Describes the secret meeting to catch and kill stories from Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels before they could sink Donald Trumps president ial campaign. Now, that is not illegal. So, how does testimony from pecker help the prosecution prove that trump committed a crime . Plus, trumps attorney tieing himself in rhetorical knots, trying to defend trumps Social Media Posts and convince the judge trump has not violated his gag order. Todd blanche saying the president is being very careful and the frustrating judge responding, quote, youre losing all credibility with this court. Why is he waiting to rule . And taking its toll, with reporters observing trump as looking thinner and older, against many parts of todays proceedings with his eyes closed and venting his frustration on social media, what will be the impact on this trial and the race for president . We have got more on that coming up. But we start with former National Enquirer ceo david pecker back on the stand right now. One of t
A former american president and his fixer and a big time ally of his in the tabloid media. It was a plan crafted to cast then candidate donald trump in a positive light in the allimportant tabloids. Using stories that were favorable to him and silencing ones that werent and smearing everybody that got in the way. The witness on the stand today on the Hush Money Trial, details exactly how this scheme worked on a daytoday basis. David pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer described a relationship with donald trump that dated back to the late 1980s and noted that trump was one the first people to call him and congratulate him when he bought the National Enquirer back in 1999. So tlir friendship was already long standing by the time donald trump decided so to run for president. The questioning today was the details an the operational aspects of that explicit agreement between trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen, and david pecker. And what they did to boost trumps campaign. And
Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in new york along with my colleague and friend, Chris Jansing, as history is being made in that Lower Manhattan courtroom. Donald trump is the first former president of the United States to stand as a defendant in a criminal trial. At any moment, could be facing the first witness to testify against him. Thats expected to be former National Enquirer publisher, david pecker. Hes likely to be pressed about alleged efforts to bury damaging stories about donald trump during the 2016 election. Earlier this morning, prosecutors gave their open statement, accusing mr. Trump of a criminal conspiracy to hide embarrassing relationships by preventing them from getting into the press, thus influencing the outcome of the 2016 election then covering it all up. The defense followed saying that mr. Trump did not commit any crimes, describing him as not just the republican nominee, but as the frugal business man, also a husband and a father. Defense lawyer todd bla
Joining us, msnbcs Yasmin Vossoughian outside the courthouse. Temidayo agangawilliams, a former prosecuor and Defense Attorney caroline pull lisi. Yasmin, Jury Instrekss under way right now. Whats going on . Jury instructions under way ahead of Opening Statements, jose and ana. 45 minutes for the prosecution, 25 minutes for the defense. Theyre doing that because theres going to be a lot of details, much of a timeline, a lot of dates and they dont want to overwhelm the jury in the Opening Statements process. Judgments made from the bench that i want to talk about with you quickly, first, when it comes to the evidence if, in fact, the former president decides to testify, judge juan merchan is allowing six various cases to be decided if donald trump it was. Talking about the trump payroll judgment, the trump civil fraud gag orders as well along with e. Jean carol assault case and the defamation case. A couple more things happening in court this morning. The former president spoke about ho
Ever criminal trial of an American Expresident started the day. Opening statements this morning in a Downtown Manhattan courthouse in donald j. Trumps criminal case. They made the Opening Statements to the jury and the six alternates. It is about a conspiracy of the expresident and his allies to interfere in the 2016 election. The negative stories about donald trump. The attorney for the prosecution, matthew spoke about a 2015 meeting in trump tower between donald trump, his former fixer, Michael Cohen, and a man named david. The negative stories about Donald Trumps relationships with women was allegedly hashed. It is a scheme commonly referred to as catch and kill. He said in the wake of the release of the access Hollywood Tape which was a political earthquake, Michael Cohen paid former Adult Film Star Stormy Daniels 130,000 to keep her alleged affair with donald trump silent. According to reporting from the courtroom, he said this. At trumps direction, mike cohen negotiated a deal to