Todd blanche will give the opening for the defense, a former federal prosecutor, White Collar defense lawyer. New york times notes this will be only his Second Criminal Trial as a defense lawyer. How do you see trumps legal team. The key with trumps legal team is theyre really there to come up with as many distractions and diversions as humanly possible. I think thats the biggest thing well see from them. As folks were saying a moment ago, the Prosecutions Job is to keep things simple. The Defenses Job is to try to make them seem as koven confusing as possible. The defense needs to make sure they have at least one juror who cant quite get themselves to think that trump is guilty. Blanche also previously worked with alvin bragg, the District Attorney in this case. Tristan, does that give him any kind of edge . It would defend on what the
Theyre getting deep at the underpinnings of the second crime. Remember, this is 34 originally misdemeanor counts of false Kaigs Case of business records, bumped up to a felony because the prosecution needs to prove not only did donald Trump Sign those checks or do the falsification with, one, an intent to defraud, but two a separate intent to, in this case its conceal, a previous crime which is, were calling it election interference. Its really Campaign Finance Law violation. The prosecution has sought to elevate their language surrounding how they are describing this case. Its going to be the Defenses Job to pick that apart and break it down. The defense in one of those motions in limine made an argument not to use the Phrase Catch and kill. They didnt win. They thought it was too prejudicial. Oftentimes i think its misleading when we talk about a scheme to suppress negative information, a catchandkill
Who say they had affairs with donald trump. Well tell you what he said and what his testimony today might prove because remember, while a big part of the Defenses Job is to poke holes in d. A. Alvin braggs case, lawyers for the state actually have to back up every single thing theyre putting before these jurors. So lets break this all down, and were also going to look into what happens next. Joining us now, nbc News Correspondent vaughn hillyard. Good to see you outside that courthouse, where you have been all day now. Bring us Up To speed on what happened today. Reporter it was a shortened day inside of this courtroom, namely because one juror had a dentist appointment, and passover led the courts to determine it was going to have an earlier afternoon. Those four hours inside of the courtroom did not lack tension, and what you heard in opening statements from the prosecution was the intent to tell a story, Beginning In August of 2015, two months after donald trump