Sandra Jonathan Turley is standing by. He has his analysis ready to go. John live outside the new York State supreme court, what do we know about the first witness . Good afternoon. The first witness is David Pecker with him about former ceo of American Media which publish the national enquirer. The d. A. s office Iqs Trump of engaging in a criminal Conspiracy And Coverup to suppress damaging stories prior to the 2016 president ial election while trump and his lawyers say that he is innocent and did nothing more than pay his lawyer. Here is trump after court. As to 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 speak, right outside as we speak. This is a case where you pay a law year. He has lawyer. They call it a legal expense
Less troubled by the allegation that there is an improper relationship between Nathan Wade and Fannie Wills than i am about something untoward in the file. There are a lot of exhibits that include invoices and total bills. Fani willis might be right to say, all three of these special counsels bill the same hourly rate. Only one took up more than 30 of the spending in each of two years that Fulton County d. A. s office spent on outside vendors, and thats Nathan Wade. Only one seems to have lacked the requisite experience to be of particular aid to the district attorney. Wade, as the Washington Post describes, was a municipal judge, meaning he primarily adjudicated things like Traffic Ticket disputes. He also has been in private practice for a long time, handling Family Law and contract
District attorney for the manhattan d. A. s Office And Msnbc legal analyst, catherine christian, and legal analyst, danny cevallos. Were going to be talking about David Pecker and the other witnesses expected on the case tomorrow. I want to start with the opening remarks today. Both by the prosecution and the defense. Prosecution about 45 minutes, almost to the exact second, 30 seconds into it. The defense was supposed to do 25 minutes, ended up 35 minutes. There were some interruptions. How did you see both Sides Today . They both did their job. The prosecutor is supposed to be the facts, they gave a complete narrative, chronological. The Opening Statement for the prosecutor is a detailed preview of the evidence. I call it the table of contents, and they did that. They laid it out. It was very straightforward. Not emotional. The Lead Prosecutor is not an
Jansing live from Msnbc Headquarters here in new york city. Anchoring our special coverage of pretty explosive early moments of donald trumps hush money trial, with my colleague, andrea mitchell. Donald trump, of course, as every defendant has a front row seat, and history is unfolding. The prosecutions opening statements painting him as a felon who, quote, cooked the books to try to bury a porn star payoff. What they call election interference, he said, plain and simple. In response, of course, the defense simply saying that trump had nothing to do with it. Focusing on poking holes, not only in the d. A. s case, but also in the credibility of potential witnesses to prop up the trial. First person on the stand, former friend of trumps, friend and colleague, former national enquirer publisher, david pecker. He barely took the stand before court adjourned for the day. What big questions are coming his way, we dont know
Testimony can resume at 9 30 tomorrow. I want to bring in msnbcs katie phang, msnbc senior national politics reporter, joathan allen, and all live outside the courthouse for us. Also here with us is former Manhattan Assistant d. A. , catherine christian, and former brooklyn prosecutor, charles coleman. In our last hour, lisa was mentioning that David Pecker didnt give much really time for the prosecutors to, you know, talk to him about his story before the testimony because he gave very long answers. How effective was he as the first witness on the stand . Well, its a great question, andrea, because even though he was only on the stand for a brief moment of time before the