper marked a legal expense down as a legal expense," Trump said. "They didn't call it construction. They didn't call it building something or concrete or electrical cost. They called it, very simply, a legal expense to a lawyer -- who's a lawyer, not a fixer -- he's a lawyer."

"A legal expense to a lawyer," Trump repeated.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh and Mike Pappano

Judge Merchan communicated a bit of a warning to Michael Cohen ahead of his planned testimony next week, telling prosecutors to ask him to stop talking about the case after Trump's team brought up his continued out-of-court statements.

"I would direct the people to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case," Merchan said.

"That comes from the bench and you are communicating that on behalf of the bench," said the judge.

Merchan's rebuke came after defense attorney Todd Blanche brought up recent statements by Cohen, including his appearing on TikTok this week wearing a shirt with a photo of Trump behind bars.

"It's becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness," Blanche urged. "He has stated on social media that he is going to stop talking, and he doesn't," Blanche said of Cohen.

Prosecutors said they had already "repeatedly" asked Cohen and others not to post about the case, but claimed they had no control over the witnesses.

Trump, at the defense table, grinned broadly during the exchange regarding Cohen and his behavior on social media. But he shook his head and looked at Blanche, seemingly in disbelief, when Merchan -- instead of ordering Cohen to stop -- merely asked prosecutors to speak to him.

Court was subsequently adjourned for the week.

With the jury out of the courtroom, defense lawyer Emil Bove argued that Judge Merchan should not allow former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg's severance agreement with the company to get into evidence.

Weisselberg, who is currently serving a five-month sentence on New York's Rikers Island for committing perjury during Trump's civil fraud trial, he received a $2 million severance agreement from the Trump Organization.

Prosecutor Christopher Conroy argued the separation agreement "offers a real explanation for why he is not going to be here in this trial."

"We just respectfully disagree with that," Bove responded, saying Weisselberg is not testifying because the district attorney's office pursued a perjury case against him.

Judge Merchan did not issue a ruling on the matter but suggested the parties might have "jumped the gun" by suggesting Weisselberg can't testify "without making an effort to get him here."

As an alternative, Merchan suggested that Weisselberg could testify outside the presence of the jury before determining the appropriate next step.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass indicted that the state's case could be headed into the home stretch.

"We expect to call potentially two witnesses" next week, Steinglass told Judge Merchan, saying it is "entirely possible" the state rests their case by the end of next week.

That will be followed by the presentation of the defense's case, then a prosecution rebuttal.

In another sign of how quickly the case is moving along, Merchan also invited the parties to begin submitting suggestions for the jury charge -- the instructions on the law delivered by the judge before the jury begins deliberating.

Defense attorney Emil Bove used DA office paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider's testimony to highlight a point about former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and longtime top Trump aide Hope Hicks.

Earlier in the trial, Pecker testified about a phone call he had with with Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders where they discussed extending Karen McDougal's "catch-and-kill" agreement with the publication.

However, Hicks testified that she never had such a phone call with Pecker.

Bove, during his cross-examination of Jarmel-Schneider, suggested that no phone records exist to document the call taking place.

"I don't think that's true," Jarmel-Schneider responded, muddying Bove's point. The two briefly discussed which exhibit might contain a record of the call.

Bove subsequently completed his cross-examination.

With the day's testimony over, Judge Merchan then dismissed the jury for the weekend.

Jurors saw a summary exhibit prepared by DA office paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider that breaks down the 34 records that prosecutors allege Trump falsified in the course of repaying Michael Cohen for Stormy Daniels' hush money payment.

The exhibit shows each of the vouchers, checks, and invoices -- broken down by each criminal count -- that prosecutors say Trump falsified to disguise his reimbursement to Cohen.

The chart appears to be the jury's clearest roadmap so far to each of the documents at the center of the case.

Defense attorney Emil Bove -- once a paralegal himself -- began his cross-examination by asking Jarmel-Schneider how much time he spent on the project, suggesting it was "tedious."

"Honestly, I kind of enjoyed it," Jarmel-Schneider said, prompting jurors and several members of the gallery to break out into laughter.

"I hear you -- respect," Bove said in a rare moment of levity.

Prosecutors next called Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, another paralegal with the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Jarmel-Schneider testified that he prepared exhibits to summarize the phone calls between relevant witnesses in the case.

Using the phone records, Jarmel-Schneider said he removed extraneous calls, standardized the time zones, and created charts to act as a "roadmap" so jurors could easily see the witnesses' relevant communications.

These charts are likely to be used during Michael Cohen's testimony, which is scheduled to start Monday, and the jury will have access to the records during their deliberations.

After reviewing a series of Trump's tweets about Michael Cohen, custodial witness Georgia Longstreet read into evidence several 2016 text messages between Stormy Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer.

"Stormy Daniels ... I have her," Rodriguez wrote in one text.

"Is she ready to talk," Howard asked. "I thought she denounced it previously."

"She said she would do it under two conditions," Rodriguez wrote. "She doesn't want to go on record about it but will tell the story through a source," Rodriguez said.

"She's had sex with him. She wants 100K," Rodriguez wrote.

Jurors also saw the text exchange where Howard and Rodriguez set the price of the story at $120,000, before Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson added his $10,000 fee to bring the amount to $130.000.

In addition, the jury saw text messages from when the deal initially fell through in early October 2016. Keith Davidson testified earlier that he retracted the offer after Cohen offered multiple “excuses” for not paying the $130,000.

Longstreet stepped off the stand following a brief cross-examination.

Custodial witness Georgia Longstreet read into evidence a series of 2018 tweets by Trump.

"The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don't speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will 'flip,'" one tweet said.

"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!" read another tweet.

Prospectors are introducing these posts to demonstrate what they argue is a "pressure campaign" by Trump to prevent Michael Cohen's cooperation with authorities.

Jurors also read a 2018 tweet from Trump where he denied an affair with Daniels but defended the nondisclosure arrangement between them as a "private" agreement.

Trump, marking up papers at the defense table, stopped as Longstreet read some of his tweets into the record. He stared at the tweets displayed on the monitor in front of him, then resumed writing.

Prosecutors have called back to the stand Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal for the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Longstreet testified last week to introduce some of Trump's social media posts into evidence.

Trump, sitting at the defense table, has been working diligently -- scribbling notes and thumbing through a stack of papers, marking some of them, and then placing them in another pile.