NEW YORK — At first, Michael Cohen testified about all the problems he fixed for Donald Trump — the boss whose praise made Cohen feel like he was “on top of the world.�

When reporters angered Trump, Cohen threatened them. When a Miss USA contestant criticized Trump’s beauty pageant, he sprang into legal action. When Trump ran for president and warned that “there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,� Cohen was ready, he said — working behind the scenes to suppress two women’s claims that Trump had sex with them while married.