all right, welcome back. i m john berman along with paula reed. we re outside the courthouse in downtown manhattan where donald trump will arrive shortly for closing arguments in his civil fraud trial. you might have heard he wanted to deliver part of the closing arguments himself. the judge has said no to that. we re waiting to see how trump responds when he arrives and what his legal team does. we did just see attorneys with the attorney general s office arrive and walk up those steps. we have not seen attorney general letitia james arrive just yet herself. now, this is a courthouse, but it is also very much a campaign stop. at this point, there is no distinction between what s happening in court and on the campaign trail, with the iowa caucuses just a few days away here. standing by with paula and i right now, is cnn s kristen
to speak because he would not agree to conditions to the conditions that the judge put in place. including not turning the closing arguments into a campaign speech, john. yeah, we re still waiting to see what he does when he arrives at the court. but right now, kate, things are a little bit slowed down. a little bit gummed up. why? because there was a bomb threat at the home this morning of the presiding judge, arthur engoron. now, security in place around this trial, high levels of security. we understand there may be an extra layer around the judge now, but things are moving more slowly than they have to date in this trial. i m down here at the courthouse, joined by kara scannell and paula reed. first to kara, let s get an update on the bomb threat. the bomb threat was called in this morning to the judge s home. local police showed up, the bomb squad was there. it s all clear at this point.
to get to have a substantive role in closing arguments, because the judge said sure, we can do this. let s negotiate some terms. they wouldn t agree to those terms. anything can happen. that s what we have seen over the past couple months, is anything can happen. paula reed and kara scannell, stand by. we re waiting to see donald trump leave trump tower and head down here. we re waiting to see if the reporters can get into the courthouse and into the courtroom because as kara says, it s delayed by about an hour now from what it usually is. i want to bring in former u.s. assistant attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig, who is our cnn senior analyst, also karen freeman, a prosecutor for the manhattan district attorney s office. elie, i do want to start with you here. as we said, as we have been talking about, donald trump has been told he cannot deliver closing arguments. any chance they could walk in this courtroom behind me and donald trump s attorneys can say, y
that seems pretty reasonable, but he has attacked, again, pretty much everyone involved in the proceeding, trying to frame himself as a victim and as our colleagues are reporting, this is as much a campaign event as a legal proceeding. one of the things, and you re looking at live pictures outside the courtroom, we re showing you this because donald trump does often speak before going into the courtroom. one thing i ll be looking for, if the attorneys walk in and say we agree to your terms. let him do the closing argument again. that is one of the interesting possibilities here. paula, stand by for one moment. we re joined by kristen holmes who covers the trump campaign, which is one and the same thing with everything we re seeing here in the courtroom today. you re getting new reporting or you have new reporting on what trump plans to do today. that s right. i m told by senior advisers he is planning to make remarks. nothing is a done deal. everything is still fluid. they re setti
party, and you do that so that they can marshal the evidence and make the strongest arguments for you. so as somebody who has represented doesn t typically want to give the closing argument. in fact, i have never seen that when someone is represented. i wonder if it means he has lost faith in his lawyers and that s why he wants to do it himself. paula reed, you have a view on that? i don t think he s necessarily lost faith in his lawyers, chris kise, his longterm attorney. i think he believes he s his best spokesman and he sees this as more of a campaign event. that s his real return on investment for showing up, as he has here so many times during the course of this trial. is to create drama, to frame himself as a victim, and try to draw attention away from his republican rivals. i see it more as just him once again trying to seize the spotlight and take control of this proceeding, which he has