Minute, people the state of new york versus donald j. Trump started The Main Event Opening Statement hey, miss, youre looking at my picture in downtown new york. The courthouse and you hadnt soon the judge will gavel in and cmt the jury for the first ever prosecution of a former United States president. Minutes ago, we watched trump walk into court after his motorcade arrived at 100 centre street. We expect him to stop for the cameras and talk before heading inside get up in the judge and the jury prosecutors will chart a roadmap of what they intend to prove, how they say the former president helm, the scheme to buried the details of a sexual encounter with adult film actress. In the final month, the 2016 campaign remainders cooper, new york, youre watching Cnn Special Live Coverage of donald trump Hush Money Trial. And im jake tapper in washington today, a Courtroom Collision Filled with history shattering precedent, and a Stock Possibility that one of the two major candidates for president this fall will be a convicted criminal sometime soon the government and the defense will give two very different narratives about what happened been in that closing stretch of the 2016 campaign, prosecutors planning to present a mountain of evidence documents, and witnesses to corroborate it. All, alleging the donald trump as you near to plan to buy the silence and Stormy Daniels with whom he allegedly had a dalliance, and allegedly cover up what he did by falsifying Business Records now, the defense plans, campaigns, and altogether different picture to argue that the prosecutions case is built on Puzzle Pieces that do not fit together and built around the line hi of a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen. The former trump fixer who has sworn to exact revenge on his onetime boss today, we may see a critical prosecution witness named david packer is the tabloid mogul, who alerted the trump orbit. The daniels was shopping her story of a tryst with trump thats the first domino and the long chain of events that ended with trump facing 34 criminal felony counts today, lets get right back to anderson live outside the Manhattan Courthouse. Anderson jake, thanks very much. Im here. Were seen as paula reid and cnns kaitlan collins. I mean, it is a fascinating day here. Paula, what do we expect just in the next couple of hours . Well, you understand heres what should happen. We should see the jury enter the courtroom. Sworn in, and then theyll get their mission from the judge. He will charge that give them instructions on the case. The burden for the prosecution. Then we will get Opening Statements from both sides. Theyll have these dueling interpretations of events seven, some odd years ago. Now when it comes to the prosecution, theyre not telling us who is going to do the opening. It also speaks so what are the Security Concerns around this case right now . But theyve been trying really hard to rebrand this case that everyone dub the Hush Money Case instead, trying to reframe it as a case about the rule of law and whether trump broke it to help his chances in 2016 . Then the defense will have a chance to go. Weve learned that their statement will likely be a little on the Shorter Sayyed wouldve been told the themes of their case, theyre going to be look, there was no crime. Trump is not involved at paperwork at this level. Michael cohen was working for him doing legal work at the time in question, and since then, he is someone who now has a vendetta against trump and hes a convicted good liar. But i said thats what should happen to issues that we might have to deal with at the top of this hearing. The first is whether theres any other issue with the jury we saw last week one juror decided she couldnt do this. She just wasnt willing to risk to take the risks that are involved in this kind of work. And then we also saw another juror who are lawyers moved to remove from the case. So theres a possibility some other jurors may reconsider whether theyre really willing to take this on. Thatll take time to deal with. And then the judge is expected to issue a decision about what exactly trump can be crossexamined on this was a big issue last week, lawyers are trying to prevent prosecutors should be able to talk to chomp about some of his other civil liability. If and when he would actually testify. And thats a big question. Exactly. And according to my sources, this is something that they are still very much considering now, of course, he loves it when we get into the william wont he game but im told that he has learned lessons from his participants the patient or lack thereof, in the recent civil trials. And he is still seriously considering testifying, which is part of why they had to have this hearing kayla, what have you been hearing from the trump world that we may hear from him at any moment. I mean, hes just arriving at core. We will be hearing from him throughout the day that is kind of in the plan that they have hatched over the last several days of what this is going to look like. On his behalf before you know whether or not we hear from him actually on the Witness Stand, we will hear from them going inside the courtroom and leaving, which todays obviously going to be a shorter date. I think a big part of what this is going to look like and what his team has been preparing for is their Opening Statement, which is going to be pretty short, pretty blunt, but they are trying to also charm and persuade these jurors just like the prosecution is trump for his part. His life is about to change when you walked that courtroom this morning for the next six weeks, we dont know what the outcome of this is going to be, what we do know that for the next six to eight weeks, potentially, he is going to be someone who sits in a courtroom who doesnt have a chance to respond in realtime in those moments as he is watching people who were incredibly close to him get up on that Witness Stand and say things that he disagrees with, that he contradicts, and things that are incredibly personal to have these allegations and these are people like hope hicks, his former top aide, and one of his closest confidants, Michael Cohen, his former attorney, david, who we may hear from today is going to be fascinating. This is someone that trump is known for decades. She used to publish a magazine called trumps style, and he may be getting on the stand to talk about trumps direct involvement in this agreement. He could be a critical witness in all of this. David, who was the head of ami American Media incorporated basically had a meeting with donald trump and Michael Cohen In The Beginning of the campaign, essentially saying that he would help donald trump get elected yeah, ill be your eyes and ears. And he did help him both to amplify stories that would help him. So stories that werent great about his opponents. And also by suppressing stories that could hurt trumps chances. Now when it comes to the Stormy Daniels Hush Money Payment that was not made by ami or david, but they did help to suppress two other stories. Another alleged affair with Karen Mcdougal, and then a story via dorman that turned out to be false, alleging that trump on pad a child out of wedlock, but these were two stories that was willing to catch and kill by the right, thats the term that was used internally. Catch and kill, catch the story and then kill it. Yeah. Hey, the person pay Karen Mcdougal for the rights to her story, but never actually published that story exactly. And he is such a perfect witness to kick goff this trial. Hes such a colorful new york character like you said, hes known trump for decades, and he was so loyal to him. He wanted to help him in the election of course, ami has has admitted it to a Campaign Finance violation for the Karen Mcdougal payment and david had a nonprosecution in agreement, but he did help when Michael Cohen also pleaded guilty. So hes a central character and all of this, even though he didnt pay Stormy Daniels and facilitate that payment, he tipped cohen to the fact that she was shopping her story to help them surprised Karen Mcdougal is not thats not part of the charges here. The catch and kill Karen Mcdougal story, but it is going to be introduced as to try to show what patterns actually of, of killing unfavorable stories thats going to be the challenge for the prosecutors here. I mean, that is really the heart of all of this is they have to find a way to more directly link trump to this payment to these agreements, to this entire process. And thats why theyre going to use those other stories to try to say that it was a pattern and notice how it came, right before the election. And in this effort. And thats why david could be key. But, but i think big picture when you look at what trump hes been saying, is he his mindset going into this . Hes complaining about the gag order incessantly. Im told privately the idea that he cant directly attack the judges family. The prosecutors in this case, he can go after alvin bragg, but not other members of the team. That isnt something that well talk about more tomorrow, but it has been a big thing of his the other thing interested, theres a lot of security outside the courthouse. Understandably, we saw what happened last week. It is a former president who is going on trial. Trump has been complaining that his supporters, when theres only a few dozen, its not a huge group because weve been live outside the courthouse for several weeks now. That they cant come closer to the courthouse because he he is viewing this all through the lens of the Campaign Trail and what that means going into it and the fact that they are kept cordoned off a bit of a distance so people can get in and out of the courthouse has been driving him crazy all right. Kaelyn will be back here. Jake, lets get back to you in washington. Thanks. Anderson so obviously a big dairy and beyond the legalities of it, which i definitely want to dive into as well are the politics of it. Donald trump is the Presumptive Republican nominee for president , dana bash. How is he going to handle the fact that he is . Campaigning at the same time, he is a defendant. Not well, by all accounts, not happy at all. I was just talking to somebody who was a very involved in his political world who said that the way that theyre going to structure the strategy is theyre going to take their cues from the legal trump legal world, meaning what we are going to hear from the Trump Attorneys inside the courtroom is going to be echoed rather quickly by his, his Political Campaign. And thats obviously in part just to kinda get the, the echo chamber out. But its also because there is frustration in that comes from the top, that comes from donald trump about this gag order that they were talking about a new york that weve been talking about weeks. Now because it does limit just on the rod politics of this. It does limit them in their ability to let say theres a witness and they want to put some dirt out on the witness. You cant do that because the gag order and i was just talking to laura before we were talking on air. The gag order doesnt allow them to do that. And the one thing i will also add is that a sources familiar with trumps thinking told me this morning that he is just mad at the world, that the world, and hes in the courtroom and jaime again go, this is a guy who is very used to control everything. It must be frustrating for him to not have any control of all these events. I think lack of control is going to be the key thing that we watch over the next four, six weeks the other de the judge told him to sit down. Hes not used to people speaking that way to him the other thing is, donald trump is really not used to starting his day at nine or nine, 30 in the morning. He famously would not show up to the oval office until 11 or 11, 30 he is going to be having to show up in court, is called and stay. The other thing is the jurors are going to be watching him. Theyre going to be watching every move i think over time the question is inperson, is he bigger than life or is he diminished . One of the potential jurors who was dismissed came out and said to us you know, he was just some guy just some guy lets dive into the legalities of it. All law codes. What are you expecting to hear from the prosecution today . Well, theyve got to hit the ground, not just running, but sprinting a lot of this in the facts had been known to some degree, he will know whos drama daniels as they know who Michael Cohen is, they know who david or least National Enquirer as they know donald trump. And so the prosecution is going to have to figure out a way to suggest that this is somehow different, that they is delete with their trumps, so to speak. And this is not a personal matter between a man trying to hide it from his wife. It was an intentional at trying to defraud people by having falsified Business Records that form these invoices and what not and prove it. There was actual criminal activity here. They cannot rely on a little bit of innuendo or suggestion, or maybe even a dislike for him and the political space they have to prove their case theyve got do it pretty quickly to head off or will be the opening from the fans which will surely try to show this as a political win. Elie honig, what, what about the defense was expecting to hear from them . So first of all, theyre going to argue they have to prove their case. The prosecution bears the burden of proof, not just probably not just more likely, but beyond a reasonable doubt. And the defense is going to argue they cannot do that the defense is going to argue this is an ancient decrepit sort of dragged up out of the Depths Paperwork Case from eight years ago and theyre going to say its built on the back of a proven admitted liar, Michael Cohen. Michael cohen will be a central focus of both oh, openings today, but especially the defense theyre going to say this is a guy who doesnt just hate donald trump, doesnt just spew venom at donald trump, although he doesnt for a living, thats his job right now, is to hate Donald Trumps. So he is as biased as a witness, can get the defense will say and they will say this is a guy who has lied to congress two courts, to the irs to doj, and hes such a liar that he piles his lies on top of lies because he pled guilty to all those lives. And now he says he was lying when he pled guilty to those lives. So folks on the jury you cannot convict another human being and potentially take away his liberty based on the word of michael color. Thats a little bit of a preview of what i think were going i see from the defense, karen, what are you going to be watching for today in Opening Statements . So the prosecution has to lay out their case. Theyre not allowed to make arguments, but by law theyre required to lay out the elements of their case and what they intend to prove. But youre going to see them sort of teeter on a little bit of argument to make some of the points and counteract some of the points that lie jess made because they go first and so theyre going to anticipate what the defense is going to say an opening and theyre going to want to take the sting out of any of the arguments that lhs talked about. Very interesting with Opening Statements in Donald Trumps first Criminal Trial, just minutes away, were going to get, uh, judges perspective. From someone whos known the judge presiding over this case more than a decade. Thats ahead the sinking of the titanic. How would really happen . 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So its the playoffs, great teammates trust each other. Were going to do a Trust Standup trust. What you said we have dark. I told you heres a dummy want to give you a live look right now inside the hallway that leaves the room, were Opening Statements well happen shortly. Are watching scene and special Live Coverage of Donald Trumps Hush Money Trial. It is dave five in the proceedings against the former president of the United States cnn chief legal analyst laura codes and cnn senior legal analyst, elie honig are standing by the magic wall to preview what we can expect. Laura. Well, theres big news, russ, now the prosecuting team just walked into the room. Of course, le they have alvin bragg, who is the Manhattan Da Sitting right behind his team in the courtroom, but hes not the one actually trying this case. Right . Alvin bragg is the District Attorney. Hell not be actually doing the arguments in front of the directory. But as were seeing right now, he will likely be there throughout the trial to support his team. Here is the team. These are the three lawyers who are gonna be leading the prosecution. Joshua steinglass, Matthew Colangelos susan hoffinger. Theyre all experienced veterans, Defense Lawyers in some cases, experienced prosecutors. We dont know exactly which one of these three is going to deliver todays opening, but it will be one of them. But to add the course to trial, we just hear from each and every one is likely maybe different parts that colangelos has been a big figure though, in terms of the Trump Campaign, right . Yeah, he has been the focus of Donald Trumps unfounded claims that this is somehow joe bidens doing because Matthew Colangelo was at the Justice Department before he came over to the de no connection whatsoever. Keep in mind this case is not about just an alleged affair between may daniels was of course, trump has denied this is about at its core, they have to prove Election Interference. So listen for this theme today when the prosecution gives its opening, theyre going to say this is not about a Paperwork Crime. This is about an effort by donald trump to hide those Hush Money Payments from the American Public in the closing days of the 2016 election. And therefore to interfere with the 2016 election itself, that will be a key theme when the prosecution opens in a few moments the house i expect them to do as prosecutors, they have to front Michael Cohen. They have all know this figure. We all know Michael Cohen, the fixer, the attorney. He will be a key witness. They will tell the jury youre going to hear from Michael Cohen. And one thing that the prosecutors are going to do is theyre going to have to as we say, pull the staying, theyre gonna have to say look, folks, youve heard, you will hear that hes pled guilty to perjury and other crimes, but the prosecution will argue now hes come clean. Now you can bank on him. We also expect the prosecution to look forward to who its other key witnesses will be to introduce those to the jury, including david, who we expect to be the first witness today, just to be clear, im pointing out here Karen Mcdougal, who is somebody who was allegedly paid 150,000 by david. But She Hurricanes was not a criminal charge foundation. Its about Stormy Daniels payment. Thats an issue here. Exactly. Right. And the evidence that mcdougal will be introduced by the prosecutors to show that this is a pattern. One more key theme well hear from the prosecutors. They will say that everything you hear of importance for Michael Cohen or everyone else is corroborated. Prosecutors love that word. Corroboration. It is backed up by documents including, but not limited to the checks that donald trump signed that were used to reimburse Michael Pollan for those Hush Money Payments. Theyre going to say, you dont want to take any of these witnesses at their word, look at the documents. And in fact, able only aid the credibility rehabilitation as someone like Michael Cohen, if its really in front of them not having to trust just him exactly about the defense, though theyre going to have some pretty strong arguments, at least in the opening to try to undermine whatever case they have. Yes. So the defense will open 2nd. Todd blanche, former federal prosecutor peter colleagues with alvin bragg. I worked at the Southern District of new york with both of them, todd blanche is expected to give the opening for donald trump. The first thing that i expect him to say is the burden of proof, is theres thats on the other side of the courtroom. We defense dont have to prove a thing. They have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the highest standard known to our hey thats important, especially because this will determine whether or not trump will actually testify or dispense want to put on any case because if they have not made the burden of proof, they may not put on any case. Yeah. Key points are going to of course, attack Michael Cohen, say hes a proven liar. Theyre going to say the crime here, the falsification that was done by the accountant, Allen Weisselberg, that was done inside the trump org and finally, theyre going to say Donald Trumps motive here and paying Stormy Daniels was not to impact the election, but was to protect himself and his family. Thats gonna be a really key point when you get back to as well, i want to go back to anderson in new york laura, ellie, thanks so much. I want to bring in judge joan khan visor. Shes a recently retired judge, is known judge, one more, sean for more than 15 years you ive listened to countless Opening Arguments. What whats the most important thing for Opening Arguments for both the sides today well, interestingly, an Opening Statement is really the first time im jurors get a chance to understand the meat and potatoes of a case. And so it is important and theres an adage that people remember best that width which they your first and last. So an Opening Statement really does provide a framework, a roadmap for what the evidence will show. The people do go first, theyd give the first Opening Statement because they have the burden it is up to them. As lets just listening to to fear, its Everybody Knows that. Im here instead of being able to be invincible mania and georgia lots of other places campaigning its very unfair for julie, the poll numbers are very good. Theyve been going up because people understand whats going on. This is a witch hunt and its shame. And it comes out of washington in in coordination with washington, everything including the das office. Its in coordination with washington. I just want people no, i understand that this is done for purposes of hurting the opponents of the worst president in the history of our country. Second of all, we have another trial going on right now. Thats notation good. James, she campaigned at the fact that i will get trump upper against trump and it has to do with a bond of 175 million. First of all, she doesnt want me to participate. With, Financial Companies in new york. So we have a company i guess based in california and somebody company. And i put up 175 million in cash when she says the Bonding Companies not good, she doesnt like the Bonding Company because she doesnt know if the collateral is good. And i put up 175 billion in cash. Shes questioning the Bonding Company. Well, when you put up cash and the number is 175, which is what were supposed to be putting out. But i give it a cash or she shouldnt be complaining about the funding company. The Bottling Company would be good for it because i put up the money and i have plenty of money to put up, but nobody is going to be putting up with this. Nobody is going to be listening or coming to new york anymore businesses are going to be fleeing because people are treated so badly. Its got to be the most unfriendly place to do business. And thats why businesses are leaving and people are leaving as migrants come in and take over our parks and our schools, and Everything Else so on the Letitia James kay, shes the worst Attorney General in the country, by the way. Odd. Letitia, and she keeps a lot of business out of new york and businesses that are here are leaving and that leaves jobs and a lot of revenue somebody going to step in to government or somebody has to step in and do something because your business aflame. But Letitia James, the money was put up. Its 175 million and i dont think shes complaining about me for the first time ever. Shes complaining about the company but why would she be doing that . When i put up the money so i just want you to know that lets take place in front of an extremely crazed judge and its the most overturn judge in new york state. He was overturned four or five times, or that case thats you know, who it is or not to mention names. I want to be nice i want to be very nice. But i think like that i think like whats going on right here . We should never be happening. Its a very, very sad de, in america. I can tell you that. Thank you very much former president speaking before going into the courtroom, galen episode, weve heard these kind of statements, but what just to everyone whos drinking their morning coffee, im wondering what hes talking about there at the end. A judge, judge engoron, as separate judge, is this morning during and assessing the credibility of that bond that trump put up in his Civil Fraud Case. Thats what hes clearly is very preoccupied with their and what he was talking about. The other argument though, is the one that his team is kind of coalesced or rather, when they say that they are going to be making for the next six, eight weeks. And if trump is convicted in this case, continuing to do it on the Campaign Trail, which is alleging that President Biden is in charge and coordinating this entire investigation is the reason donald trump is in in the courthouse on Criminal Trial right now. Obviously, none of that is true when all of this was coming to light, the facts of what donald trump, david of Michael Cohen had done and talked about with these payments for biden was in delaware. He had just left the white house, and so he was obviously not involved in this. This is a case that was brought here in manhattan. Trump was indicted by a jury here a grand jury here are the heard the evidence here, and now its going to be a jury of 12 people that will decide his ultimate failure. But politically, they believe thats going to be their best argument, even though its not true, its going to be the idea that this is directed is ludicrous. This is often referred to as a zombie case. This is a case that has been around for awhile. It just sort of i mean, it just took a long time. It would kind of go away and then i would brag would come back to two different districts. Before bragg was even, the District Attorney here a minute and sorrow civilians was the manhattan District Attorney here that was dealing with that. I mean, this was a case that they were questioning how to bring it, what it would look like. The question of whether the Civil Fraud Case would be brought as a criminal case . So things that have been around for a long time, there were questions i was covering the white house in 2016, 2017, whether or not this was Illegal Campaign contribution with these payments. Judge isar, were talking about Opening Statements and i know after a lot of trials, you would interview the juries that in your cases how important do they think the Opening Statement is . Is that really what, what registers . I dont i dont know the precise answer to that because i dont think we discussed Opening Statements often with them, but i do know that that width, which is said first, is often very important. Because it is the first time they get anything significant about the case other than just simple rhetoric. And i think the Opening Statement for the people here will be their weaknesses which they have to approach and turn them into strengths by saying, you dont have to like Michael Cohen, were not asking you to take him to dinner. Were asking you to understand why hes telling you the truth today and they will then go through each and every witness and they will very painstakingly point out why Michael Cohen has been corroborated by other pieces of evidence and other testimony in the case. Lets talk about the judge judge merchan, youve known him for it for a long time . Im wondering, what do you make it, how hes handled things that thus far, i think he gets an a plus. This is a fishbowl of a trial everyone across the country, across the world is watching whats going on in this unprecedented and unique situation. Hes managed to keep his cool in a very difficult set of circumstances. Hes rendering decision gen. After decision, working overtime because hes getting inundated with motions. Hes a Public Servant that the rest of new yorks should be grateful that hes embarrassed, ploy the interests of the assault sees his face from the defendant. Have you seen Something Like that before dont think to this degree, mainly because its so magnified and its on every news channel and everyones talking about it. But to be fair, defendants often to crazy things in courtrooms. I have seen in my own courtroom, defendants flip tables, spit, throw, other things punch their own attorneys, or go after the court officers. This is not a beautiful business where its an ugly business sometimes a point is to make sure at the end of the day defendants get a fair trial to which they are entitled. If theyre convicted, theyll be fairly sentenced. And if there not, then thats the end of it. We all live with just kind of visor. Thanks so much. Appreciate you. Take back to you. Thanks. Andrew sin, cnns Kristen Holmes is outside the Manhattan Courthouse for us. She has been closely tracking whats happening inside the former president s political orbit. Kristen yeah, jake look, theyre trying to utilize every aspect of this to try to make it like a campaign stop. As you just saw donald trump heading to the cameras, they really believe see that this trial de was never going to happen, that eventually all of these delays would pay off and there would be no trial before the november election obviously, they are now resigned two the fact that this is where we are, he is going to be in this courtroom four days a week, and hes going to take advantage of going to the cameras, but im telling you when im talking to the senior advisers, they are just unsure that thats going to be enough. They are trying to figure out ways to keep him on the Campaign Trail, keep him interfacing with voters, even if that means keeping him local to new york and various areas like outer burroughs, staten island, places that he won in the election or at least is more popular. Now, what we did see was a politically motivated stop at a Harlem Bodega last week that was celebrating graded by his gene. But then they were dealt a blow in North Carolina when he had a rally that was canceled because of whether and when you talk to these senior advisers, some of them insist that this is going to help donald trump in the long run that being in core people are going to see that this is unfair. But i did speak to one adviser who told me that thats just not entirely the case. They believe that they are in uncharted territory. They know that anything could happen at this time and they believe that he needs to get out there on the Campaign Trail. They are doing what they can do. They are making the most of him being in trial. But this advisers said they would really rather be focusing elsewhere, jake. All right. Kristen holmes, thanks so much. And i just want to point out for viewers on the left side of the television screen, youll be seeing live updates from our reporters inside the courthouse will be right here. There it is as playbyplay will will come well bring that to you and you can read along. I want to bring in right now will scharf is a Trump Attorney and republican candidate for Attorney General in the great state of missouri mr. Sharaf, good to see you again we are told that the defense Opening Statement will be about 20 minutes long. Prosecution, 40 minutes. What do you expect the defense Opening Statement to focus on . How are they going to try to frame this case for the jury on behalf of mr. Trump jake, were looking to focus on the facts and cutting through all the sensationalism, all the sort of lurid details that have been aired in the media for years is going to be difficult. But at the end of the day, if the jury just looked at looks at the facts that will be in evidence, we believe we have a winning case. I dont think President Trump did anything wrong here. I think the Business Records in question were accurate. They accurately reflected payments to an active attorney for President Trump. And if the jury is just able to cut through all the noise, we think this is going to be a great trial for us. So just for those who are uninitiated in some of the details of what mr. Scharf just said youre suggesting that the payments that mr. Trump made the Michael Cohen says, were reimbursements for the Hush Money Payment he paid to Stormy Daniels, that those were not reimbursements. Those were actually just retainers for Michael Cohen, correct . Whats at issue in this case is Business Records is entries and President Trumps personal ledger that reflected payments to Michael Cohen as legal retainer payments. Its worth noting those entries were made by a midlevel Trump Organization official in trump tower while President Trump was in the white house running the country, its also worth noting that Michael Cohen was President Trumps lawyer. And that therefore we believe these records were both accurate and not made by President Trump, and those are two fatal problems with the prosecutions case. So again we believe if the jury is able to dispassionately just view the facts and evidence in this case this is a winning case for us President Trump did nothing wrong how much of the Defense Strategy is based on undermining the credibility of Michael Cohen, who as weve mentioned earlier in the show, has already been convicted of perjury yeah. Well, as you know, jake, im currently under a gag order. The judge in this case entered a unilateral gag order preventing President Trump and members of his team from saying certain things about witnesses, from commenting on potential Witness Testimony. As you alluded to, though numerous previous courts have bound Michael Cohen to be a perjurer. And obviously thats something that will be thoroughly mooted and aired in court. And at the end of the de as i said, if we if we can just focus on the facts and if we can drive home, what the facts actually are to the jury. I dont think any of this other noise is going to end up mattering. You said you think mr. Trump should testify in this case, but isnt that kind of risky. I mean, the last time he testified before a jury was in the new york fraud case, did did mr. Trump learn anything since then ive never said President Trump should testify. Thats thats gonna be a choice for him and for his legal team. After weve seen how this trial proceeds, i have said that i think President Trump will be a compelling witness if he does testify. Because at the end of the day, he did nothing wrong. The facts are on his side and i think that his story is a compelling one here. But thats gonna be a decision for down the road based on how trial proceeds. And i guess well just have to watch that one play out all right. Well, scharf, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Lets go to Paula Reid Up in new york, kuala jake, were getting some news from the courtroom right now as we predicted, at least one juror hur says he or she has concerns about Media Attention in this case, uh, judges said hes going to talk to this juror in chambers, but this was one of the concerns all right. So that we had going into today, if any other members of this jury would after giving it some consideration, decide that they cannot take on the risks associated with this task. So it is unclear if his der will remain on the jury. He or she is going to talk okay. To the judge right now. And then court will resume now, its interesting court today was supposed to go to two. Thats an abbreviated day at recognized passover, but instead its actually well, i gotta go to 12, 30 because one of the alternates has a Dentist Appointment. So, judge said that he is going to allow that alternate to go to the Dentist Appointment, saying we cant afford to lose one for alternates pretty remarkable to im im curious to know where the former president thinks about having to stop today at 12 30 because of a drugs dentist one, and the fact that he cant attend thursdays Historic Supreme Court arguments on president ial immunity and theres an open question about whether hell be able to attend his sons graduation. The judge said hill, consider that, but look, hes a criminal defendant. He has to attend every single day of court unless he gets a waiver, but the jurors and judges signal hes going to work around their schedule. But also this is an alternate der whats important to the judge here and what hes talking . But he wants to get this over with. He does not want to delay this trial any further. Obviously, that was clear by the last six weeks of our lives and what we were watching with trumps team and what was playing out. He wants to protect this alternate juror for be able to keep them as part of the alternate group of jurors. And thats why you saying he wants to accommodate this first senate to end early. But heres The Real News that is coming out of this. Is this who is expressing concern about the Media Attention that these jurors are getting. Obviously, the judge has since said that the media has to be careful that people in the courtroom have to be careful with how they identifying information for these jurors that we know where they live, what they do, what media they consume. Theres a lot of information about them that we know. And i think what people walked into this going for jury duty to sit reporting, responding to a jury summons a, realising the level of Media Attention that this case is going to get. The de as a byproduct of that are going to get and theyre sitting in that room. Donald trump is just a few feet away from them as they are going to be in this case. And obviously that is a concern for at least one person who was partially theyve had the weekend think about it to kind of let it sink in the repercussions of it to talk to friends and family, and to see what that means. Were also getting our first image of trump. Im told will will put that up pull it inside the coordinate and pull it. Can you just explain a little bit . The first image were getting today of him inside the courtroom on the lefthand side of your screen, were seeing information coming from inside the court. Can you just explain who is sending us that for our viewers . Quite the operation because there are no cameras are allowed in court for this historic case and so instead, we rely on our colleagues, so we have one colleague inside the courtroom, Kara Scannell shes sending us information. We also have two other colleagues, jeremy, herb and lauren. Lauren del valle. It yes. Theyre sending out notes to us and real time and its quite difficult to hear this process. It share it with three different people. They do an exceptional job keeping us up to date on exactly what is going on. So caitlin are looking at our phones. Thats what were reading reading the feed from our colleagues and thats what are your viewers are seeing on the screen those are notes from our three colleagues inside. So you have a minute by minute, second by second. Im going to count. And also, i think just the dynamic for trump. Obviously theres no cameras in the courtroom thats how were relying on our colleagues for these updates, but the dynamic and the Courtroom Trump its not surrounded by his political aides like he typically is, or friends, or family, or allies. Hes got his legal team, but everyone else is seated towards the back of the courtroom. So hes not able to confer with them. He ceded there next to hes got three attorneys in the room with him. And i think that picture there just speaks to the moment of what Donald Trumps life is about to be like where he is not a control of his schedule or his environment, are able to respond in realtime. Three things that he prioritizes and values and typically is used to capital eyes off of as since he was in the white house when he was on the Campaign Trail. And even as a businessman, here in new york, his entire life is changing for the next six to eight weeks. Now that hes in that courtroom and this is Going Forward and the judges in charge of the schedule, not donald trump. Its going to be very interesting to see what happens with this juror whos now consultant, now appears that we have an answer yeah. We havent answered that. The juror is going to remain on the panel, just returned from this side room where he went he or she went with the lawyers and the judge and theyve come back i can say that this juror is going to remain with us. So whatever concerns this juror had, the judge or the lawyers are apparently able to allay some of these concerns if they had lost that alternate juror today that would have been not only obviously, one less drawing, they could call on if something goes wrong, but also it could have influenced other jurors to start only start to question whether they wanted to serve. Yeah, im actually surprised that only one person has withdrawn from this case when you think about the enormity of the exposure, the attention, the risks for you and your family. I mean, this is something that the judge has topped about why these short jurors are going to be anonymous if you wanted to protect them from this environment of intimidation, its actually surprising to me, weve only lost one, almost lost one today, but shes its going to remain also just if this issue is resolved is not going to be an issue. We are going to get to the Opening Statements. The prosecution says theres going to be about 40 minutes. Todd blanche, which is trumps Defense Attorney, who will be making theres is going to be about 25. So this will be a little bit shorter and for our viewers, obviously, our folks in the courtroom will be sending out those Opening Statements line by line as much as possible. So you can follow all along already this morning. Courtroom complications and down trumps Hush Money Trial, the sidebar with the lawyers just ended after as you just heard, a juror expressed concern about the Media Attention on this historic case that der is staying on the case so every much more seen as especially the Live Coverage after this quick break with car gurus, you can start your financing from home the only you could do things your way. You could do things your way. All the time maybe someday dad when others divide. We unite. With Real Solutions to help our kids. Like community schools. Neighborhood hubs that provide everything from Mental Health services to food pantries. Academic tutoring to prom dresses. Healthcare to after care. Community schools can wrap so much around publi. And through meaningful partnerships with families, they become centers of their communities. Real solutions for kids and communities at aft. Org target. Com live from the nations capital, one of the most unforgettable night in dc. This water will read back here a dance President Biden and comedian Collin Joseph headline the white house Correspondents Dinner Live Saturday at seven eastern on cnn when the jinx came out, i thought, oh, my god, when bob has a friend, he expects Blind Loyalty. Ravid surprises have some five hey there, brenda. Its carroll exactly. So which like are we operating on . You mean arm . Its all connected, asking the right question can greatly impact your future. You share your an orthopedist, actually, im a sagittarius specially when it comes to your finances, give a question. Are us certified Financial Planner . Yes. Im a cfp professional Cop Professionals are committed to acting in your best interest. 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Court is in session in the hush money cover of prior all of donald trump but any moment we expect Opening Statements to begin the prosecution has estimated theyll take about 40 minutes. Previewing the case against donald trump. Her defense says itll take about 20 25 minutes. Lets get straight to cnns paula reid in manhattan. Paula, a lot has happened in just the past few minutes. Get us up to speed so right. Now the judges revealing his decision on what specifically trump can be crossexamined about last week, there were arguments where trumps lawyers were trying to Block Process its a peters from being able to talk to their client or asked their client questions about at least three civil cases that he has been involved in. Now, of course, is unclear if trump will definitely take the stand. This is what called a sandoval hearing, where you get out of the way at the outset, what specifically it is that prosecutors can ask a defendant if he or she takes the stand. The judge revealing that right now is unclear what he has decided. Of course, the other big news from this morning is that juror number nine said they had concerns about the Media Attention in this case. But after meeting with the judge and lawyers that juror has decided to remain on the case. All right paula reid. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Lets talk more about this case so first of all, explain again what the sandoval hearing. Yes. Yeah. Sandoval hearing of the fancy way of saying before a defendant has to take the stand or as an option, take the stand. They get to know what youre going to ask them. Are you going to go about issues . I do or do not want to talk about, its all about whats called, whats probative versus prejudicial. And anything that they have to warn them about are just legal matters. Well, its its basically a category called prior bad acts, things im going to raise about behavior you have been engaged in are alleged to behavior and or Criminal Trials or civil trials rather different and then about whether youll be questioned to try to undermine your credibility. Its not for the jury to say, listen because this person did x, y, and z bad, they must have done this crime. Its to give greater context, especially for a pattern of behavior in this case, largely around the idea of maybe a Karen Mcdougal and giving her money initially or a bad a catch and kill all or about falsifying Business Records in the past, it gives some idea for the actual jury of what he may have been doing in this context. So one of the things that the prosecution wanted to bring up ellie and karen is the access Hollywood Video which we all remember from october 2016, not a pleasant bit of business there for mr. Trump or for billy bush for that matter explained what the jury what a judge has ruled on that matter. So the prosecution wants to introduce evidence of that video to go to Donald Trumps intent. Theyre going to argue the reason why he really wanted to silence Stormy Daniels is because the access Hollywood Video had just come out. Wed all seen it. His campaign was reeling and he was trying to recover the judge has sort of i think given a bit of 50, 50 ruling here, the judge has said, were not going to play that tape that weve all seen many times for the jury. Theyre not going to see it. Theyre not going to hear donald trump say in grab them, et cetera but we will introduce evidence that donald trump and his team in knew about that tape and their reaction to it. So the jury will know that the statements were made, but theyre not going to hear this sensational tape itself. And we know right now is judge merchan is reading his decision. Trump is sitting back in his chair not reacting to the ruling. You see that right here on the left side of your screen. Live feeds from reporters inside the courtroom. Here, and what do you think . That ruling standing by the ruling. Im not going to allow you to show the video, but you can provide a transcript and you can allude Show Evidence that alludes to it. So the judge is doing exactly what hes supposed to be doing, which is allowing admissible evidence or probative evidence and without it being overly prejudicial, because thats the balancing tests that hes talking about when he says that that sandoval gives him a wide latitude in terms of discretion and what he can do. The prosecution says these are all the things i want to talk about all the prior bad acts then the judge and then the defense of courses these we dont want you to talk about any of them. And then the judge balances it and says, okay, im going to sanitize some of them. So thats not overly prejudicial, but im going to let you talk about some of them because it wouldnt be fair to, for example, let donald trump get up there and testified that he he was not held in contempt in the judge and garan case. Im going to throw it back to anderson who as far as i know, is the only person in the world who has interviewed Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels and donald trump this told me that is probably the case i want to bring in stacy schneider. Shes a criminal Defense Attorney a former apprentice contestant how important do you think it is the way trump behaves in court today . Oh, its crucial. So the Opening Statement is going to be like a Movie Trailer thats rolling, telling the story. The prosecution story of the case with all of the evidence and all of the witnesses and what theyre going to say and while theyre speaking, the jurors are going to be watching don i dont trumps reactions and if its anything like last week during jury selection, its going to be a real problem for him because when this is going to be a very embarrassing situation, obviously we all know that the allegations of his affair with The Adult Film Star Stormy Daniels are a crux of this case. It intermingled with his business and he has to sit at that table actually be quiet, be respectful. Likability is key in the criminal court. He can lose some of those jurors before the evidence even comes in. If he acts out and lawyers really need to tell him unlike jury selection, sit up straight, look at the judge when he speaks dont smirk at the jurors, dont glare at the jurors and when this embarrassing information comes into court, keep your face neutral because they are watching his every move and they need to like him to listen to whats going to happen. We kind of got a glimpse of trump having to listen to the judge here, went on friday, trump thought court was over that trump the judge was told him to sit down and trump did he has acted so far differently in this case. Then you did in the Civil Fraud Cases yeah. This is a completely different arena for him, even on friday hey, day when he came out of jury selection, that whole week of jury selection, i saw different donald trump than ive seen before. In what way . Well, he got up in the middle of his daily press statement about how who was being politically prosecuted. He complained about the Air Conditioning judge merchans courtroom, and thats something a grandpa would say. I would never expect donald trump to interject that in the middle of his Criminal Trial. Hi, all. But i think this whole process for him is so out of control. I mean, even the Opening Statement, this is going to be the first time maybe in his life that he cannot control them narrative. And he also cant sue the prosecutor for anything negative that they say about him because the Opening Statement is protected speech. And trump is known to go after late night wouldnt do you think you Opening Statements are for the jury . I mean, how much of the jury makes it an impact to how big an impact as it may, its an Opening Statement can make so break the case. Sometimes as trial lawyers, we will say, you win or lose your case in the Opening Statement because, you know, if the jurys on your side, you watch the reaction actions to what youre saying about the evidence you the defense also watches the reactions when you come back with the opposite story of what the prosecution says. So its crucial what is said today. And then next 40 or 60 minutes, just speaking of trumps Body Language already the judge is going over what prosecutors would be allowed to ask trump about if you did testify and the judge said that he would be allowed to ask, they would be allowed to ask about the violations of the gag order in that Civil Fraud Case. The judge that trump has just complaining about 40 went to the Courtroom Trump was seeing shaking his head as the judge had found that he had violated that gag order. This is schneider. Thank you so much. Good to have you on. Were moments away from Opening Statements in a trial that could ultimately make former president wants to be our next president. A convicted felon. All the breaking details are coming up after quick break every weekday morning, cnns five things has what you need to get going with your day. Its the five Essential Stories of the morning in five minutes for less. Cnns five things with kate bolduan, Streaming Weekdays exclusively on macs businesses go further with 5g solutions. Thats why they choose tmobile for business. Pga of america and tmobile for parking during one five gene powered analytics to help improve player performance. Tmobiles network helped aaa stay connected nationwide to give their members Back On The Road and Las Vegas Grand Prix chose tmobile to help Fuel Operations for one of the Worlds Largest racing events. 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Youre not waiting to when youre ready to succeed again at Un Gc Dot Edu Hydrozoa Alvarez at the white house. And this is cnn start of Opening Statements in the Hush Money Trial, donald trump judge, wants preview of the case against the former President Prosecution Plans to run the man and women on the jury through trumps alleged scheme to hide a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels in the final stretch, the 2016 campaign, the defense will likely lay out their version of events a version of events in which donald trump had no knowledge of payments alleged meant to silence the adultfilm actress so im gonna go straight to that. Cnns paula reid are joining me here along with kaitlan collins. So paula, were getting our viewers who are just joining us minute by minute accounts from our three correspondence in the courtroom and in the Overflow Room that would viewer gonna be seeing on the lefthand side of the screen exactly. And were getting updates after our own Slack Channel here. And this is it. The jury yes, he they are now getting their instructions from the judge. He is walking them through what theyre going to see, starting with Opening Statements. Hes explaining the prosecution will go first, then the defense. Hes going to explain the burden is on the prosecution. In fact, theres many parts of this trial the defense doesnt even have to put on because again, the burden is that of the prosecutors. Hes also going to talk often through how they should operate throughout the next five to six weeks. Hes going to tell him not to talk to anyone about the case, right . Dont read anything about the case. So this is going to be their mission statement. Hes laying out what the job entails should take maybe about half an hour and then were going to hear Opening Statements from both the defense and from the prosecution. Thats exactly right. Now. Prosecutors will go first. And as i said, theyre trying to rebrand this case from the socalled Hush Money Case to an Election Interference case. And we heard one of the prosecutors last week layout that hes he wants to convince the jury that this is is it about socalled hush money. This is about the rule of law and whether trump broke the law in order to help his chances in 2016. Now that were going to go from the defense and the defense is going argue trump wasnt involved with paperwork at this level because theyre going to argue that this is just a Paperwork Crime trump had people to handle invoices and such things for him also argue that Michael Cohen was trumps lawyer at the time in question. He was doing legal work for him and also then of course, theyre going to try to completely undercut the credibility of Michael Cohen. We know that the prosecution Company Statement things about 40 minutes. Defense says theres going to be about 20 minutes. The judges giving the instructions now, which may be 20 there are so minutes. Its very possible. We could get the first witness before the stop, the break of this trial at 12 30. Well, and thats certainly what the trump team expects that the first witness will be brought. Now, itll its expected that the prosecutor shall bring their first witness. They will start asking them questions. Its not clear that today well get to the crossexamination where trumps team gets to ask whoever the first witnesses this will we do expect to be david as we were talking about earlier, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, to be that first witness who can speak about direct conversations he had with trump. But just to note, as the judge, its pointing to the jury how this is going to work, what they need to rely on, that its not what he says that is evidenced. Its what the actual what is presented to them that is the evidence that they decide this on trump is in this room with the 12 jurors who are going to decide ultimately what happens here. And hes someone who the jurors last week because theyre being brought in, were describing that he was waving and some of them and they is they came in. He was viewing this in the way that he does really the lens of everything right now, which is through this kind of Campaign Lens of someone who thinks hes his own best campaigner. Izotova spokesperson, and his own best attorney relate and so were getting these quotes from the judge right now, as he explains what the jury has to do, and he says that you must decide this case on the evidence. And he tells the juror is to remember that what lawyers say is not evidence. He says that evidence includes documents testimony physical evidence. It is the question with the answer that is evidence. So hes laying out exactly what they have to do as they contemplate these charges over the next five to six weeks, he says i remind you throughout these proceedings that the defendant is presumed to be innocent. And of course, mourn present. Trump has pleaded not guilty and also denied the affair with stormy. Well, and also our reporters say that trumps eyes are closed. Is judge merchan is read eight of these directions to the jury. I think its also just a reminder of how tedious a lot of this is going to be for the former president to be sitting there as he is listening to all of this. And then of course listening to those Opening Statements which will be in prosecutors words of his actions yeah. You can continue to fall across a follow on the lefthand side of your screen, the notes from r3 folks inside the courtroom, 20 me now, criminal Defense Attorney or their eye dala, you represented some very highprofile, controversial defendant and its harvey weinstein, Rudy Giuliani how do you approach Opening Statements in a case when the jury knows your client and hes one of the most famous or infamous people in the world. While you try to make your Opening Argument as close as you can to your to your closing argument. Its almost like a summation. The first thing i would do here is i would listen intently obviously to the prosecutors opening and then try to pull something out of it. And my first line would be like your heard was she just said, well, let me tell you this and then attack you want to try to make a connection with those jurors. You want them to like you i believe todd blanche is the one whos doing the opening. You want to make some kind of a connection with them and youre just wanted to attack, attack, attack. You cant believe michael coach, you cant believe Stormy Daniels. And then you want to embrace yourself with the judge and what the judges instructions are id say the judge is going to tell you this and the judge is going to tell you that and we agree. And if you listen to the judge, theres no way that they can prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. And the only verdict you can reach is one of not guilty the prosecution were told Opening Statement are going to be about 40 minutes and defense about 20 is keeping it short better it really its its a real strategic decision. Anniston and i knew i know susan necklace is one of the attorneys here and shes a masterful lawyer i mean, im sure theyve spoken about this. Im sure theyve vetted it. Im sure theyve done a little moot arguments you know, my approach is to really go hard in the Opening Statement. Years ago, the New York Times did a study and jurors found that 80 of jurors found that whatever they thought the verdict was going to be after the openings was their verdict, 80 so i looked at Opening Statements as an a tremendous opportunity to really swayed juries over to your side or theyre just hold on. I want to get some more information from inside the court. What are you hearing . So we dont have too many updates beyond just talking about the burden of proof and the judges emphasizing that the burden of proof is always at the prosecutor. It never shifts to the defendant. And if the burden of proof is not met, the judge reminds the jurors that they must find the defendant not guilty arthur, i know you said that if you were on the trump defense, you wouldnt be looking for an outright acquittal. Youd be aiming for a hung jury. How would you go about creating that Shadow Of A Doubt in the mind of at least one juror you know, again, youve got to really look at the law and what the judge is going to say in the closing instructions to the jury, you know, he just gave the opening instructors and the jury, but we have a good idea as lawyers, what the judge is going to say at the end so you look at what hes going to say at the end and you bring it to the beginning because it gives you so much credibility at the end of the case. When the jurys here again, what you said at the beginning of the case, out of the mouth of the judge, which they usually hold in very high regard. And again, you just have to attack attack, attack those, those witnesses and look what youve got to say is Michael Cohen should be a codefendant if you believe with the prosecutors just said Michael Cohen, shubi, codefendant, not a witness. He has so many reasons to lie. Sony seasons to pin this on someone else, to keep himself out of jail. Tell which was unable to do in the federal case i mean, Michael Cohen is a felon. He isnt admitted liar, just the prosecutions case, you think rise and fall with his credibility . I think it has a tremendous impact. Look, there is paperwork that corroborates the peoples evidence and thats obviously hurtful for the president. But my understanding is its not paperwork with Donald Trumps handwriting on it or his signature on it, except for a check. So the defense could merely be, hey, michael cole did all of this. He never told his client. He just said, look, i need money for this, i need money for that. And you know, one of the witnesses is going the testimony this trial testified for the fence and he said that the money that was given to michael cohn was for Stormy Daniels end for legal fees. Thats a reasonable doubt. So youve got to hang on these little reasonable doubt, to add to sin and put his ready together as you can for your closing argument. Are there hold on one second. Were hearing more from the court. Yeah. Were were seeing just as the judge is explaining to them in depth what exactly their responsibilities are going to be. I mean, its something thats kind of we know what happens when Jury Instructions are, but the fact that these are Jury Instructions being delivered for the jury. Thats going to hear the first case, first Criminal Trial of a former president is remarkable in and of itself. And we are hearing from reporters inside the room that trump is looking over at the jury box as they are getting these instructions from judge more sean, he wasnt initially looking at them he was when it came in the room and then he wasnt and now he is looking over at them as the judge is explaining, they can take notes, but they should be brief and shouldnt be something that distracts from whats actually going on. His urging them to pay close attention to what theyre about to hear as arthur was just talking about from the prosecution, but also from the defense, also that theres going to be a lot of evidence. This is not just going to be based on testimony of people like Michael Cohen theyre also going to be relying heavily on documents here arthur want to thank you so much for your time and reaction proceeds really appreciate it on this morning as we stand by for Opening Statements and dont comes Hush Money Trial. Were getting new information about the prosecutions first witness, man, who admits to a scheme to buy and very damaging stories about donald trump woodpecker will have more on him when we come back riyad saves new album is breaking records called the sky when it comes to family, i always do whats best. My parents taught me that. Thats why i called a place for mom. 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So i hired body doubles in dorsey. Tina loves into luck, sweet booking. Com, Booking Dot Yeah you were diagnosed with Thyroid Disease along time ago and year after year, you weathered the storm and just lived with the damage that was left behind . But even after all this time, your Thyroid Eye Disease could still change restoration is still possible learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at ted help. Com when a genes came out i thought, oh, my god when bob has a friend, he expects Blind Loyalty turns out, when you have a whole lot of money people are willing to do things for you what you do when your best friend kills your other best friend Robby Surprises and surprises the jencks part two streaming exclusively on max the white house Correspondents Dinner lives saturday at seven eastern on cnn were back with our Live Coverage of the trump Hush Money Trial right now, Jury Instructions in the case of the people of the state of new york versus donald j. Trump. The former president of the United States, is intermittently looking at the jury, the men and women who will decide his fate as this hush money hover up, Criminal Trial continues. Cnn reporters inside the courthouse have observed that mr. Trump shut his eyes at one point, leaning back in his chair. Judge were sean said there is no particular formula for evaluating the truthfulness and accuracy of Witness Testimony that is from our reporters in the courtroom. And if you look on the far left side of the screen, you can see youre getting live reports there from our reporters in the courtroom. Cnns paula reid is standing by in manhattan. Paula, bring us up the speed jake, the judge is laying out for the jury the gravity of the task that they have at hand, and the fact that these charges against former President Trump must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He said, if you find him guilty, that must be based on the evidence how long speculation and not on bias and was going on to explain to the jurors exactly how this will work. And he notes that for example lawyers are not allowed to comment during Witness Testimony telling the jury that that only happens in movies and on television shows, but not at a real trial. Now, our reporters inside the courtroom from note that that drew a smile both from the prosecution and the defense. Probably one of the few unifying moments in this case so far the judge will continue to lay out what exactly is happening and what is expected of these jurors. This whole thing, this whole instruction is expected to take about 30 minutes and then well get into Opening Statements. All right. Paula reid. Thanks so much. And just to recap, judge merchan said that lawyers are not allowed to make comments about Witness Testimony. Lets bring back the pan. All the lawyers in the room smiled when the judge said that happens on tv and in the movies, that does not happen in real trials. Well, theyre smiling in this room as well. Because its true. Youre gonna have to balance again to what jurists think happens in Law And Order within 48 minutes, youve got a crime committed to defendant identified, arrested, and you have some of locking down the steps at the end of the trial in 42 minutes here its interesting because theres a moment he says that the lawyers, or the notes are not a substitute for the actual transcripts digital come into play and having lawyers on your jury as well, we were concerned about remember, can lawyers beyond the actual jury, the reason youd love concerns because you might be deferential to them and say, is that what happens at the issue here . Its almost a way of reminding a look, the prosecution and the defense, they have to build their case. They have to defend their case. But the lawyers and i notetaking is not going to substitute for you what youre hearing. Again, there is no formula for evaluating accuracy. You have your varied Life Experiences to do so. So much like the jury selection was an art, as hasnt credibility is going to come from your own gut intuition. And what you believe to be true. Yeah. And if unless im mistaken in the criminal justice system, the people represented equally Important Group at Police Investigate times, and the District Attorneys offenders hold on. Oh, i actually have a newfound respect right now. Its going to be calling you i also just as were as were doing this to stay on the same thread. Look at whats at on the side of your screen. Its not only chuckle inducing to say this is real life, this is not a tv show because thats true in general, its also interesting because the guy who is the defendant became known to people around the country in the world on a Reality Tv Show show, hes late, wasnt court related. It was businessrelate d and it is part of the dynamic that we are told is going through his brain, which is whether it was on that tv show or in his business, or on the Campaign Trail or whatever, even in the white house he determines what he does on a minutebyminute basis. And right now, for the next probably six weeks, that is not happening and its driving you mad and weve had jaime can go republican commentators want trump to get elected on the show on these panels say that if they were advising trump or if trump were listening to maam they would advise it instead of coming out and doing a grievance about the judge rejecting the bond or this or that about the case. Its kind of in the weeds that he should take the opportunity of this free air time to talk about what he would do as president for the american people. But thats not, thats not what mr. Trump so as we know, donald trump thinks hes the smarter this person in the room. He may listen, but in the end, what we saw when he walked in to court today and stopped and i dont mean this lightly, but it was really donald trump bingo with witch hunt in the free center space. He hit every single poll. Its not fair might pose her up. This is coordinated with washington Letitia James. Letitia james Letitia James over out of jail those. So donald trump does no branding. He does know messaging, whether its right or wrong. He thinks this works. Lets dive into one thing because my phone was following up with messages from Michael Cohen, who is the key witness for the prosecution, are one of the key witnesses for the prosecution. He took issue with me saying that hed been convicted of perjury. It actually was code 1001. Yeah. Why dont you tell us exactly what he pleaded guilty to and what he was pleading guilty of battery. Right. So brief history of Michael Cohen back in 2018, he was convicted by guilty plea. He did not go to trial in federal court in the Southern District of new york of the following. First of all, of Campaign Finance violations very relevant to this case. 2nd of all, of making false statements to congress relating to Donald Trumps efforts to build a trump tower in moscow. Michael cohen said that those conversations were fewer in number than they actually were and stopped earlier than they actually stopped. What Michael Cohen pled guilty to, called 18 usa 1,001, false statements, and it makes it a crime to quote, make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement to government body, including congress. He also, this is important. Michael cohen, sometimes says, well, i only ever committed crimes for within, for donald trump. Not true. He pled guilty to tax fraud relating to hiding 4 million of his own personal income. He pled guilty to bank fraud but in relation to multimillion dollar loans relating to his Bank Medallion business. And then this is where it gets really crazy when he testified earlier this year at the civil fraud trial, he testified when i pled guilty back in 2018 to tax fraud and bank fraud, i was lying. I was not actually guilty, which landed federal judge, to make this finding about Michael Cohen. He said Michael Cohens testimony, quote, gives rise to two possibilities. One, cohen committed perjury when he pled guilty. The first case or two, cohen committed perjury in his testimony in the Civil Fraud Case. So theres a lot to unpack there. Those are the specifics and karen, lets talk about whats going on right now, because judge merchan is giving the Jury Instructions. You just told them that they shouldnt let there are any any biases they have are stereotypes influence their view he said as a jury, you are asked to make a very important decision about another member of the Community Talk a bit about if you would, for those of us who have never been through a trial and have avoided jury duty. So far successfully for all 55 years of their lives . Yes. Thanks. Joseph, complete. I know i actually i actually have every tuesday coming up whats going on right now and how important this moment is for donald trump to say this is coming from washington dc. This is from joe biden. This is all about the jury. The jury is the one whos deciding his fate. Its not its not the judge. If you think the judge is bias, its not alvin bragg. If he doesnt like alvin bragg, it has nothing to do with joe biden. Its the 12 jurors who are sitting in that box they are 100 making the decision about whether or not hes guilty of these crimes. And so in this trial, like every other trial, the very first thing the judge does is he gives an instruction to the jury. Instruction takes about 30 minutes where he explains the procedures. He explains that a defendant every defendant, including donald trump its presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, that every single day that he sits in that chair, he is innocent. And you have to not let your biases come in, not let your prejudices come in, and you have to evaluate the evidence and listen to the evidence. Hes also telling the jury they are allowed to take notes, but dont let your notes substitute for the transcript tells them a question with without an answer is nothing, so dont presume anything by a question thats being asked if theres no answer, he explains objections. Theres a sustained or overruled and he sues you explaining all the procedures because theyre not lawyers are some of them are, but typically theyre just every day people in the community who will be evaluating all of this. So hes explaining to them what their job is, what theyre allowed to do, what theyre not allowed to do, and how he runs his courtroom. Right. And he also just mentioned to the alternate jurors, there are six alternate jurors. He told them that they are expected to pay the same close attention to the case as any one of the 12 jurors. Hes its hoping that the 12 who are seated will be the 12th who end the trial. But the six substitutes have to be there paying attention regardless, were standing by for Opening Statements in Donald Trumps hush money cover up trial much more from inside the courtroom just ahead. Youre watching Cnn Special Live Coverage. Well be right back. How it really happened. Sunday at nine on cnn okay. Everyone, our mission is to provide complete balanced nutrition. Or strength and energy ensure with 27 vitamins and minerals transfer immune health, and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein how far would you go to set the ambiance of your space . Try the air wigwe with air wake essential missed in use with natural essential oils to fill your low bit with immersive fragrance for up to 45 days. 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The first quote that we have is the prosecution laying out his theory of the case, which is quote, this case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover up the defendant, donald trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 president ial election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying. It is new york Business Records over and over and over again. So here they are reframing this because usually people refer to this as the Hush Money Case. Hey, swear. Yes, hush money was paid to Stormy Daniels for her to stay quiet about an affair that she had with them candidate trump, but having an affair is not a crime, paying hush money is not a crime. The criminal allegation here is that the former president falsified Business Records in order to cover up that he had pay this money. Well, what they are starting with Matthew Colangelos, this is going to become a name that will become very familiar to people. Hes the prosecutor that paul just noted that is making these Opening Statements and starting them. They are going to lay out all the entire timeline of this and what he just started with is something thats really key, which is a meeting that happened in august 20 that we didnt know about in real time. But we later learn when, once trump was in the white house that it was donald trump, Michael Cohen, and david. They were all there in that meeting. And thats when david was essentially asking how he could be helpful to Donald Trumps president ial campaign. And of course now we know the saga that it has become these three stories that are at the center of this hushmoney case. And at the heart of what they are alleging about these payments, but that is what they are going back to that meeting. We didnt initially know that donald trump was the third person in that room. And obviously thats incredibly consequential because if david is in fact the first testimony that the prosecution calls after these Opening Statements, he can talk about Donald Trumps knowledge of this agreement and whether or not he signed off on it and what he said directly could say, in fact yes. We talked about this being in order to help him in the election. Exactly. If he says that is it. He could backup Michael Cohen statements. So thats important because weve talked about Michael Cohens issue as a witness and how they will rely on him having someone back that up. And so the fact that prosecutors are starting off with this is their main is their Opening Statement just shows that they are saying this all goes back to that meeting. Were donald trump himself was in that meeting because really what they have to do at the end of the day here is convinced these 12 jurors the donald trump was directly involved and essentially had signed off on this. And were learning that trump is sitting back in his chair and not even looking at the prosecutor as he speaks. And the prosecutor as part of this Opening Statement, the reframing this again, not just as a Paperwork Crime, right. An effort to cover up this Hush Money Payment by falsifying Business Records, but an effort to interfere in the 2016 election and thats key because that is why this is being charged as a felony, even though hes not charged with federal Election Interference. Thats what theyre arguing here, that these Business Records were falsified in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election. The prosecutor said, quote they formed a conspiracy at that meeting to influence the president ial election by concealing negative information about mr. Trump in order to help him get elected. And that is really that is the crux of their argument that this was all done to help trump in the 2016 election. In fact, they reprimand me sometimes when i call it the Hush Money Case on air, they said no policy well, it is the 2016 Election Interference case. It is important to point out that they said that conspiracy was hatched in this meeting. They of the three people in this meeting, the prosecution has to people who will be testifying, Michael Cohen and david they have two of the three people in that meeting testified they also have documents and documents were Allen Weisselberg, the former ceo of the Trump Organization, took notes the question though, and what trumps team when they get their chance to make their Opening Statement will always certainly robot is the idea of trumps direct involvement where they will say Michael Cohen made this decision. Michael cohen is the one who actually paid Stormy Daniels this 130,000. That was Michael Cohens. Does it . Just because other people were having these conversations doesnt mean that donald trump had signed off on it. Well see what the jurors will believe. Well see what the evidence shows, and its also remember theres that recording that Michael Cohen took where he donald trump were discussing david and how to set up a company to reimburse him and what that was going to look like for the other damaging story get more updates. You were watching the updates so theyre talking about the payments to cohen because thats where the crux of this case lies. The evidence that the judge was talking about earlier, the paperwork trail, which are trump is so unusual because one thing is really good at is not leaving a paper trail, but theyre talking about how Michael Cohen who paid that 130,000 to Stormy Daniels, how he was reimbursed, and why the paper trail there that lays the foundation for these criminal allegations. They say that trump reimbursed cohen after he made that 130,000 payment. But disguised what the reimbursement was four, he said they disguised with the payments were four. The defendant said in Business Records that he was paying cohen for Legal Services pursuant to overtake or agreement, but those realize there was no retainer agreement. And now i can tell you from talking to sources on the trump team, they will argue that at this time, cohen was working as a lawyer for trump. He was doing legal work. That is something that theyre going to argue when they or their chance to defend their client and just as were going to be so fascinating is held, trump response during his Opening Statements as hes listening to all of this because he was just posting this morning on truth social on his way to the courthouse that it was just legal fees and he was essentially asking how can i be indicted because i paid an attorney legal fees he did just pass todd blanche, and note as the prosecution is making their Opening Statement, and i will say, despite what people were saying, the time Rudy Giuliani is on television in an interview with fox news during that time saying Michael Cohen wasnt doing any legal work for donald trump. Thats when he was trying to downplay the fact that trump had reimbursed him yeah jake, lets come back to you all right. Anderson. Thank you so much. We have lots of updates coming in from the courtroom right now. The prosecution assistant District Attorney, Matthew Colangelo, as youve heard from paula reid, has been introducing the case before the jury in his Opening Arguments saying that the conspiracy the extended to payments that Stormy Daniels received just weeks before the 2016 election, that trump quote, was paying Michael Cohen back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election that quote cohen made that payment at the defendant, Donald Trumps direction, and he did it to influence the president ial election this is the prosecutions allegation he did it Donald Donald trump did it according to the assistant District Attorney quote, because he wanted to conceal his and others criminal conduct. In total, the defendant falsified 34 Business Records to cover up that criminal conspiracy. After the election, trump reimbursed cohen for that payment and they quote, disguised with the payments for quote, they disguised with the payments are for the defendant said in Business Records that he was paying cohen for Legal Services pursuant to a retainer agreement, but those realize this is again, what the assistant District Attorney is alleging about mr. Trump. There was no retained agreement the payment to cohen realize the defendant was being paid back for illegal payments laura coates, this is what we expected the prosecution to bring up hey, they did and they had to do this and i wont go through kind of an argument checklists. You just listed out that there are 34 Business Records counts. We looked here for a second, here. They have to prove there is an intent to fraud to fraud, they have to prove there is an intent to commit another crime. But the really important part here is this one. Youre mentioning it just now. Its this one about made and cause a false entry in the Business Records. Why is that important . Because thats the idea that said this was not a Legal Service actual thing happening. It was an illegal at retainer. In fact, a nonexistent one. You heard them actually say this inspect was all lies. Why . Let me just jump in for one second to bring in the courtroom updates, which is the prosecution, the assistant District Attorney, Matthew Colangelo, just said that this whole scheme that youre talking about started quote, with that august 2015 meeting, right. Trump tower. Go ahead. Im sorry. And this idea of being all a lie and having to pry to prove that they actually do that, then they cant just say it right now, we have to actually prove their case and how they do that is with actual documents having them show that there were actual document that comes from the likes of david maybe talking about what theyve done in the past. It comes from maybe Allen Weisselberg going on to tell you about what checks were actually cash to why they were not. But one big important part here is gonna be this, the private versus political elie alluded this its earlier today as well, whether this was all trying to stop his wife or embarrassment from understanding about the private or the political aspect of it. If its actually maybe even half private, halflit doesnt matter. So look, what the prosecutor is saying right here on the left side of your screen, you can see the prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo was saying that this meaning august 2000 some 15 trump cohen, Michael Cohen, his attorney, and david, the publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids, agreed at the trump tower meeting that quote, would help the defendants campaign. Thats the quote, by acting as the quote, eyes and ears of the campaign. So here they are making a direct delegation that this is political nonpersonal, if thats the case, they can kind of check that off their list in terms of what they have to prove all coming back, this idea of the intent. The intent to defraud, they intent to commit the other crime, obviously, adultery, not a crime, but trying to not be transparent and election is theyve got a lot to prove, but these statements get them off the right start. Now there are about to obviously go into more details. The prosecutor tells the jury the scheme was three one of those obviously was what we were just discussing, which is the prism through which that prosecutors are making their Opening Statement to the jury is about his campaign, is about the fact that he wasnt just doing this allegedly to protect his private life, to protect his wife. He was doing it to protect his own ability to be president of the United States . Yes. At a meeting in august 2015, were they allegedly made this deal and weve heard elie honig as a prosecution is introducing their their Opening Arguments. Weve heard this argument before this. When john edwards, the former president ial candidate, was being tried for a similar ish offense, having to do with payments made to his girlfriend and the mother of a child outside his marriage. And whether or not that was being done. The cover up to protect his family or to protect his political viability. So this is a tricky part of the case for the prosecution because they have to show not only that Business Records were falsified and trump was in on that. What that has reason for doing it was to commit or further some other crime. And here the main some other crime is to violate Campaign Finance laws. So let me ask you, ally, because the prosecutor is saying that david, the publisher of American Media, who was expected to be called as a witness. The prosecutor, the assistant District Attorney, is saying agreed to kill negative stories on trump from the National Enquirer, as well as to publish favorable well stories about him and negative stories by this political opponents. Now, we saw this all play out in real time. We saw the nasty stories about ted cruz and whether ted cruzs dad was involved in the kennedy assassination, whether ted cruz was engaging in all sorts of stuff that he was not and the prosecutor also saying they agreed that ami American Media, the company that publishes these tabloids, would suppress these stories. And the prosecutor rais the stories to the National Enquirer, said that they ran an attack on trumps political opponents, including putting crews. So a couple of key phrases, eyes and ears. If you want to know what david is about, hes gonna be the first witness, eyes and ears he was on the lookout for stories that might be damaging to donald trump. But when the government, when the prosecutor is talking about a threepronged case here, theyre talking about three specific instances where they did this catch and kill strategy. One is the charged instance they paid off Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet. The other two are not charged, but theyre coming in to show the pattern. One is the payoff to Karen Mcdougal to keep her quiet about an alleged affair and the playboy playmate of the year 1988, with whom donald trump allegedly had an affair, right . And the third one was to pay off a doorman who had information that turned out to be false about a child donald trump had out of wedlock. So prosecutors are going to argue david was the because an ears his job was to catch and kill. Right. So youre and youre just exactly referring to what the prosecutor saying right now, was it the jury there were three different catch and kill transactions for trump as you just mentioned, theres the one with the doorman. Theres the one with Karen Mcdougal. And karen, theres also the one with Stormy Daniels. So these are bad acts that theyre allowing alleged bad acts that theyre allowed to bring in the prosecutor. Yeah. Well, this is this is the case. This is the meat of the case. So these are the charged conduct. Interestingly, one of the things that matt colangelos the de making the opening right now said which is david is a coconspirator of donald trump, not he acted as is coconspirator, not his publisher. So what he was saying is thats the conspiracy that meeting that happened in August Of 2015 when they got together and they agreed they formed a conspiracy where they all got together and had an agreement that they were going to catch and kill these negative. And the first one according to the prosecutor, was this 30,000 payment to former doorman of trump tower, who alleged that trump had fathered a child outside of his marriage. There doesnt appear to be anything to that story at least now that weve seen no evidence that its a real story, but the payment was made either way, karen yes. So so now theyre talking about the Karen Mcdougal catch and kill in addition to the doorman and then theyll talk about Stormy Daniels catch and kill. It almost doesnt matter whether the whether any of those things actually happened, right. Whether he had an affair with any of them, are not that doesnt matter what matters is they were trying to suppress the story. They were trying to suppress the information because of course, the doorman that story has been debunked but it didnt matter. They still didnt want that coming out. So they were suppressing that and thats what they were trying to do and they wanted to hide those payments so that it was not so that no one could know that they were actual Illegal Campaign donations. And so they gave they made these false business entries. And so thats what this is about. This is about the false business entries in order to cover up that they were trying to give Illegal Campaign donations. And tim parlatore, a former Trump Attorney right now, trump is in there listening to these allegations being made. Were told hes not reacting as the assistant District Attorney is now talking about the 2nd alleged catch and kill story. This one involved Karen Mcdougal, the former 1998 playmate of the year with whom he allegedly had an affair and detailing the 2nd alleged catch and kill deal. So first of all, it sounds like hes behaving himself. Hes not hes not hes not saying or doing anything yet. So far. What im at odds with the jury but they are running through a bunch of very lurid and uncomfortable details. They are one of the things to me is this catch and kill plan is very different from the way that theyve structured deal with Stormy Daniels, where that was more of a direct Michael Cohen to her as opposed to doing it through ami. And so i think thats one of the problems that theyre going to have to really tie david and everything into this is showing why did they depart from that and do it in a different way. And thats i think where ive if i were doing the defense, i would try to drive the wedge to separate the hole eyes and ears of the campaign piece. From more of the John Edwards Style defensive this is something that he was trying to kill, not just for the campaign, but also for his personal personal life. And karen, when they say when the prosecutor, the assistant District Attorney suggests that david, the publisher or the National Enquirer, and other tabloids is a quote coconspirator. What does that mean it means hes going to testify that this was a criminal scheme that they masterminded together, that they were committing a crime together, dont forget, david has been given immunity federally, which then gives him immunity in state court to be from being processed its acute id, so thats how theyre going to present him and hes going to have to testify about that. And what the defense points is going to be really this guy gets a free pass and theyre trying to lock up donald trump. House that fair. Thatll be a defense argument. But whats the crime . The crime under . He was immunized under federal law for Campaign Finance violations. Okay. But im just saying like, is there something inherently illegal . The goal im not talking about on talking about wrong, but is there anything inherently illegal with American Media enterprises with this tabloid publisher catch and killing for him, know, very important point catch and kill it cd, its unseemly, it is not illegal. The illegality charge here is in the accounting around those payments and the motivation around that allegedly false accounts. So the prosecutor is saying that the evidence will show that mr. Trump was informed about Karen Mcdougal is allegations that theyd had a longstanding affair and he quote, desperately did not want this information to become public because of the 2016 election, karen and this is the part of the story where its like, well, this isnt about taking his family, its not as personal life. This is according to the ada the assistant District Attorney. This is all about his political viability in that difference is important. It is, and he might have also not wanted his family to know, write it doesnt matter if that was also a motivation, really what they have to also prove though, is that the campaign is illegal well, campaign donation, part of it is part of the motivation two, and of course theres going to be a tape recording that the prosecution is going to play, that after trump won the election, he says, will now do we have to pay stormy . I mean, if that doesnt show that that was campaign related, i dont know what what evidence would and the prosecutor, dana bash to the david, told the National Enquirer employee to fly to california and meet with Karen Mcdougal and her attorney. They paid her more than 100,000 for her story, but they did not publish her story. Thats the catch and the kill. The Prosecutor Says, quote before, during and after the meeting, howard dylan howard, who is a National Enquirer executive, and david sure. Were infrequent urgent contact with Michael Cohen, trumps attorney, who wanted updates, who wanted updates . Not just Michael Cohen interested in what happened. Its also clearly and passing it along to trump. Theres another update, prosecutor, youre going to see the flurry of text messages, the barrage of phone calls around that meeting. That is fascinating. Very much giving a window into the fact that its not just going to be Michael Cohens were or somebody elses word. Theyre going to bring receipts and thats whats so important about this. We went back to the idea that theyre going to allow you to talk about the emails from the fallout of Access Hollywood, but not the actual acts as i would tape. Its because they want to show that this was all about containing the fallout for the purposes of election, not around a wedding anniversary, not around a birth of a child, but it round the fact that there is an election happening. And so theyre going to try to bring all these things out because of course, you also have to realize theres the credibility issues they dont just want colin to testify. They dont just want weisselberg they dont just want or stormy the weight want to have the actual receipts. They say the real reason that directed ami to make this payment to mcdougal was to make sure she didnt publicize her affair with trump before the 2016 election. Again, the Common Thread and jamie, thats what its about here, according to the prosecutor, the defense is going to its gonna take issue with this, but according to the prosecutor, this is all about hiding information so that the voters dont know it before they go to the polls in November 2016 and lets put it in context. What is the date . So access Hollywood Tape comes out on october 7, a month before the election. This is going on. I believe october hope are 27, weeks before the election. So there you have the history with Karen Mcdougal about concern about not wanting to publicize her affair with trump before the election now, with Stormy Daniels, were two weeks away from you the timing is important. I mean, the prosecutor is going to argue just that point. Well, gee, these affairs, by the way, allegedly happened a decade before Stormy Daniels was 2006, and prosecutors are going to say, isnt that convenient, hes paying off right before the election. The response to that is going to be because thats when Stormy Daniels came forward with our handout and thats a fat Donald Trumps people do not go find Stormy Daniels, say, hey, wed like to silence you. She came forward and said, i have this explosive story that you might not want out there. Now. So as jamie says, the important point, there was a substantial part of his motivation doesnt have to be all substantial part of his motivation to clean things up for the election. And karen, how significant again is that, that its that its all right there right before the president ial election and not a year before two years before the prosecutor right now is describing a recording of a conversation between Michael Cohen and donald trump. Cohen at the time worked for trump discussing making the payment to Karen Mcdougal, david from American Media, made the payment allegedly National Enquirer publisher. He says trump suggests on the recording that they pay cash. I think that just shows how intimately involved donald trump was as part of this whole conspiracy, right . He wasnt just somebody who was oh, i dont know what was happening. My lawyers were dealing with it. I dont i dont know that. I think flies in the face of that and actually shows that he was intimately involved. And he was very much part of this group that was coming up with this how to deal with it, and what to do. And the prosecutor, Matthew Colangelos who is the assistant District Attorney, is also alleging the david and presumably were going to see this in a text messages. Tim parlatore starts getting antsy because hes afraid Donald Trumps not going to pay him back. The prosecutor say the jury is going to hear the recording of the call between cohen and trump about this mcdougal payment in september remember 2016. So theyre presenting theyre basically giving a preview of the evidence. Theyre going to say sure. And here, i mean, the flip side of the whole payment in cash piece is it shows that he may make suggestions. He did that with us that the lawyer said, no, were not going to do that. Were going to do it a different way and he and ultimately relies upon what his lawyers yeah. Say. If he says paid in cash and this is where were going to do it this different way. But ultimately, all of that is atmospherics from beforehand, but it doesnt really have anything to do with why were those specific entries made into the books of the Trump Organization and the as elie said before, catch shankill is legal its something that its not even a Campaign Contribution under citizens united, write something is totally legal so whether you put these entries in as legal fees or as confidential settlement both of those at the time were tax deductible, so hes not really getting a tax benefit. And the books of the trump org. Are not becoming public before the election anyway. So even if he writes in the trump or books, payment for hush money to sway the election thats not coming out. So its not going to have any effect on the list. So enlarged coates a prosecutor, assistant District Attorney, Matthew Colangelo is now saying that david, the publisher of these tabloids, eventually told Michael Cohen trumps attorney the deals off and that his companies is going to eat the cost of paying Karen Mcdougal Something Like 100 and 2,030,000. So first of all, you usually pay things isnt cash to avoid having receipts in a paper trail, where here for a falsified Business Records case. Second of all, weve heard this before. Somebody getting antsy about how theyre gonna get reimbursed for the payment. It was Michael Cohen. Right . The reason you have these falsified Business Records allegedly is because he wanted to have some invoice. You wanted to have some way of getting his money back, having paints or made, daniels thats where you had the allegations of invoices for a false retainer and false Legal Services provided. So this is all part of the overall context to shou. This has happened before. Someone else has gotten nancy this time it was cohen and this is what happen when you did not pay back and you falsified so it is i mean, weve heard the argument being made by some people that on the politics of this dana bash this is not going to have an impact. You have both democrats who are convinced of Donald Trumps invincibility and republicans who are convinced that this is all going to be seen as a partisan and which arent thinking this is not going to have an effect, but there are also those who say reminding people of all this lurid behavior is not going to be positive for donald trump one way or the other . No, it look yes, the sort of public bravado by republicans, even, and especially inside the Trump Campaign is that people see through it that they see its a quote unquote witchhunt, which we hear over and over again. The center of his bingo card is jamie said but they dont know what they dont know. None of us does. Because this is unprecedented. And also in large part because the argument that the former president made when he came before the cameras before going into the courtroom, was this is Election Interference because theyre taking me off the Campaign Trail. So far. I mean, were only minutes into this these Opening Statements thats precisely what the argument is, is that he was involved he was interference back in 2016 and theyre sent back to you in new york . Yeah. Jake, thanks very much. The prosecutors in saying that david eventually told Michael Cohen at the deal was off, as jacob said in the ami would eat the cost of paying Karen Mcdougal back here in new york, paula reid and kaitlan collins. Again, we are going to be we believe david is the first witness going to be called. We will likely hear from him today. Yeah theyre setting the stage for this now, as you can see, theyre just talking about the deal with Karen Mcdougal. Now prosecutors are also introducing the story of Stormy Daniels, which comes not only after Karen Mcdougal, but also after sure. The access Hollywood Tape and they argue that the release of the access Hollywood Tape, quote, turn the rest of the president ial campaign entirely upside down. And this is an important piece of the timeline because theyre going to argue that trump had an especially strong incentive to bury the story of his affair in the wake of the access Hollywood Tape, that access Hollywood Tape came out just on the eve of the second debate, which i actually come moderated with against Hillary Clinton now the prosecutor saying that the impact of the campaign was immediate and explosive, that that access Hollywood Tape was like a bombshell going off, then can be two things are important to remember here when were talking about Karen Mcdougal, who was the former playboy model, david, when he was making that payment to her, actually had researched whether or not it would be a camp pain vionnet, Campaign Finance violations for him to pay her and they had looked into that right now, they are getting into the actual access Hollywood Tape. This is important. Prosecutor reads trumps quote from the access Hollywood Tape thing. Those are down trumps words, and thats important conscience texts because the way they handle this, you just heard tim parlatore, a former attorney for donald trump saying well, why was the Stormy Daniels situation different . Stormy daniels is team had approached the pupil at National Enquirer or an ami about buying her story as well. They believe the price was too high and essentially werent interested. But after the access Hollywood Tape came out, which they are reading right now, as were told by our reporters inside the ribose, trump is not reacting at all as they are not playing the actual audio of that tape. The judge ruled that they could not do that, but he did allow prosecutors to read trumps exact quote, exact quote. And thats exactly what prosecutors are doing. When right now. But that that release of that tape changed everything for the Trump Campaign. It also changed how they were handling these stories and it caused Michael Cohen and then to go back to Stormy Daniels and agreed to pay to pay her for this. And so that is why this is important. But i should note that we are being told trump is now whispering to his attorney, is Matthew Colangelos. That is the prosecutor here is reading these quotes from the access Hollywood Tape to prosecutors me now moving into the Stormy Daniels, a fair allegations by saying that another woman had come forward after the access Hollywood Tape came out its important to remember that the drumbeat of this on the eve of the election as the election got closer. Because again, while the from team will say that this was about protecting his family. According the prosecution, this is about interfering in the election. Yeah. Because in the wake of the access Hollywood Tape, there were significant concerns even by some of his closest advisers about what exactly that could do to his chances of winning the election. Now, they say, quote, that woman as adult film star, a porn star named Stormy Daniels setting up the beginning of her story and also framing her, her then occupation. She doesnt always like it when people refer to her as a porn star. But at the time that was what he was doing when she met, then not even candidate then just civilian trump about a decade ago. Just want to Karen Mcdougal alleged a relationship, an actual relationship with donald trump, the one that went on for some time. She said she actually wasnt when is in love with him. She told me in an interview, Michael Cohen then discussed the situation with trump, who was adam and he did not want the story to come out at the prosecutor. And this is important because this is, this is all playing out Access Hollywood comes out in october as we all know, that is when they were suddenly interested again and Stormy Daniels is story, but there was this moment where Stormy Daniels and her team felt like they were kind of being strung along by Michael Cohen and that he actually wasnt going to pay that. He just wanted to get to the election and then move on. That is what prosecutors are arguing right now is theyre talking about trump from and cohen discussing this situation. They did not want the story to come out. And there was essentially a disagreement over how to actually get the pavement done. Michael code was saying, well, i cant do it because of the jewish holidays. I cant do it because trumps out on the Campaign Trail and now what prosecutors are saying there is exactly what i was just noting that cohens hope was to delay the payment until after the election and then ultimately not pay Stormy Daniels at all . Stormy daniels, his team seemed to understand that that was at least their belief of this and she was considering going public in the media, then Michael Cohen said okay, well, im just going to pay at myself and thats when he drew down that home equity line and was able hello, to pay her the 130,000 that trump didnt want to write a check himself to make the hundred and 30,000 payment. So we ask cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the chief Financial Officer with the Trump Organization, to find a way. Prosecutor now says that trumps request cone agreed to use his own money to keep Stormy Daniels quiet. Thats a quote two weeks before the 28 election, we also understand later on, Michael Cohen began to worry that he was not going to get paid back and that became part of the reasoning in fact, the prosecutor saying that it was election fraud, pure and simple. That is what the argument they are making is. And thats the crux of this case that this wasnt just an affair that he was worried his wife would find out about. I mean, i think that Defense Attorneys could also at some point argue that it really wasnt keeping any material carroll information from the general electorate that trump was an adulterer, right . His second wife was his mistress. Instead here what youre have prosecutors focusing on as they say, this was part of a conspiracy to suppress negative stories ahead et of the election. Now were getting more in prosecutor saying well never know and it doesnt matter if this conspiracy move fast. Prosecutor, you will see an evidence in the defendants own war birds, words, making Crystal Clear that he was concerned about the story getting out. Well, and i think what the overarching argument and what is very clear what the prosecutors want the jury to understand is they are tying every single so think back to the election and what it meant for trust chances in the 2016 election from the negative stories ill ted cruz and ben carson and marco rubio to whats happening here. There now noting the prosecutors are that trump invited david to trump tower to trump tower after the election to thank him for his help and suppressing the stories they were brought to the oval office fascinating here is keep in mind david Michael Cohen, adult drunk. None of them speak anymore. These are three people who have known each other for decades. None of them speak anymore. And it kinda just speaks to what this happened with all of this checks that were written to Michael Cohen, part of the reimbursements were actually written. Were actually signed in the white house, sits in the oval. Theres also a meeting where Michael Cohen was there in the Oval Office Meeting with donald trump allegedly to discuss being reimbursed because trump had kind of faltered at the idea of reimbursing. Im saying Michael Cohen has plenty of money before. That is something that its almost guaranteed. Prosecutor theres will ask Michael Cohen about when he takes the stand and again, david expect it to be the first witness. He will be testifying about what occurred in this critical meeting. Really, the start of the campaign. Heres another quick update. Trump invited national query editor daily, dylan howard to the white house. Dylan howard, a Top Executive in the ami organization and its why david is really the ideal witness for prosecutors to kick off their case to lay the groundwork that this was an alleged conspiracy that began years before are a little over a year before the election of this. This was a concerted effort to the protract former president , then candidate john finn and hosted according to the prosecutor, hosted a thank you dinner to thank and ami for their contributions to his campaign. Also, can i just mentioned as far thats also really fascinating and it speaks to this, isnt just testimony, its going to look at text messages, phone records, and they also note the prosecutor is telling the jury right now on election tonight in 2016 as we were getting closer to call him the race for donald trump the lawyer for Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels. His name is keith david said hell be a negative its brought up, texted dylan howard, who is the editor in chief of the National Enquirer and asked, what have we done . Basically saying, well, these two people who are deeply involved in this effort they believe that their efforts helped donald trump get elected, and the prosecutor saying that after the election was time to sort out how trump would reimburse cohen and thats for the problems really begin because the prosecution alleges that in 34 different instance does Business Records were falsified to try to cover up the fact that this was a reimbursement for Hush Money Payment to conceal an affair, and that instead that these were billed as a part of a retainer agreement. So for Michael Cohens Legal Services and Michael Cohen was trumps long time lawyer and consider larry, they will again argue that he was doing legal work for him at that time, but that is the crux of the case. Thats the paper trail that were talking about, how he got that money. Neither trump nor Trump Organization could write a check to cohen with a line item description friction reimbursement for porn star pay off. The Prosecutor Says theyre basically pushing back on what they know trumps team is going to argue which is that this was illegal retainer. These were just legal fees. Theyre saying well, yeah, they had to say that because they couldnt just write this in trumps expenses. That is, there going ahead and you can see what the prosecutors are doing with these arguments is preparing for what they know. Todd blood just going to get up there and say, when he makes his Opening Statement prosecutor saying that they agreed to cook the books. Again the testimony has been that david an ami didnt want to they thought out 130,000 for the Stormy Daniels story. It was too much and they are the ones who informed the Trump Organization, Michael Cohen, about the allegations. And Michael Cohen then took it from there. David is thats why hes going to the first witnesses. Hes the reason they knew about a lot of these negative stories that came out. They were in a lot of negative stories about Hillary Clinton, about his is the other republicans who were running against him another prosecutor is walking the jury 430,000 payment that trump did ultimately make to Michael Cohen. This is important because people may look at that and say, well thats not 130,000. Why is it so expensive . Its because as they were negotiating is theyre just talking about how trump would actually reimburse Michael Cohen wants donald trump had been elected. Michael cohen is worried about the income tax hit that he was going to take her and he also wanted i believe it was 60,000 that Michael Cohen wanted essentially to be paid for his own services here. So thats why it will be a check just for 130,000. Its a larger number because essentially Michael Cohen and his attorney, lady davis arguing that he needed to be paid. That Prosecutor Says the jurors will see that donald trump was a very frugal businessman who believed in pinching pennies. We want to remind people where this information that youre seeing on the side of your screen is coming from. There are no cameras inside the court for this historic trial. So were relying on a team of our colleagues, your three reporters sunlight at the courthouse, who are feeding these live updates to us. So were getting quotes, were getting minutebyminute updates for exactly whats going on inside. Well, in that latest that quote from now, hed collectively prosecutor that trump was a frugal business and theyre saying hes not just paying 130,000, ultimately 430,000 for no reason, trump is not one who likes Department Ways with this money that has always been his reputation but they clearly are trying to establish that for the jury. So that they can understand donald trump is not someone who just pays people six figure figures without knowing exactly where its going. Do we expect Stormy Daniels or Karen Mcdougal tax would testify . Its possible their testimony is not essential in this case. Right . Because theres paperwork that can support the value that they would add Stormy Daniels problem probably more likely than Karen Mcdougal. We know that she spoke with prosecutors in recent weeks, so certainly possible, but not one of the big three witnesses that we absolutely expect will testify who are the other big witnesses . I would say and then you can weigh into but i would say it would probably be david Michael Cohen. Theres another update. Prosecutor says when it came time to pay cohen back, youll see he didnt negotiate the price down. He doubled it and he doubled so they could disguise it as income to which was to your point exactly. That he doesnt part easily with his money and what he was paying Michael Cohen for, why it was that large juror number. When it comes to the witnesses, obviously, weve talked to hear from Michael Cohen. I do think theyll ultimately bring Stormy Daniels up just simply for the nature of the fact that she was directly at the heart of this. But you just as mentioned, that Oval Office Meeting that donald trump had with Michael Cohen, they could also bring trumps scheduler inside the white house, who sat right outside the oval office and coordinated all of his visual who picks as well. Thats what it my number three, because she was involved in his conversations with Michael Cohen in the days following the access Hollywood Tape. So yeah, i think shes probably one of the other most significant people the prosecution needs to tie it story together. All right. We continue to get updates from inside the courthouse has come back to jake. Thanks, andrew sin. So some really interesting points made by the panel up in new york and also by the prosecutor, the assistant District Attorney, when it come to the degree to which donald trump and those involved in the situation seemed to hold a what American Media did were being told the prosecutor has said that trump and cohen and weisselberg agreed that cohen would be paid back in monthly installments by sending fake invoices to the Trump Organization each month. This is part of the alleged conspiracy that paying Michael Cohen back would be purposefully disguise. Thats part of the business fraud that is being alleged here. The actual crimes but two things i want to bring up, allie one is the degree to which theyre saying this was done to help trump get elected and it was acknowledged as that by them, the prosecutor saying through the payments, the defendant intended that nobody learn about the Stormy Daniels payoff. And we have some the two examples we have donald trump mentally the thanking and National Enquirer editor dylan howard, not only thanking them, but actually having them to the white house to thank them, quote, the defendant hosted a thank you dinner to thank. In American Media for their contributions to the campaign. And then also on election night, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, and Karen Mcdougal, both women that donald trump allegedly had encounters with the attorney keith davidson, texting dylan howard, the editor of the National Enquirer, saying, what have we done . Judge merchan closely watching the prosecutor as he is delivering his Opening Statement. So thats powerful evidence for the prosecution. When youre getting inside someones mind, you may not have an example. Youre not going to donald trump on tape saying, i want to do this so we can steal the election. But you can look at conduct like this. Well, why would he have these people over . Why would you have a thank you dinner after he won the election . If not, to acknowledge that they helped him when the election and theres a lot of evidence here flying during the Opening Argument about payments, transactions is important. Some people understand theres essentially two sets of payments and transactions first, shortly before the election, Michael Cohen pays Stormy Daniels 130,000 essentially speaking, Michael Cohen, you will in fact hear a lot about Michael Cohen, prosecutor saying, yeah, Michael Cohen makes the initial payment essentially out of his pocket. He takes a mortgage on his house house, pays or 130,000, and we should just note the prosecutors acknowledging trying to get ahead of the defense saying the defense will go to Great Lengths to get you to reject Michael Cohens testimony precisely because it is so damaged and this is what happens because the prosecutor is trying to pull the sting. They want to tell the jury straight up, this is a guy whos done some bad things. Hes taken he can accountability. Hes accepted responsibility and this is why you should trust him. The second set of transactions is the repayment of Michael Cohen after the election and that is the invoices in the ledger entries in the checks that form the basis for the crime. Now, this is just what you just said, prosecutor acknowledges of the jury will hear that Michael Cohen, like other witnesses, who will testify at trial, has made mistakes in the past. Theres a way of doing this very common. Yeah, and then tim, there, theyre trying to head off at the past. What they know the defense is going to say about Michael Cohen. This is the classic prosecutors strategy when youre dealing with a cooperating witness, i mean, very very rarely do have a cooperating witness who has a clean history the only reason that theyre involved to have information by criminal activities because they were involved in criminal activity, right so this is the regular script of how you deal with softening about before you bring out what brand whos going to be crossexamined on all these things. And i think that it is important youre really this whole case his is gonna be rising and falling on the credibility of somebody like that. One of the interesting things heres he doesnt have a Cooperation Agreement. Michael cohen, like a normal cooperating witness. He when he had the opportunity to get a cooperating Cooperation Agreement with the feds. He had nothing to provide against donald trump or anybody else. And so he didnt get a cooperation room. He went to jail. And then after he got out of jail, after he didnt get a pardon from donald trump. Now hes telling the story. When he had the most motivation to do it before he went to jail . I think that is a theme that the defense is going to really bring out that when he when he could have gotten himself out of jail, he didnt say these things. Its only after he didnt get the pardon he wanted and the prosecutor is telling the jury right now, youre going to need to keep an open mind and carefully evaluate all the evidence that corroborates Michael Cohens testimony. In other words, karen whether or not you believe them there is evidence that backs up what hes saying. Yeah. So legally, because david and Michael Cohen, im sorry to interrupt, but cohens testimony will be backed up by other witnesses and an extensive paper trail, including bank records, phone logs, business documents. So the law requires the prosecutor good or to actually corroborate coconspirator statements. Okay. So david, they said is a coconspirator. Michael cohen is a coconspirator. They have to corroborate them. And in addition to the fact that he also as as ellie pointed out, has pled guilty to lie hi, as well under this 1001 crimes. So theyre going to corroborate every little thing he says so that when inevitably the defense gets up and says you cant believe him, hes a liar, hes a convicted liar. And as tim said, he changed his story. They can say you dont have to. Hes he provided the color. Yeah of the background trump is still sitting back in his chair, were told not reacting most of what the prosecutor is alleging hes passing notes to his attorney, so behaving himself as now, notice, how often youre hearing these three names the same sentence, cohen, weisselberg, and trump. Well, one of these rays, one is on the other, two of them have already had at least convictions, right . And based on behavior that are going to bring up in some capacity here. So this is going to be really a chance for the prosecution. All of their laying out his case quite methodically. Remember, the jurors are going to be taking notes. They now have expectations. Youre telling me im going to see handwritten accounting from Allen Weisselberg. Your time. Im going to see receipts from Michael Cohen. Youre talking im going to have proof somehow think the has done. They now have to match up what they introduced as admissible evidence to what this drawing will do at the very end of the had to come back together the closing and say, i told you i was anti you it was all of these things. Heres why i told you if they fall short, thats reasonable doubt. And heres a fresh photo from a Court Donald Trump eyes open dana bash, paying attention. Whats going on. And like i said, were told that hes not really reacting much any is passing notes to his attorney and then thats what i wanted to focus on. The latest update that we see on our screen that he is trying to stay stoic hes trying to not make frankly, the mistakes that he made in other experiences that he had we just mentioned District Attorney Matthew Colangelo has finished his Opening Statement. Im not exactly sure what the time is, but he said it was gonna be about 45 minutes fuels roughly roughly accurate. Jamie, can i just underscore something that tim said about what this case rises and falls on. To your point to karens point its not going to rise and fall on Michael Cohen because they have all of these other documents im laura earlier today, you were talking about how jurors have to judge things in some ways based on common sense. They look what they listened, the credibility when you have all of these documents, we havent seen them yet, but lanny davis came on cnn last week and talked about that there was going to be all of this blanketing audio recorded audio did of donald trump. Yeah. So we dont know what we dont know yet about that but this is going to go beyond michael, the defense is speaking now, were told and tim parlatore, what can you tell us . About the attorney thats representing donald trump in court . Whats the name of the todd blanche blanche todd blanche is somebody who came in. You have partway through the time that i was representing him, he originally represented borse epstein. I think hes still does todd blanche saying President Trump is innocent. President trump did not commit any crimes i would say the same thing, right . If you hes hes a former doj attorney. Hes been whitecollar defense scenario for awhile hasnt tried many cases in the defense. So this will be interesting to see how he does in this role and elie honig, you know, him. Yeah. So todd, blanche and i worked at the Us Attorneys Office at the same time for five, six years. And alvin bragg southern new york Southern District of new york federal prosecutors across the street. Todd was chiefly he was the chief of the Violent Crimes and gang section. So we get murder, guns, drug type cases. He is very experienced in the courtroom. He knows what hes doing most important thing that you should understand is break that he breaks the mold of what you think of when you think over the last six, eight years of donald Trump Attorneys, this guy is not a Rudy Giuliani. Hes not agenda llc is not a Sidney Powell no offense to you. Tell me you got it exactly . Something you want to of the more professional ones that trumps lawyer, mr. Blank, comes in the middle, so its same. That donald trump is larger than life. But quote, he is also here in this courtroom doing what any of us would do defending himself and what blanche is doing here is reminding the jury, first of all, of the stakes second of all of the burden of proof. Right . They dont have to prove anything. Its all on the other side of the courtroom. Its one of the few luxuries that you have as a defense lawyer. Todd blanche is not going to pass on the podium. Hes gonna be firm, but hes calm and hes a tactician and so is his cocounsel, susan necklace and karen, what your take on this so far this is just the defense you pretty much expected. Absolutely. He came out the fighting. He so hes innocent. Right . Because thats not the not binary choice. The jury doesnt pick guilt or innocence. They pick guilt or not guilty. And todd blanch just noted that theyre going to call mr. Trump, President Trump out of respect because he respect, quote, an a title that he has earned because he was are 45th president. Again, kind of a reminder that this isnt just a regular defendant. Well, youre going to hear the prosecution call him defendant trump, or just the defendants . Yeah. Exactly. Former president was drives him crazy former president s but you were saying that this is pretty much the defense you expected . Yeah. But hes really his coming out and saying hes innocent. Hes saying he had nothing to do at this. He is innocent. Hes not just technically not guilty. Right. And thats the defense sometimes they will say is the prosecutor didnt prove the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and thats more of a technical technical thing. Hes actually emphatically saying hes innocent and thats i think thats really interesting because the jury is going to expect then for him to back that up, show me that hes innocent. So deepen the fever swamps of maga. There are theories that i wont even introduce in our panel here about why Stormy Daniels was paid money and it has to do with someone else being involved with are not donald trump. Are they going to have to introduce a countervailing narrative to back that off. So therell be, there will be an instruction by the judge that says you cant hold anything against the defendant if he chooses not to test two pi, theres already been an instruction In The Beginning where he said that defense doesnt have to present any evidence. So they will say that. But look, jury jurors are human beings and theyre going to say, look, you said you were innocent if i was innocent, i be jumping up and down. I would say that im innocent. I would get on the stand. I had nothing to hide, so i do think that its human nature nature, even though theyre not supposed to want them to back it up. I mean one, when it comes to the pleading of the fifth amendment, he has said that. And so many words about those who are interested would not actually plead that he is not necessary have that moment here. But important to consider the fact that whether there was an actual affair or not does not matter for the purpose of the prosecution whether its true does not matter. What matters is whether he believed it would be a problem to his campaign and thats the followup is going to be concerned here. Remember, one thing the judge said last week is he did not want to have a trial with a trial that includes things which spec to prior bad acts might be litigated, but also that issue. And so the prosecution will focus and you see this issue here that the story the prosecution told is not true. He flees the defense and theyll find plenty of reasonable doubt. Well, if its reasonable doubt with respect to whether the affair occurred, thats not enough to get you under the 34 counts of falsifying Business Records is only if they can have some seed of reasonable doubt to suggest that you didnt actually falsify the records. You didnt have an intent to try to commit some other crime. Brown Campaign Finance thats what matters, not whether there actually was an affair, but he leaning on the reasonable doubt argument, then i would suggest that that they acknowledge and blanches just said that would prosecutors told what appears to be very clean, nice story. It is not it is not simple as the people just described. So hes leaning on the idea that like this nib narrative introduced by the prosecution might sound nice, but theres a lot of reason to doubt it and hes leaning into the idea that like any doubt means you have to find him not guilty, which is the law that is what the jury is supposed to abide by, that if theres any doubt in their mind that the charges against donald trump are not accurate, then they should not convict him. Oh, theres another update. Blanche is now walking through the checks that were cut from Michael Cohen on and 2017 after he became trumps personal attorney . Well, it sounds like theyre trying to well, just show a lot of payments out of payments and how right. I mean, thats the idea. Le like youd look at all these checks that we paid to Michael Cohen. Why would these three . Be fishy . The Trump Attorney, todd blanche is saying the 34 counts. Ladies and gentlemen, are really just pieces of paper. This is part of the branding battle that were seeing here. Trumps team has arguing this is an ancient paperwork violation. We just heard the de argue this is an attempt to steal the 2016 election. The focus will be on those reimbursements that checks the legend your entries that were used by donald trump to repay Michael Cohen. And i think what were going to hear out of the defense team here is Michael Cohen and lls suburbs were the ones who said to set it up that way, donald trump is fairly clueless. In fact, the tape weve been talking about where cohen recorded trump trump just says Something Like well pay cash and colugos. No, no, no. I got it. And so what i think were going to hear out of the defenses, this whole scheme, the setup, checks the reimbursement that came from Michael Cohen and trumps attorney, todd blanche, just saying to the jury, none of this. Anderson cooper, none of this was a crime we expect. Todd blanche is Opening Statement to be shorter. We believed it was supposed to be embedded in the 20minute range. Wheres the prosecution was supposed to be about 40 minutes or so . Yeah, about half the leg and just a reminder that were getting this and hes acknowledged i think by the way, that Stormy Daniels did, in fact sign an nda in october 2016 and exchange for 130,000. And there was an agreement here that she did sign this nda. Hes acknowledging the deal im sure he reminds the jurors that its not a crime to enter into a nondisclosure agreement with anyone now here, i think what youre going to hear is just for a moment. Its ago they were talking about how the prosecution laid out a simple story then argue that this is not simple and complexity is something that they are going to seize on the way this has been charged. These 34 counts each one representing a different documents. And the fact that this has been sort of attached to a federal crime, Election Interference. Theyre going to seize on that. The Defense Attorneys to try to undercut the legitimacy of this case. Theyre going to try to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the jurors and just to remind those are not just about the case itself, but also about some of the the witnesses in this case, particularly Michael Cohen. I mean, they are going to go after the credibility of Michael Cohen. Yeah. And they have a lot to work with their right. He has pleaded guilty to line in the course of this investigation, false statements to congress. He has a pretty long rap sheet when it comes to not only not being honest, but also having a vendetta against former President Trump, right . Hes written two books, one called revenge. She has a podcast, was constantly attacking trump. All of that will be laid bare during his testimony, but these updates are coming from her colleagues inside the courtroom because there are no cameras inside court, so theyre providing us these realtime updates that you see on the side of your screen. The thing about Michael Cohen noted and again to Trump Attorney is saying, ask yourself, would a frugal businessman who pinches pennies, repay 130,000 debt to the tune of 420,000. Hes trying to argue that it wasnt paying Michael Cohen back for the uh, hundred and 30,000 that this was not just a reimbursement that he was paying Michael Cohen for legal fees. Thats been their argument because it was marked as a legal retainer and that of course, Rudy Giuliani and self said at the time that Michael Cohen wasnt doing legal work for trump. The other thing thats interesting about what trumps attorney is trying to do in these in this Opening Argument is you he said hes going to call trump President Trump because he said he held that title. He deserves that honore. But he also said hes just like you. Hes hes husband, hes a businessman. Hes kinda trying to make him more relatable to the jury. I think its going to be a hurdle to describe it as relatable to pay a former onestar hundred and 30,000, but that is clearly what part of what todd blanche is opening tactic here with the jury is going to be is saying that none of this amounts to a crime he was just simply paying him back. And so obviously hes taking what the prosecution was arguing in their Opening Statement, saying that trump was so frugal, he doesnt part with this money easily to say, well, if thats the case, then why would he have given Michael Cohen 300,000 more dollars than what you its also interesting that for them to go after Michael Cohen obviously, they have to do that for their case, but if the argument is Michael Cohen who is sleazy, hes unreliable, hes untrustworthy. This is a person who is at the righthand of donald trump for many, many years who worked very closely. This is the kind of person that donald trump bonded in his orbit. Yeah, thats a flip side of that other side of the argument, which is 400 somewhat thousand dollars that was paid for Legal Services. He was someone that we entrusted to help us navigate legal questions, but on the other side, you cant trust anything he says and he hates trump now now its a complicated story between Michael Carlin and donald trump, and thats something about the prosecution and the defense will have to grapple with in terms of what we should expect today. Again, for viewers, who are just joining us, we do expect david. I mean, it seems like they are moving pretty quickly youve already heard Opening Statements from prosecution. Were now in the Opening Statements from the defense. As soon as this is done, first, witness should be called. Yeah. Prosecutors will go first and questioning that what trump had nothing to do with the invoice as his attorney with the cec being generated or with the entry of the ledger. And that is really going to be what from what . Weve gathered from our sources is going to be the heart of trumps defense, which is one you cant trust Michael Cohen and to Michael Cohen was doing this on his own, that the people who are involved actually making these payments and legend putting these down in the business ledger that was all of the people who worked for donald trump that it wasnt trump himself that was doing that. So theyll emphasize his role as his the attorney. Theyll emphasize Allen Weisselberg role and say they essentially it wasnt trumps knowledge. David, though, the first witness, may very well contradict that, and undermine what this opening or especially their argument theres look down from his running this company. Hes not going to be bothered with whats right. Yeah. But david is going to get on the stand and say yes. And august 2015, there was a meeting between trump, myself, and Michael Cohen and heres what trump said in that meeting. Thats what theyre going to ask him about when she was appointed. David has made a deal. Trumps Attorney Says he specs at Trump Organization accountant to testify at the trial david is has made a deal to avoid prosecution. So previously an ami the company that owned the National Enquirer, they had a nonprofit prosecution agreement with the Justice Department as part of that, Michael Cohen, he was he needed plead guilty he was convicted, but cooperated. So he did not have to plead guilty. Whos not formally charged. So yeah, he has struck a deal for himself and his testimony is part of trump that exactly his cooperation, providing details about exactly what happened in an around the payments specifically to Karen Mcdougal . Well, and the reason its notable that the update their that the attorney is going to testify, the accountant is going to testify. The trial is because shes the one who actually wrote the books. The problem that theyre going to have with that though, is trumps name is on the checks and he signed to these checks. And so as much as they are trying to distance himself from these payments, he did actually sign them and some of them were signed again the white house. And as we know, Michael Donald trump is very reluctant to pay attorneys even when they do actual legal work per weve seen that play out in the last year with Rudy Giuliani, who did go to maralago and begged in trump to help him with his own legal fees. And trump told him no. So there is a moment here where that will be something whether or not thats something that prosecution is able to successfully bring up. Whos talking about it. Youre saying that the reality is mr. Trump is not on the hook, is not criminally responsible for something mr. Cohen may have done years after the fact remains to be seen obviously, what the date will testify to make counter contradict that that it may show david may be able to say right then in that meeting that donald trump talked about this as being something he wanted to stop before the election. Yeah. And this is why david is so critical to pick off the prosecutions case because he will show that this wasnt just a woman who came forward with allegations after the access Hollywood Tape, someone needed to do something. This is all part of a plan and something that they had already done with the least one other woman. And of course, also with this doormat who falsely alleged that trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. They had already paid people to keep quiet about unfavorable attorney saying i have a spoiler alert. Theres nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. Its called democracy. Thats just three argument that theyre going to be trying to push back off id and trying to make her saying that theres nothing wrong with that because its not the trouble is going out and just campaigning and criticizing Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen at the time these are payments that were being made behind closed doors that trump was lying about for months about his knowledge of them. I mean, no one will ever forget who covers the white house when donald trump was on air force one . A reporter who now works the wall street journal asked him, did you know about these payments is 130,000 and he said, no, youll have to ask Michael Cohen course we now have later learned he did no because he signed trucks reimbursing them for it from Attorney Says entering into a nondisclosure agreement is perfectly legally. You will learn the companies do that all the time with something regularity yes. For the companies are not running for the presidency, theyre not subject to federal campaign regulations. So the argument that prosecutors so well make here is that this hush money was done in an effort to help trumps chances in the 2016 election. And that is what makes it different. Thats the question. Course is whether or not theyre going to be successful. And i do think polymyxin good point that that is why david is going to be the fur is expected to be the first witness here to undermine essentially part of what trumps team is arguing in their Opening Statements. They had a pretty good idea of what the prosecution was going to argue. They knew what they were going to essentially say here i should note, obviously, the the Opening Statement for the prosecution went about 46 minutes. Todd blanches is expected to be less than half of that before they actually get into david. But then they will have the chance two crossexamine him and ask him about trumps and attorney said his client quote, fought back to protect his family, his reputation in his brand that is not a crime the state is saying that this was to influence the election. Hes saying this was about protecting his family, his reputation, and his brand, which is essentially the john edwards argument and what his defense was, which was to protect my family. It was not to influence the election. The question is whether or not donald trump will be able, whether trumps defense team will be well to successfully make that argument is they are looking at their stories of Karen Mcdougal, the other allegations because it wasnt just the storming Stormy Daniels story. There are multiple stores for is that are the catch and kill efforts here that david National Enquirer, were going after it also be interesting to the how, how aggressive the trumps attorneys are with david because obviously david knows a lot of the background, a lot of the secrets of donald trump, yeah, got to be careful there. All right. Good. Gently. And hes also someone whos been a big trumps the for a long time. He was a huge fan of from Attorney Says that daniels false allegations of an affair with trump was sinister an attempt to embarrass President Trump to embarrass is family. Lets go back to jake and dz. All right. Anderson, thanks so much. And so trumps attorney, as anderson just pointed out, says that danny Stormy Daniels, false allegation of an affair with trump was quite sinister. And an attempt to embarrass President Trump to embarrass his family. So its interesting here, ally, they dont actually have to disprove that there was an encounter between donald trump and Stormy Daniels but they are seeking to say that the entire story is not true, right . So it doesnt matter whether donald trump and Stormy Daniels was actually had a sexual dalliance in 2006, are not what matters. Is that Stormy Daniels came forward with this and here we see the competing narratives. Were are the only just because the judge just call the lawyers to the bench. Right after trumps attorneys said that the lawyers had negotiated the nondisclosure agreement and payments. So thats interesting and that happens sometimes what usually only predicates. This is something that defense lawyer said raised an objection, either the judge himself or perhaps the de had some objection and usually youre not going to hash out and objection like that in front of the jury because you could be talking about things that wont come in because the prosecutors it in russian sustained. So the prosecutors point stands. Why why would russia can sustain that objection . So he would sustain it if the defendant, the defense lawyer, was getting into argument, meaning taking a fact and then saying, heres what this means, der, youre not supposed to do that in opening. Thats why we dont actually technically call them Opening Arguments. Although the trumps attorney, mr. Blanche, just said there is nothing illegal about entering im going to a nondisclosure agreement periods. So thats argumentative. Right. Because the prosecution argues that while the maybe the Hush Money Payment itself was not illegal, but the way they did this one is illegal. This is about the nda though, right . So the nda, which was what they were paying, Stormy Daniels for, they gave her Michael Cohen gabriel hundred 30,000. That nondisclosure agreement is what she gave them in exchange rate, but also theres awesome reporting though the todd blanche, the setmayer comment to allude the fact that the allegations by daniels was almost to extort President Trump. Thats what led to the sustaining of the objections because it is if the allegations going beyond the scope. Right. And todd blanche, his point is just because they entered into a nondisclosure agreement, doesnt mean that he donald trump did anything wrong or that anything even happened exactly which the jury will have to weigh whether they believe that exactly. And i think what may have caught the judges attention there and the da was the calling it extortion thats going to be very debatable. Thats argument. Thats what and jim trusty is joining us here. I assume mr. Blanche, your former Trump Attorney, mr. Blanches conducting the trial the way that you would expect him to yeah. I mean, i think both sides had to focus on Michael Cohen and the prosecution emphasized heavily that they dont view this as a case that rises or falls on cohens credibility and thats a smart thing. Cohen has demonstrably bad credibility, whether it comes to bias against trump or convictions for lying to Law Enforcement or being a failed cooperator no surprise that todd blanche would then turn around and say this thing is all about Michael Cohen and that his credibility is the key and you cant you cant call it corroboration just because theres a paper trail. What matters is cohens interpretation of President Trumps intent, crime of these agreements. So here we have todd blanche to trumps attorney saying what we also heard from the prosecutor fusion, which is youre going to hear a lot about Michael Cohen. Theyre both both sides are saying that trumps attorney talking about how Michael Cohen wanted a job in the Trump Administration after the 2016 election, didnt get one trying to create the idea in the minds. Of the jurors that this is sour grapes yeah. I mean, look, youve got such a fertile battlefield if you want to go after the credibility of Michael Cohen, i think any any lawyer would salivate at the idea of having a chance to crossexamine them. And some of its bias, some of its comes from sour grapes, some of it comes from the failed relationship that he had with President Trump, but yeah, theyre convictions in a failure as a cooperator big moments in terms of judging him and todd blanche says, unbeknownst to President Trump and all the years that cohen work for him, cohen was also a criminal. Now, this i suspect karen and le is a reference to the thing having to do with the medallion cabs is that is that right . Coming in a lot of things. Let me Michael Cohen and ended up in admitting to the bank fraud multimillion dollar theres relating to he used to be a lawyer that dealt with cab medallions in new york city. He pled guilty to 4 million worth of tax fraud. But whats interesting and where this is going to get really contentious, this allegation by todd blanche is how about the crimes relating to this the Campaign Finance that Michael Cohen pled guilty to how about the lying to congress about Donald Trumps effort to build in moscow, Michael Cohen and the prosecution are going to say he did that width and four and at the direction of donald trump, it sounds like trumps saying, well, he got duped by his own lawyer for the jury. Can mr. Blends could saying just now, karen, that Michael Cohen is, quote, convicted perjurer, which weve already discussed thats the earlier about his his lying to congress and it admitted liar and in 2018, he got caught. So karen, what theyre trying to do here, the Trump Lawyers are saying oh, my god, donald trump had no idea that Michael Cohen was such a bad actor. And its not just stuff related to things he did for donald trump, which which is the lying to congress and such, but also things he was doing that donald trump didnt know anything about trumps attorney saying that cohen is obsessed with President Trump, even to this day, noting that Michael Cohen has a podcast and does other political commentary, especially on msnbc, criticizing donald trump. Yes. So youre getting a preview, if you will. Its almost like an argument. Whats he saying . I expect the evidence will show and hes giving his arguments in the Opening Statement. And thats how hes doing it, right . Hes saying i expect that through my crossexamination of Michael Cohen, you are going to see that hes obsessed with President Trump, even to this day. Write noting his, his podcast, et cetera. And thats how thats how todd blanche is going to do it. I think youre going to see a very vigorous crossexamination of Michael Cohen. And this is, this is why the prosecution said, dont youre not only going to have to rely on Michael Cohen, theres also going to be evidenced that backs up everything he says trumps attorneys reading the jury opposed from cohen last night calling up a despicable human being and saying he wants to see him i the things cut off there so i can rate a bit. He wants to see accountability. I manager. Well, this is exactly why they want to have the argument, dont just take our word for it or his word for it corroborated mission will be key for any rehabilitation of credibility. Its also really be key for the actual jurors to see it for themselves to line it up. What was the work that you invoice for . What was the work that was or was not done wheres the check . How do i have the receipts is all part of these things the jury needs to have things said to them multiple times. I mean, the idea, repetition is why sermons work, right . Why a great speeches work. You want to have it drilled into the actual minds of the jurors that this happened again and again, again, which is why you show the pattern of behavior as well. This is not a oneoff, it is a pattern and it happened. So the lawyer has been called to the bench because the District Attorney, the prosecutor, objected to to statements from trumps lawyers, from todd blanche about Michael Cohen lying. Judge merchan sustained the objections. I guess karen, you were suggesting that you found you were founding it argumentative bit what they were saying. And i get it sounds like judge merchan agrees exactly. Save it for your summation. Save it. Looks see if the evidence does show these things right. Because because there are rules about what hes supposed to happen in the Opening Argument. The opening is just supposed to be a preview of what they expect the evidence to show. Youre not supposed to make arguments and traditionally, lawyers dont typically object during openings are summations. You kind of sit back and let them make their argument unless something is really egregious. So the fact that weve seen a bunch of a bunch of nih think worth three objections so far from the das office in a 20 minute opening. Thats a lot. You could see tensions are already high in that courtroom. Damage is done by the way. The jury is hearing parts of these statements that are being made. And of course, you can have the objections happen, but this Defense Council is well aware of the fact that although his words are not evidence since they are probably landing in ways that are making people think maha, why are they objecting . What dont they want me to hear and what about Michael Cohen . So jim, do you do are you surprised at either the degree to which the District Attorneys objecting to comments that the defense is making in their Opening Statement, or are you surprised by . Them get going up to the line in terms of how argumentative the Defense Attorney is or both. And more and more of the former. I mean, i do think its just kind of an unwritten rule that unless it really hurts you, you dont object during the other side doping statement, and everyone knows Opening Statement, you try to pack in words that are at least argumentative words or phrases even if its not truly argument but luck. I mean, hes landing blows against the really easy target. Attorney convicted of dishonesty. Thats a huge starting point and any Criminal Trial, trumps attorney right now, continuing his his Opening Statement, i agree with what jim saying. It is rare to object during the other sites opening. I dont know that i ever get it because you want to look calm in front of the jury. You want to look on both other, but i think whats happening here is both the da and the judge want to establish discipline early. They dont want it. Once you start letting things slide, even if theyre small technical violations, you might otherwise overlook. I think they want to snuff it out right . And beginning here yeah. And theyre being sustained. The judges agree. Remember, this isnt this has a judge, first of all, go back a little bit. This the same judge who trump had been criticizing for how long that people wondered whether or not it would serve him to his benefit or detriment if you continue to do so, this, judge is probably not thinking about those personal attacks on himself or his daughter. Hes already thinking about the idea of i have to control my courtroom. I have to make people know that you have even had cohen on the stand yet, you have to actually impeach him with these other information. You cant just get ahead of the cart and say, all right, jury, this is enough. You have to prove it during the trial. So trumps attorney, mr. Blanche is telling the jury that they will learn then Michael Cohen, quote, has pled guilty to lying under oath. We talked about that earlier. Uh, dan and thats a reference of course to Michael Cohen saying to congress that he only talked with donald trump about three times about the illfated moscow trump tower plan when actually the real time was about ten. He later theyre admitted that and pleaded guilty to this violation of not telling the truth to a body of government. Yeah and then has since on that and other issues said that, well, he was again, still trying to protect donald trump, but its its an early reminder and its signal, how critical Michael Cohen is going to be. Two this right off the bat, you are seeing the prosecution layout his involvement and say youre going to not just hear what he said, but youre going to see what he did youre going to see the documents and immediately the defense saying that he is absolutely not the person you should rely on. Another update, cohens quote, entire financial livelihood depends on President Trumps destruction thats the Defense Attorney. And saying it is actually true that what Michael Cohen is doing now to make money is podcast and other. And todd blanche, trumps attorney saying the jury, they cant make a serious decision about donald trump based on cohens testimony. And so far in the Opening Statement uh, by the defense, jaime gan go todd blanche is basically said Michael Cohen has sour grapes because he wasnt pick to join the Trump Administration in 2016 that Michael Cohen was a criminal unbeknownst to donald trump, who had no idea he would engage in such devious activities and third, that his entire financial responsibility right now every, has everything to gain by destroying donald trump. Thats where his podcast is. Thats where thats why hes called to go on msnbc, et cetera, because of his opposition to trump, i would add one more thing. Michael cohen went to jail in this case that was not pleasant. Im not saying that this is revenge. Two things can be true at the same time. He can tell the truth when he gets on the stand. But he is is hes not happy with donald trump. I do want to say one thing, and this is really for the lawyers. Sometimes you havent you youve all talked about having a witness that you have to rehabilitate when they get on the stand . I think its also true that Michael Cohen, along with the documents, but just his personality, he may actually be a very good witness especially with these jurors i mean, wait and see, but its so he communicates with blanche just said that Stormy Daniels has made a life of her story, even though she wants publicly denied in a fair in writing. So what we have here, laura is once again, theyre trying to go after the witnesses against donald trump, which is what any Defense Attorney would do. Youre going to hear negative things from Stormy Daniels. Shes made her whole career off of this. Youre going to hear negative things about donald trump from Michael Cohen. Hes also making his whole career out of this. What will be interesting, what, what they say about david. But walk us through the objections that the District Attorney has made, although i wanted just like leading up to the 2016 election, trumps attorney said for me. Daniel saw her chance again, the idea that she this was all just a predator name, Stormy Daniels going after innocent donald trump. Now, keep in mind, of course, that again, the allegation of the affair is what theyre focusing on in the fallout from it did lead to the payment by looking at the objections, just taking notes on it you just mentioned three key players here. One was Stormy Daniels, one just to interrupt, sorry todd blanche, noting that Stormy Daniels owes trump about 600,000 as a result of her failed legal attempts against him is anywhere anyone here want to give us an update on what thats about, jim, are you are you are wellversed in the 600,000 Stormy Daniels donald trump. I know. I thought it might have been like a defamation related. If i remember correctly, but i got tell you. I mean, you just said any Defense Attorney would do this thing i would been much more subtle about any criticism of Stormy Daniels really. Yeah. I dont think thats the battleground you want you dont want to start looking like youre just attacking everybody thats going to show up, including i think. You say, look, ndas are not illegal. This is a Political Campaign led by Michael Cohen, whos still on tv every night. Yeah. And you keep all Michael Cohen, you have the focus entirely cohen. And if you might Say Something subtle like youre going to learn there are some motivations that would make Stormy Daniels a suspect witness to, but you dont you dont delve into fighting the women that are part of this is it doesnt matter. Todd blanche obviously, launching a much more aggressive assault and he just said to the jury that Stormy Daniels, quote, has no idea about the Business Records at issue in this case, and he said Stormy Daniels testimony ill salacious does not matter. Anderson jake, thanks very much. Back here with kaitlan collins. Paula reid in new york just to pick up on that, going after Stormy Daniels. Heres another update. Its not a scheme unless a scheme means something that doesnt matter. Thats not illegal. Blanche says of the catch and kill agreement with and there is nothing illegal about the caching killer so agreement as sleazy as it may be, exactly the argument way this case to be framed by the prosecution is that this was an effort to help trumps chances of taking the white house and they alleged the documents were falsified to cover up what this really was in an effort to help his chances in 2016. And that is the crime. So here you see Defense Attorneys reminding people what we know, what we said on air which has again, at a fair, not a crime, a Hush Money Payments, ndas not crimes also, as our colleagues were noting, in dc, going after Stormy Daniels isnt interesting thank packed here. And the Defense Attorney is saying tell us the jury to listen to david is testimony. He is the head of ami, which owned the national its not inquire. Listened to david testimony over the next couple of days encouraging the jurors to listen to motivation to sell magnets is making very clear where hell go david, when they have the chance to crossexamine him. One thing he when he was talking about Stormy Daniels, it seems very clear trumps legal team does expect Stormy Daniels to testify. Thats what i read thats what my analysis is of what todd blanche was saying. Theyre saying that maybe its going to be salacious, but it doesnt ultimately matter. Your because she doesnt know about the heart of the allegations here, which is about how these payments were categorized in Donald Trumps records and his financial records here that is something thats notable, but saying to listen to what testimony was for selling magazines, i mean, anyone whos ever picked up a copy of the National Enquirer would know that its interesting though, to kinda turn david against that because for decades donald trump used david to his advantage. I mean, this was not just about the campaign. This was a relationship that dates get back to when he ran the trump style magazine before he got to National Enquirer, but he was at National Enquirer or when the apprentice became a Popular Television show. And that is when women and their stories of donald trump started coming forward and the defense is now finished Opening Statements. So this is again, a critical juncture. Were going to get quick break. 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The first witness is doing on the stand half the court comes back from a brief recess. Were backward paula reid and kaitlan collins. Question is, will there will the witness actually be called because there we learned earlier today that theyre going to stop at 12 30 because one of the jurors has a Dentist Appointment again, i just find amazing i agree with you completely. One of the alternatives has a Dentist Appointment. We were its an alternative. Yes, its an alternative. An alternate juror. But who has to be there and the juror notice the dej rather noted, we want all our alternate. Right. We want everybody to do it. They have to do and return here, do this incredibly important task. They were only supposed to go today until two because of passover, but now theyre only going to 12, 30. So that gives us 30 minutes, potentially to hear from the first witness. Is expected to be david so its unclear if the judge is going to be lecture brigham in swear amid lets get started, or at lets just wrap and start clean tomorrow again tomorrow. Court also starts late because if former President Trump, theyre going to assess whether he has violated a gag order its in place here. But i think its important to remind everyone who we may be about to hear from and who is going to be this first witness because david is not a household name for a lot of people, but hes someone who is known donald trump for decades. You saw the prosecution start their Opening Statement by reference seeing david and the meeting that he had an august 2015 when donald trump became a republican president ial candidate and the efforts that he went to help trump, with that campaign, whether it was what were talking about, thats at the heart of this or publishing embarrassing stories about trumps political opponents, the other republicans who are also running for the nomination, we saw, we saw negative stories the National Inquiry about ted cruz, about ben carson. Ted cruz had to come out and publicly address it because its the allegations were so ugly and obviously, a lot of negative stories about Hillary Clinton during the course of the campaign. The reason theyre bringing him, and he is expected to be the first witness will see if you actually gets sworn in today. Is because of the meetings though that he had with donald trump about suppressing negative stories. A lot of the names that were hearing today, Karen Mcdougal Stormy Daniels, been dormant and which was an unfounded accusation, was because david found out about it first and told Michael Cohen and donald trump, i wouldnt bring in former trump adviser david urban davidai. Understand you saw Melania Trump this weekend. She made her first solo appearance in a very long time at a it was a log cabin republican savannah maralago. How did she see anderson . She was completely upbeat very professional, unfazed you know. Nothing else was going on in the world other than that event shes not bill been in court with her husband. Obviously, the trial, its a affair that he had with a porn star. She stayed very far away do you have any sense of what she thinks of this case, which was far more personal than any of the others. Hes facing anderson, my general sense of this, how i think a lot of people feel who are close to the president and feel strong about him. Look, she obviously in my opinion, i didnt discuss this with their but i think she thinks its probably feels this is outrageous. This case is outrageous, is an old case that the department of justice took a pass on that alvin bragg, who is a District Attorney who ran saying that im the best suited person to take on donald trump and take him out and he was elected as a basis of his platform. I think that generate sympathy for the former former president amongst people who dont even like him. Ive heard some people say, listen, im not i wasnt in voted for trump. Now im consider voting for the guy because all this law faris he going on, it really i think is backfired, asserting stent in the political and the political realm, not dogging illegal. I have no doubt that this jury in new york is going to find him guilty. And therell be an appeal at some point. But in the political realm, i think the case maybe backfired because its creating a sympathetic character and donald trump one of the threads that came out in Opening Statements this morning was motive that trump feared that if the Stormy Daniels story came out right after the access Hollywood Tape that could have been incredibly damaging to his campaigns. So thats why he arranged the payoff. I mean, do you think Stormy Daniels story would have been very damaging . The anderson i can tell you that i was on i was there. Okay. I was i got the receipts. I was there. I was on the campaign during that the access Hollywood Tape, when it was revealed on that, i think either friday or saturday night, and i believe i have to go back and check the records. I believe i had the first public event with president so if no candidate trump at the time and amperage pennsylvania and nobody cared nobody cared about at that point in time. And i think that any followon or subsequent stories that negative stories about potential are alleged. Pecco delos. I dont think wed had an impact if that access Hollywood Tape didnt have an impact . Dont think any Stormy Daniels story would have had any impact either. So that narrative i think is a little weak if you go back and look at the history you dont think i mean, its certainly had an impact. Plenty of people seem to care. Youre saying that people at the event you were at didnt. But i mean, theres certainly was a lot of there wasnt their concern within the campaign, werent there are people within the campaign who were concerned anderson . Absolutely so when when the tape came out, a great deal of concern, right. But as the days went on and the weeks went on, you saw that people didnt they werent they werent electing donald trump to be their pastor they werent electric donald trump to be there. Theyre moral shaman. They wanted to be president and they thought that, you know, if it did occur, that it was something that happens is in locker rooms across america as the former president said. So, yeah, it did have an impact, but not to the extent that i think that this case is going to try to make can see my get an impact that trumps the Trump Campaign. One of toppled over with one, one more bad news story. A week or two later david urban david, kentucky. And thank you very much were just so donald walking back into the courtroom here with a paula reid kaitlan collins, that was the argument that down trump made that they sort of ended up on, which is this was locker room talk about the access Hollywood Tape and thats sort of the line that they embraced. It was a moment of complete crisis when this tape came out. I mean, the idea, yes. Now, theyll say you know, when something happens. Oh, well, it kipp is bad as access. Hello, but the fact that they survived and lived through that its kind of gallows humor among trump, aide who were there at that time. Also, theres evidence and documents to back us up where hope hicks, Michael Cohen, others were talking about this. I mean, that tape came out when they were in the middle of debate prep. It is lowered. It came out on the front. I mean, i remember i did the debate on sunday we were doing debate prep friday is when the tape came out. I mean, it was a bombshell. Trumps fraud, hoovers that he was going to drop out and brought the clinton and the bill Clinton Accusers to the debate. I mean, it was, it was a Pivotal Moment in the campaign and it also is a Pivotal Moment that ties back to stormy we, daniels, because as we were saying earlier, initially, she came forward with her demand for 130,000 to not tell her story publicly, and they believed it was too high after Access Hollywood, that changed and she was paid the 130,000. So that itself speaks to the impact that this had on the campaign. Also for Melania Trump, i will say the reason that this case is so personal for donald trump is because as this was becoming a public store in the nature of these allegations would trump denies to this day were coming out it deeply disrupted his relationship with the former first lady and you have not seen her accompany him to court at any moment during this trial . She is out on the Campaign Trail shoes at that fundraiser over the weekend. It is a deeply personal story and its one of the most sensitive for donald trump. Because of how it affects his relationship with malonic jurys back in the courtroom, polar and david has just been called to the stand, so well see what he has to say as he takes the stand. Only have about 25 minutes here before court is expected to rap, but i completely agree with if caitlin i mean, the idea that the access Hollywood Tape was just a blip for the campaign. Now, with the benefit of hindsight hindsight you can see that even some of his closest allies that was almost a breaking point for them. Now, lets talk about who david is, right . Weve heard a lot about him its morning, but he was a publisher of the National Enquirer leading up to the 2016 election. And i would expect the prosecutors will start their questioning the same way they started their Opening Statement. Theyre going to take it back to 2015. They could even take it earlier to really set the stage for the relationship. This close ally ship between and trump. And then theyre going to walk through their theory of the case and how david packers understanding right of this effort to help china can help their case. And david, we should note, has now been sworn in. He was to donald trump they dont speak to Michael Cohen, the three men who were at the heart of this meeting that the prosecution is going to talk about. None of them are speaking anymore and its just its its speaks to the relationship that these are two people. Trump had a decadeslong relationship with. And now none of the three of them speaking and were going to hear in detail about this meeting. But what an extraordinary idea that they would have even had this meeting, which is essentially david, how can we help you . Become elected president . Packer walked behind trumps cero, did not look at him as he walked slowly to the witness box. This is these are notes from our team of three we have in the courthouse in the courtroom sending out information minute secondbysecond as it happens, were reading them out to you. You see them on the lefthand side of your screen . I mean, this is really the idea that they called him as the first witness shows his importance, the importance of this meeting that was held at trump tower. Im just as someone who is covered donald trump since his rise on the Campaign Trail. Two, for it to culminate in this moment where someone that he once was in meetings discussing sensitive allegations that were being made against tim, true or false, depending of course, on who youre asking here. That is culminating with david taking the Witness Stand and donald trump at the defendants table from looked up michael bye these are two men who have not spoken since all of this became public, since all of this happened, and since david, who is, as we were noting earlier, is not someone who can and be charged in this case that he can reveal such information about direct conversations with donald measure what must be going through the mind of donald trump. Im, this is a man who he has had a decadeslong relationship with. Josh steinglass this is questioning for the prosecution. Decadeslong relationship with was the keeper of many secrets, on trumps stop the magazine. It was literally called trump style. I mean, these were lets do people who were just to look at the arc of this relationship that is culminating in this moment is remarkable. And the importance of david not only to establish that there was a pattern of trying apologizes about his first question, which is to david how old are you as a tough one, but you gotta do it. These are all the customary questions that you ask. I believe hes 72 but not only is it important for david two salish is a witness that this was a pattern, but also that trump knew because when we heard about that and the defense Opening Statements, a few moments ago, they kept emphasizing trump had no idea of a paperwork how these things were being being handled. This is really important that trump understands that money is being exchanged to suppress negative stories. And picker says he is, in fact 72 its done glycine now walking through background, including these marriages, occasional background and his work as a consultant. Thats important to keep in mind here as we are getting hearing the initial questions that prosecutors are asking david is this is not someone who is seen as a hostile witness against trump he is someone who went to trump we trying to help his campaign. He published it borderline insane, cover stories about Hillary Clinton when she was on the Campaign Trail. This is someone who actively wanted donald trump to be president and to help get him into the white house, who was treated two lunches at the white get else and tours at the white house including of the lincoln bedroom in the early days of the trump presidency. So hes not someone who initially just turned on trump or didnt want him to but to have Higher Office from one was briefly interrupted by judge merchan to get the jurors note pads, and pens. Yeah. The the juror is obviously want to be able to take notes of what theyre going to be hearing from david. But as the judge was saying earlier to the jury, when he was instructing them, dont rely on your notes as a transcript, you can have a transcript of what the witness says, but your notes shouldnt being considered that as youre as youre listening to all of this the question of course, is how long the prosecution is going to question david four, because obviously after that, trumps team will then have the opportunity to get up and the question is how they will cry crossexamined him. We know what theyll do with Michael Cohen exists expected Stormy Daniels is a big question, but with david, this is someone who had an intimate friendship with donald trump for decades and did not have an acrimonious relationship with him until now. It will also be interesting to see how much they tried to establish the friendship that, that existed between the two to kind of give a sense of motivation for the jury. Yeah. And the fact that david was not directly involved in this Stormy Daniels payment after he its cohen that shes interested in selling her behalf. The jurors had raised their hands when asked by judge merchan if they wanted writing materials makes sense or not all jurors necessarily want to take notes, but if they if they want to, theyre able to exactly. I mean, like you said earlier and caitlin pointed out the notes help you, but theyre not what you base your digit on, but also just the moment when were talking about how they are establishing that friendship. This speaks to what were talking earlier, which is donald trump has to sit there and listen to all of these witnesses this has come forward. He cant interject at any moment. Maybe hell make facial expressions or whisper or write notes to his attorneys, but he cant comment push back on what they are saying. Which is so its a reflex for donald trump to be able to do that. And in this moment and in this trial, that will not be an opportunity that is afforded to him while hes sitting there at the defendants table, hell be listening to david give his account of that august 2015 meeting and of his relationship with donald trump and what that looks like. Yeah. Jake, what long string . Paines relationship these two men have had and now they are staring at each other across a defense table while david is testifying. Thats right. How unusual and it was nine years ago in August Of 2015, the david allegedly sat down with trump and some of trumps aides to talk about how the National Enquirer the tabloid media empire ami, could help donald trump and his rais for president in right now, steinglass, Josh Steinglass, the assistant District Attorney, is having david walk through ami and what kind of publications has and as kaitlan noted earlier, one of those erstwhile publications was trump style. This is a long time relationship and is looking at the prosecutors and toward the jury as he answers questions, he does not appear to have made eye contact directly with donald trump yet, although were told donald trump is looking right at him as he testifies and jim, with the understanding that im going to rudely interrupt you to bring the playbyplay. You say that it makes sense to bring david out now, even though theres only about 20 minutes left before they adjourn because because one of the alternate jurors has a Dentist Appointment. I was prosecuted for 27 years. Youd run into these scheduling moments of where are we going to end the de you want to end strong everyday, particularly friday afternoons . So you coordinate your questioning in a way where it lands on a strong point and thats it. This is not enough time to allow for any crossexamination realistically. So youre not going to face the problem of a straddled cross where they start across and then have overnight to regroup and do more. But you do have an opportunity to end with some strong point whether thats a sign check or some sort of communication between him and him and President Trump. Well find out, but id expect right at the buzzer, theyll come up with something thats kinda catch it. Yeah, david says he was chairman and president and ceo of ami, the tabloid enterprise and had a 10 ownership stake in the countrys laura coates as were preparing david to only speak for maybe i dont know, 15, 20 minutes more. How would the prosecution and strong as jim trusty suggests, they probably want to do what whats, whats the sought to leave the jury width before they adjourn and recall they can still go tomorrow or the neck or the moment they want to end strongly want to give him some credibility. They want to suggest that he is somebody who is not an unseemly character, although his publications may have not been what people consider to be high brow, that he had a relationship with donald trump and knew what he wanted and that they had given take and that he wants to show that there were some level of ownership over his ability to catch and kill stories. This is now going chronological. He wants to do they want to show that this person there was a history of this behavior thats why we angels that payment was not a oneoff. This creates that foundational aspect jake, the fact prosecutors have chosen to call david first tells me that they have confidence in him you want to start off as a prosecutor with someone who you believe is going to make an impact would also be safe. And thats why you would never start, for example, with Michael Cohen. Im sure the defense has a vigorous cross ready for him. But this is a sign of confidence by the prosecutors and the way theyve ordered these witnesses, it is a big witness and he has immunity. And karen theyre walking you through right now through basic biographical details. The jury, as we covered during jury selection during voir dire these are this is a group of people that hasnt really kept up on the news. Theyre not really super up on who any of these people are especially david, arguably the least wellknown of the three major witnesses. David just told the prosecutor, yes, i had the final say on the celebrity sayyed of the magazines going into the details. So what what is the point of what the prosecutions are doing here . Just establishing the power and the influence this man had absolutely. I mean, this is where the rubber meets the road, right . This is where this is the evidence saying, by the way, sorry to interrupt. We used checkbook journalism, meaning we pay sources, which is not what journalists, traditional journalists do. You dont pay sources. And thats people wonder why the National Enquirer is able to break all these stories having to do with john edwards or celebrities, they pay sources, they pay nurses, they pay policemen. They do all sorts of checkbook journalism, sorry. Yes. So this is this is evidence wright, at the opening. Statements are not evidence. Jury selection is just that this is the first thing we are seeing that is actually now evidence of the crime. And so the prosecutor is using david to set the stage and just note that david is just talking about the checkbook journalism they practice if it was more than 10,000, you would have to sign off on it. The only thing that was important was the cover of a magazine. Said when asked if he had editorial say, the two things that hes establishing, one his employees could pay for stories or sources or whatever. But if it was over 10,000, david needed to be brought in and two, in terms of whats in the magazine, all that matters to him is the cover and what the prosecution with what Josh Steinglass is doing here. Josh steinglass is a very, very seasoned trial experience, trial attorney. Hes hes one of the best in manhattan das office. What hes doing here is he knows how intimidating it must be for david to be having donald trump glare, glare at him from across the courtroom and lyrid him. Hes trying to get them comfortable, is having them talk about things that arent going to be difficult, get him comfortable in front of the jury, comfortable in front of trump, comfortable answering questions. So he hasnt asked him any difficult questions yet. And so you wont see that until he gets some use to speaking and used to used to talking here. Yeah. Because theyre not embarrassed that they practice checkbook journalism. Jaime can go, this is what they do. Thats how they make their money. Thats why people hello by the magazines at the checkout counter i im watching to see trumps behavior now, Opening Statements, he behaved himself straightforward. Pass some notes. Now someone he knows very well is on the stamp. I dont know if in the next 20 minutes theyre going to get to something thats rough for trump. But you can imagine the jurors are looking at david, but you can do two things at the same time. Theyre also going to be glancing to see how donald trump reacts. David was a person who had a classic transactional relationship with donald trump way earlier than when he ran for office. Who as a celebrity in new york, as somebody who then went nationally when he was on the apprentice, is walking through editor meetings for the jury explaining how they would look at the cover of magazines so to your point, clearly trying to make them comfortable, but jaime, the whole notion of saying these things being asked, these things trump sitting not far away. As somebody who has been at the defense table, so to speak with donald trump how do you keep them calm why dont you can call them internally thats what luck. Theres no theres nothing thats been out here on these reports yet about glaring are leering at the witness. Right . Thats thanks. So far. Gratuitous characterization. But what i would say is look any defendant, any kind of executive defendant who was so used to having control over their life, their business, their their daily existence is about giving orders to people. Its always a challenge for them to suddenly be told. You gotta be quiet. You have to be respectful. Theres lawyers are going to do this stuff for you theyre going. To be the ones that do the argument. The judge has to be respected. I think the difference here between anything else that weve seen with President Trump in court is that probably there has been a speech to him about if you alienate the jurors, you have only yourself to blame. Like its one thing to be outside talking about the motivations of this prosecution hello, angelo comes from dc to suddenly parachute in and revive this misdemeanor case. All of the things you could talk about about procedural fouls fall out the window because youre in trial. So you have to basically say do not alienate those 12 people because all we need is one of them. And if you act like youre impatient or disrespectful of the process its going to be twisted into them taking. So david was just just asked to give the last four digits of multiple cell and office phone numbers. He laughed when he was asked to do so. He confused one, but he was proud. He remembered another, i guess this is just to show that how handson he was he was involved in specific its also im sorry, jamie. I just wanted to ask this isnt a quiz with someone like donald trump though. Are you reminding him of that every single day before you go into court about being shot of the jury. But its actually not just limited to him, but yes youve got a lot of people that are going to have very strong opinions. Its times ten. Theres a whole political lane here thats different than any other prosecution i get all that. So yeah, youd be like, hey have your spokespeople do their thing, but keep in mind we need these 12 people to realize your respect on the phone number topic. I think theyre also trying to lay a foundation because theyre going to have phone records that look like your phone bill, that list numbers, prosecutors going to go in and want to be able to say thats so and sos number we have an interesting proxy by to interrupt for one sex at trumps attorney, todd blanche is laughing at the routine as Josh Steinglass and david are going back and forth and josh just saying, this isnt a quiz, but you know what this number is. Do you know what that number is . And david is laughing. Trump is sitting forward facing appearing to watch the whole crossexamination saying he had to email addresses one for general work and a private one for emails. I didnt want my assistant to say, well, thats interesting. Im sure that jury has now i saying, well, i cant wait to see the emails from the latter one, the secret email account. And by the way, this happens, there are light moments in core and as a lawyer or a party, you want to be human. You dont want to be an automaton, you dont want to be angry. So something funny happens, have a laugh. No big deal. Yeah, there we get. Says he used the more restrictive email for sensitive matters. Im sure theyve wet the jurys appetite for those. You also want think about it. I mean, we talked a little bit with the cover of the magazines, but thats really important here because this is somebody whos expertise really fell in that he knew what was going to capture the attention of a nation. He knew what was going to make people lean in and pick up that magazine he also conversed. He would know which would make people not pick it up. And what he had to kill an order to not have the attention directed people. He didnt want to have a jerry i could see him. So keep in mind that foundation for this expert in this particularly witness, not expert in terms of a legal term of art, in terms of expertise, but his particular expertise here is in knowing what this person on the screen have wanted to be on the cover and certainly around the time of a president ial election a Hush Money Payment would have been there. So david here saying that he used this private email account, the more restrictive email that is assistant didnt get to see for sensitive matters in the context here is important, karen, because were dealing with a tabloid publisher everything is a sensitive matter so to be a sensitive matter in his world is super, super sensitive because basically hes dealing with airing the dirty laundry of all sorts of famous or semi famous people. Steinglass, the assistant District Attorney, is now asking david about dylan howard, who was the editor in chief of the National Enquirer at the time, dylan reported directly to me packer says hes clearly using david to set the stage for other evidence thats coming in. And so hes having him tell the story. What are the email addresses . What are the last four digits of certain numbers . Who is dylan howard . Hes, hes setting the table with information and with witnesses and evidence that is clearly going to be come relevant later. Is this jim trusty, when you said that what hes doing right now, having david testified, even though theres only a roughly eight more minutes left before they adjourned for the day. Is this what you thought that they would be doing to just establish the credibility of this coconspirator according to them. Yeah. You get him comfortable on the very interested in what . Whats coming next. You set the stage. And frankly, i think you get to like 12, 30. You look at the judge. If the judge is doing this, then then you show one splashy email that involves President Trump. You want to leave them with something thats kind of sexy for overnight. And knowing hes not getting crossexamined for awhile. First rule of showbiz leave them wanting more. Yeah, i think so were dealing with. The enquirer or god knows, what else is in that secret email account, maybe bigfoot sightings and ufo stuff, but probably take one of those sensitive emails splashed across the screen, let them go home to that. So what is the significance of dylan howard, the editor of the National Enquirer. So he was right hand essentially he was out there executing some of these agreements, finding these stories, arranging the deals, and its really important remember, the jury knows nothing. You have to assume the jury knows nothing. They may vaguely be aware of some of the big names, but you have to start from square one and you have to establish what are the key documents here and what are the key relationships who reported to who, who had what kind of relationship with who dylan howard thats going to become an important player sort of under david. We just heard about that. Weve heard about his very name right in the Opening Statements and suggests that the two of them, dylan and the saying, what have we done in reaction to the actual election of donald trump . And when asked david, confirms that dylan howard ran the network of sources for the entire tablet but empire ami, his job was to maintain and cultivate relationships with potential sources. So again, dana bash not only establishing david is credibility, but also dylan howard when it came to juicy stories, the assistant District Attorney, Josh Steinglass asks, did dylan howard run those decisions by packer . Yes, he did. Says so establishing dylan howard is the guy running stuff. But if its over 10,000 or really juicy, david was involved heres . How, can you imagine that being your job no nobody here can yeah. Theyre establishing the david it is somebody who is the most credible when it comes to having knowledge and having the ability to carry out not only the catch and kill, but also to to be involved in the quote, unquote scheme that the prosecution is laying out, that the former president , along with Michael Cohen and falsified his Business Records so david saying that he and dylan howard oh, no longer in contact. All this information on the left side of your screen that were reading to you as we get it is coming from our reporters inside the courtroom as it happens is contemporaneous as possible, and we should remind people jaime ganga, what we know of dylan howard and david is work when it comes to this story is they buried stories that the prosecution is alleging were true, such as Donald Trumps relationship with Karen Mcdougal, such as Donald Trumps dalliance with Stormy Daniels, and pushing stories onto their cover that were flagrant lies that were attacking ted cruz, attack can you ted cruzs dad attacking Hillary Clinton. Anybody that donald trump perceived as an opponent, right . So dana earlier talked about transactional relationship. I think you have to go one beyond that. Donald trump wasnt paying them to do that they were friends. He wanted to do it. He wanted david wanted donald trump to get elected, allegedly gave him dirt uh, judges now excusing the jury as we approach 12, 30 as we covered earlier, one of the alternate has one of the alternate jurors has a Dentist Appointment so the jury is going to adjourn early today. Im sorry to interrupt. No, i just think that its important to know that david and donald trump were friends. He wanted donald trump to become President Donald Trump when he gets in the white house invites him, giving him a years worth of headlines. Theyve had a long term relationship no question but at this point, it is october it is two weeks before the election. I do not think we can minimize or forget what that access Hollywood Tape was like judgment. I shan telling the jury to return it 11 00 a. M. East coast time tomorrow instructs them the court will go until 2 00 p. M. Eastern time tomorrow. So three hours of court tomorrow. Last point. They dont talk anymore the dylan howard and david dont talk. And david and donald trump dont. None of them, none of them talk and you dont forget tomorrow as well as part of this hearing. Hearing is the gag order moment as were talking about the gag order and the allegations by the das office that trump has violated at least seven times this this guy guerra. So well probably have at some point tomorrow that hearing is after two or before 11. Im not sure. All right. Anderson jake, thanks very much. A back here in new york with paula reid and kaitlan collins. So court is done for the day tomorrow at 11. It restarts. What do you think stands out . Obviously, david parker was not understand long enough to really say anything significant. Yeah, it was pretty light witness to start things off with, write, learning about the process at the National Enquirer, got to think googles right the questions that they asked him but overall, it was very much what we expected and what we laid out. But you can see the tension increasing between the prosecution and the defense. I think that is something that is going to be on display throughout this trial. We already sought, as our colleagues pointed out, its unusual to object. Someones Opening Statement said that multiple times and i think that is only going to escalate of the court this trial will also what they were trying to do in this moment is establish what david did at the National Enquirer, how the National Enquirer worked with she made very clear. He called it checkbook journalism that they paid for stories and has trumps team was arguing in their Opening Statements, they were saying that these kind of catch and kill processes are normal where people pay for stories and note published. Thats not normal and that is not put most journalists do just for everyone should just put are david is stepping down from the jury box. He smiled and he said hi to trumps table as he walked past the first acknowledgment between the two that we know about. We dont know what its just your marketable. They dont speak anymore. They have known each other for decades and he did a lot of effort, a lot of work on trumps behalf to help him get into the white house using the platform of the National Enquirer. And now it is completely turned its head on both of them now hes a witness in this case and donald trump is seated at the defense table. But what theyre trying with the prosecution was clearly trying to do was establish david is role. What he did what the editor in chief at the National Enquirer did, what dylan howard, youll hear his name come up and essentially how they would go and get these stories and pay for them. And david is that he because personally involved in any story that cost them more than 10,000, which we know. All of three of these stories are at the heart of the trump case. Ill call by. Im sure hell probably be asked this on the stand tomorrow, but what was in it for david . I mean, why have this meeting at trump tower . I assume its they have been friends unquote friends for a long time transactional friends, they each get something out of it. And heres somebody who made become president and david likes the idea of being friends with somebody who is the president United States, and being able to somehow benefit from that. Yeah, mutually beneficial business relationship for many, many years. But then if you read profiles of david, it does appear that he really we consider trump a friend and admired him in many ways. So our colleagues reporting now trump is sitting alone at the defense table watching the lawyers discuss scheduling with the judge and it just reminds us that something that were talking about all day, the powerlessness, right . He has to sit through these proceedings often very dull, very procedural, and theres really not much you can do. Now hed previously said he wanted to be an active participant. Go to sidebars and whatnot. We havent seen him do that so far, but for on the david us wake of whats in it for him. I mean, he was doing this for trump though, long before he ran for president. That meeting was notable in August Of 2015 with Michael Cohen and donald trump because he was asking, how can i help your campaign . But can i do from my platform with the National Enquirer to help . But when Donald Trumps started the apprentice, they had this longstanding relationship where he was even still doing it. Then donald trump had more from a national platform, a national name, as he adds, the apprentice was a Popular Television show. And the National Enquirer was helping then is well, when women or people were coming forward ford with with allegations about Donald Trumps. So they have a very long history here on what theyre going to be talking about tomorrow. And as theyre figuring out the schedule here on the gag order, this is significant as well because donald trump wants this gag order to be basically almost entirely lifted from him. He keeps asking for it to be released. Obviously, the question for the judge and how he handles this is what he does with these alleged violations of it. What the prosecutors have said are multiple times that he has violated that gag order. They believe you should be fine. And whether or not one he is fine. And two, if it works as a deterrent. And three, what the judge does if he continues to violate it. Theres not a lot of options. I mean, really i mean, obviously, the final option is imprisonment, but i mean, that seems highly unlikely. Extreme. Certainly, prosecutors right now seeking a fine, they want trump to be worn that he gives his sanctioned or eventually of course, there is always this option of incarceration that does seem farfetched given the circumstances here, but there are at least seven violations that prosecutors have pointed to. So far. On this gag order. And this is going to be a challenge for the judge. How do you handle this . Do you hit someone with a monetary penalty that will barely register in their bank account does that make get difference . Is there anything you can say or do to deter this man . Its really going to be fascinating to watch the judge grapple with this in terms of other lets about the other big witnesses is moving forward. I mean, david will be back on the stand tomorrow, but who do you see as the other big witnesses . I need to play this case is all about Michael Cohen, like lets be serious, there are other witnesses this traumatic. Kellyanne conway, hope hicks, i can provide important context for the way that Campaign View the access Hollywood Tape, the crisis that it was though theyre viewing the stories. But Michael Cohen as the name that were just going to hear multiple times. And hour. Well invite now the trump team is trying to address other issues that they expect to come up with. David is testimony, so theyre trying to discuss right now the jury out with just the judge, what that is going to look like when david is back on the stand tomorrow and its going to get into more of the questioning and the emails and the converse patients that he had with donald trump theyre already trying to address that now before that jury testimony continues, i want to bring in adam kaufmann, who used to work in the manhattan District Attorneys office. Adam, thanks for being with us. So you worked there for 18 years. Take us inside. You can the prosecutions thinking behind this morning to Opening Arguments when you hear the one you hear ports the Opening Arguments. What are they trying to do so thanks, anderson. Basically, the prosecutions trying to put forward the whole case they want to distill it down to make it as simple and straightforward as they can break it down for the jury and tell a story. You have to tell a story that the jury wants to listen to, that they get excited about hearing as the details come out. And you want to try to put that all in context for the jury. So this isnt just about writing some false entries in a ledger. Its really about the election. Its about a much broader conspiracy. And you lay that all out for the jury. To get them hooked and attentive to that end. I mean, in the Opening Arguments the prosecution frame the cases as a criminal conspiracy c and a cover up, and they said this was a plan coordinated longrunning conspiracy to influence the 2016 election to help donald trump gets elected. How challenge . Jim, do you think it is for the prosecution to commence the jury that this case is about more than an embarrassing affair i think thats why they lead off with mr. Having him come out and talk about that relationship and the catch and kill that really sets the table. So were not even talking about the false Business Records at this point. Were not talking about cohen were not talking about the payments were talking king about the background and the context in which this develops and who better than to come out and set the table in that way. And put put this in context. This is going to bring us back to Karen Mcdougal, who will also come in. That might have been one of the key rulings in this case judge merchans rulings that mcdougal would come in, that the Access Hollywood, if not the tape, which he of course, kept out because it was too prejudicial but the content and substance of those messages, putting all of that in front of the jury at the beginning allows the prosecution to tell the whole story of the false Business Records in its proper context. So i think its a great opening move by the prosecution when you have a a a witness in like Michael Cohen, who has clearly lied publicly before theyve said, look, he made mistakes in the past. How does the prosecution tried to protect their witness, bolster his testimony . Obviously, they want to bring in what other evidence they have that my backup. Anything he says. But how do you deal with a witness whos a prosecution witness who has such a checkered past in the scheme of prosecution witnesses with checkered past asked Michael Cohen is a veritable angel prosecutors put on drug dealers murderers thieves its its the, its the nature of the business and juries listened to them the prosecution has already signaled that this is coming. The jury knows it the jurys heard of Michael Cohen. They know about this whole checkered past. Its its almost in in this case, in particular, given all of the notoriety and publicity Michael Cohens its baked into the case. No ones gonna be surprised when he gets on the Witness Stand. And what the prosecution will want to do exactly what you just said. They want to point to the corroboration. So they want to be able to say to the jury yeah, Michael Cohen, he has lied in the past. He does. Kyi has done all of these bad things, but look at what hes saying and then look at all of the other evidence, look at the paperwork, look at the checks, look at the documentation, look at the bank records, look at the phone records. Look at all of the physical evidence, and documentary evidence that simply cant lie. It is what it is. And thats really how you protect and bolster the testimony of a cooperating witness in any case . Dont from says that he wants to testify. Youve actually said you think that might be a good idea for the defense. Can can you explain . And why its such a crazy case . I mean, usually Defense Attorneys want to keep their clients off the stand donald trump has said he wants to testify hes a compelling figure and remember he doesnt have to win the case. He doesnt have to convince 12 people that hes not guilty, doesnt didnt have that burden that the prosecution has. Hes looking for one person. He needs one person to believe in him to hang the jury, and he might be able to do that testify flying himself. So i dont know. I wouldnt be surprised if he does testify in this case. And then of course, theres the political aspect which is missing for most cases, but hes running for president and, you know, part of his calculus has to be how does this play on the Campaign Trail . If i do testify and if i dont testify. So i think thats going to be one of the really fascinating aspects of the case to wait and see how it develops thats really interesting. Adam kaufmann. Thank you so much. Good to talk to you. Back here now with paula and kaitlyn. I mean, its interesting what hes so many lawyers you talk to will say, well, look, it would be crazy for donald trump to take the stand, but he makes a good point both. What impact would it have on the Campaign Trail if he didnt . Take the stand, but also just the idea of you dont have to convince all 12 just got to convince one to believe in you. Just that one. And were talking to trumps team about this. I mean, i said, really you want to have after on the stand, are you sure pretty much every must clearly expert in the land. And so this is not a good idea, but i was told that they believe that he has learned lessons from his participation or lack thereof in the civil trials that have happened over the past year or so. And i took that to me that he is learned that, you know, you dont want to antagonize the judge front of the jury. You dont want to make a scene, but it actually seemed more like hes learned just how far he can go and what would be truly effective here so it does appear that theyre confident in there client and very well may put them on that stand, but i think the issue is that its two things. One, donald trump is heavily influenced by what happened with the E Jean Carroll case, where he did not take the stand and didnt even show up for the first initial before that, it was the defamation damages determination. And he is deeply influenced by that because hes upset that he didnt do it even so there was agreement among his legal team that he shouldnt get on the stand. He believes that he was adversely affected in the outcome ultimately, there where it was found liable for Sexual Assault and then of course, defamation is we later saw the damages there. And so that is a driving factor for him here, too. He always thinks that he had can whooo people that he can persuade people. But i think with donald trump, you know, he always says he wants to do it until he doesnt. We saw with robert muller, weve seen it in many other instances and getting up in front of but actual jury in a Criminal Trial is much different than doing it in a civil fraud trials. He did for mere minutes as youll recall. And so i think its really a gametime decision. Its its ultimately that, but for him, at least in his mind and what hes been telling people is that he does want to take the stand here. I know we didnt talk too much about it, but earlier today, the judge really decided against his lawyers in terms of most of the issues they were trying to keep out of any potential crossexamination. Instead, the judge ruled that yeah. You can ask him about the trump the trump fraud case. You can ask him about the E Jean Carroll hey, gag orders that he has violated. You did rule that he cant be questioned. Got some litigation related to Hillary Clintons frivolous lawsuits that he filed. But otherwise all, of that is fair game for the prosecution, and that could give them pause. Yeah. It was certainly give them a lot to talk about jake back to you. Thanks, anderson. So lets recap while we wait for courts fully adjourn, the jury has been dismissed, but mr. Trump, the defendant, is still in courts sitting at the table talking with one of his lawyers is another is discussing records with judge merchan. What we had today the jury was seated for the first time. The defense and the prosecution were both given opportunities to present their Opening Statement. The prosecution, when first lasted about 45 minutes, they presented what the case would look like and how this was a scheme that donald trump was involved in. The defense came after that and talked about how nothing the prosecution said was accurate. There was gonna be plenty of reasonable doubt. Donald trump was innocent of the charges. They even denied that donald trump had any sort of rendezvous with Stormy Daniels. And then the prosecution presented their first witness, david, who is the ceo of America Media tabloid enterprise. The judge is asking both sides if theres anything more they want to submit ahead of tomorrows hearing on the gag order the lawyers are asking to approach the bench. So before we get to the summary of what we saw today, what is this hearing on the gag order . Le so the gag order thats in place on donald trump says that he cannot make Public Comments about jurors, about witnesses about court staff, or prosecutorial staff, and about all family members. What he is free, not just donald trump. It is legal taste, whole team, right . Yeah. What he is free to comment about negatively aggressively as he has done is judge merchan the de, himself, alvin bragg, and the case itself, even the gag order. Hes allowed under the gag order to criticize the gag order. Now, the de has brought forward to the judge ten different instances. First batch of three including calling Michael Cohen on social media, a sleaze bag, and then another batch of seven more were donald tropic pack various witnesses and including one where he quoted a fox news personality talking about jurors in a negative way. And what the prosecution is asking the judge to do tomorrow is, first of all, find donald trump in contempt and second of all, the penalties available to the judge, and theyre not great from a prosecutorial point of view, is a max fine of 1,000 theres yes. 1,000. Heres donald trump for violating. Now go so you can keep talking. Yeah, winning. And there is the possibility of imprisonment. The da mentions that, but theyre not asking for it. And i think its very unlikely. All right. Heres the defendant. Lets listen in so you heard that yourself. This is the case that nobody wanted to bring, including alvin bragg it was just at the last intelligence the case then if youre looking back, it goes back many, many years, 2015 maybe before that then its a case as two bookkeeping, which is a very minor thing in terms of the law in terms of all the Violent Crime thats going on outside as we as we speak right outside, as we speak this is a case where you pay a lawyer its a lawyer and they call it a legal expense. Thats the exact term they use. Legal expense in the books and another thing that wasnt even said was we never even adapted it as a Tax Deduction so that takes on a whole of azure. Most people wanted to deduct everything. We never even but they call the payment to a lawyer. A legal expense. In the books. They didnt call it construction. They didnt say youre building a building called a payment to a lawyer because as you know comb is a lawyer representing a lot of people over the years. Now im not the only one and wasnt very good in a lot of ways in terms of misrepresentation, but he represented a lot of paper but he puts in an invoice or whatever a bill and they painted, they call it a legal expense. I got indicted for that. What else would you call it . Actually, nobody has been able to say what youre supposed to call it. If a lawyer parts inability so or an invoice and you pay the bill in the book, its a little line thats a very small little line. I dont know if it even write more than two were to sound like you can tell a life story they marked a dendrite legal expense. This is what i got indicted over thank you. I got indicted on the leading candidate im beating biden. The meeting the republicans now i have the nomination and this is what they try and take off the trail forum that checks being paid to a lawyer. He is a lawyer or was a lawyer . And also the things you got in trouble for where things that had nothing to do with me that in trouble. He went to jail. This had nothing to do with me. This had to do with the Taxi Cab Company that he owed, which is just something medallions and borrow money and a lot of things, but at nothing to do with me. He represented a lot of people over the years but they take this payment and they got a legal expenses. And you heard it today for the first time. This is what i got indicted over this is what took me off and takes me off the Campaign Trail because i shouldnt be in georgia now i shouldnt be in florida now. I should be a lot of different places right now campaigning and im sitting here and this will go on for a long time. Its very unfair. The judge is conflicted, as you know its very unfair. Whats going on. And i should be allowed to campaign and whoever heard of this, yet indicted for that people have the courts said, i cant believe that this is the case so we did nothing on the other thing is if this were such a great case, why didnt the Southern District bring it . Who looked at it turgid down, provided numerous other agencies and Law Enforcement groups look at it because it was shown to everybody. And very importantly, why didnt the federal elections do anything about this, this, is federal, its not state. Theyre trying to make a mistake, kicks whatever. And its not state has nothing that happen before. I believe never happened before. This has never happened before when the state tries to insert itself in federal elections, never, nobodys ever seen it. But you know, federal elections the total pass on you said essentially nothing was done wrong or they would have done something about it that tough it would have done something about it. But they said nothing and they said, were going to take a pass because they couldnt even believe it. Actually, your rent, theyre their letter they could even believe it. They were incredulous and yet bragg mix it up now with bread. If you love what he first came in, he didnt want to do he didnt want to do it. Now, what do they look at, comrade . So what bomber incident because its bad stuff and what are they going to look at all the lives that gone dig in the last trial, he that brought line in the last trial so he got caught lying, pure lime and what are they going to look at that now well go to another subject because just a few blocks away, as you know, they had a bile on the hundred and 75 million sets and the tissue james, its all coming out of the white house by the way. And thats in front of judge engoron and the judge really didnt know anything. He didnt know about collateral security you said suppose it goes down well, it does adapt because its cash i put up 175 million in cash and we have a Bonding Company does and he challenged the Bonding Company that made me the Bonding Company was no good. Well, they good and they also have 175 billion of collateral. Michael adwan. But the judge didnt know anything about he didnt know what the hundred and 75 they can cash meant he had no idea what anything med and he had no idea what ended in the trial charge hundreds of millions of dollars on something totally innocent if you look at what happened today, judge and goren should not have done that job, should have gone to the Business Division where they have to complex business trials. But actually it should have never been brought because i didnt overestimate and, you, know, they sat over if you look at the numbers, there, underestimated i underestimated the opposite of what they said. And the reason that they tried to and they did it for the road matter, if they valued a vision tell her i said and 18 million, they valued other essence as little in order to bill. Their narrative, they went to build a narrative, but if you look and i have a complete a record of what happened, judge and gordon had no idea what was going on, didnt understand the most simple concepts. And this is the man that took a case and this is why this is a movement. Theyre moving out of new york because they cant be subject can instead be put out of business theyre moving on in new york because of the judge and guard had absolutely no idea what had happened. He didnt realize we put up adria and 75 what he found out. We put it up. He said what happens if it goes up or down. I said it doesnt do are they said it doesnt go up and down all right. Its cash that we put a whole cash very few people could do that and the deal was approved with the Attorney General. You can believe that but the. Deal was approved. She just tried to embarrass everybody as you tried to embarrass a very good Bonding Companies by saying they werent creditworthy well, they werent credit where they had what was more important is they had a security hundred and 75 million that i put up but the point here is that the judge had no idea what was happening, and this is the same judge that two months ago may the ruling that shook the world. It shook the world because everyone knows no end to that trial. I did nothing wrong and over here, i did nothing wrong. Also, this is a vitamin which to keep me off the Campaign Trail so far its not working because my vote numbers are higher than theyve said because the public understands that its a witch thank you very much all right. The former President Donald Trump, the defendant in the case of the state of new york versus donald j. Trump. Speaking, theyre going through a list of grievances having to do with this trial really actually mainly having to do with last trial, having to do with the business fraud trial that he has already been fined a hundreds of millions of dollars for elie honig. Your response. So first of all, we keep hearing this claim by donald trump at this and all the prosecutions or somehow the product of Joe Bidens White house. Weve said and ill say it again. That is absolutely false. Here its, demonstrably false. Heres why department of justice is technically part of the federal executive branch, which falls under the president. No evidence. Joe bidens had anything to do with those indictments. But this case here was brought by the manhattan District Attorney independently elected by the people of manhattan, not accountable to not under the command of anyone, not even been under the command of the governor of the state of new york, certainly not the president of the United States. So that is a patently false claim that donald trump continues to repeat over and over. The other thing that donald trump said, and this is why judges instruct juries. You are not to watch any News Coverage of this. If youve seen it on tv, change the channel, you see it on, dont go on social media because im trump said a couple of things that will never get in front of the brain. He said alvin bragg, the de, did not originally want to bring this case, not even clear if thats true at all, but that will never become part of the proper evidence in this case. Similarly, donald trump didnt say correctly that the Southern District of new york passed on charging this case. Thats true, but thats also wildly and completely the inadmissible wont get in front of the jury. But is it not true that alvin bragg good refrain from bringing charges against donald trump and then one of the deputies in his office wrote a book criticizing bragg for not bringing the charges, and then bragg did bring charges. So the sequence wise, right . Alvin bragg declined to bring charges based on the falsification of records relating to the value of apartments and value of properties. So alvin bragg said, im not going to charge that criminally, then Mark Pomeranz went public. I said that was an outrage. Alvin bragg should have charged the inflation case criminally. Alvin bragg took a lot of backlash for that. At some point thereafter, alvin bragg returned this indictment a difference, something else. A different okay. Its okay. And the original one, Letitia James, the Attorney General of new york, did bring a case exactly that became the civil case, which we just heard. Trump ranting about. But i just want to add something that you were saying when we were listening to donald trump, what you just said is all 100 accurate when it comes to the confines of the case in that courtroom. Thats not who we know. He was talking to. Voters expected voters, the american people, the american electorate, and there was a lot of stuff in there that mightve been borderline, true. There was there was a lot that just was just not true. Not true. Theres no evidence that President Biden is involved in this nun. I mean, thats just one of many things. And his entire goal here is to go right on the line of the gag order. Legally, in order to make his point politically. Right. Hes also reframe this case in a way that i think is could be powerful to the court of Public Opinion talking about not the actual jurors. Hes trying to be very reductive and saying this is the case where i paid a lawyer something and therefore, i called it a legal expense. It was a lawyer. I call it legal. What else in my to do that was not an all with this case is about its about falsified Business Record day five of Donald Trumps trial is now done. One of the cnn reporters who was inside court all day is going to be here in a second to walk us through the important moments as you saw them firsthand much more. Cnns special Live Coverage just ahead beyonces new album is breaking records zyrtec allergy relief works fast. It last the full 24 hours, so they can be deliverer, dance okay dave lets be more than our allergies seize the de with xhr tech, ill be honest by the end of the day, i floors. But who has the time to clean . Thats why i love my swiffer wet jet. Its a quick and easy way to get my force clean, wet jet absorbs and logs grime, deepen, sayyed, look at that swiffer wet jet at simply safe. We designed the number one rated Home Security system, powered by 24 7 professional monitoring for half the cost of traditional security. 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