Have a good weekend. Today was day four, day four of testimony in the first criminal trial of a former president. Trumps lawyers were able to finish crossexamining the lead witness, Tabloid Publisher and trump insider david pecker. We will talk about how that went in just a second, but today we got to see the prosecution second witness. Someone who worked closely with donald trump for decades, including on tv. Hi, good morning, this is mr. Trumps office. Hi, good morning. Mr. Trump would like to meet you at 9 00 at tavern on the green. Good morning, it is rhona calling. Mr. Trump is meeting with Miss Universe at trump model management. Do you think youll be ready . We can do it. Thanks, rhona. Thanks, rhona. Rhona graff, Donald Trumps longtime executive assistant and occasional costar on The Apprentice. The prosecution appears to have called her because she is the person who handled trumps calendar and contacts and email, which trump himself does not use. Ms. Graf appeared in court und
Welcome back to the weekend. Week two of the election first trial wrapped with a bombshell. Under redirect from the prosecution, former the National Enquirer david pecker admitted he brought former playbook model Karen Mcdougal story about her affair with to influence the election. The story says would have been gold if it had been published. He also detailed conversations he had with white house staffers after Trump Took Office about extending mcdougals agreement. And joining us now to discuss it all is New York Times Investigative Reporter Susanne Craig and Senior Correspondent Laura Jarrett. I was reading all yawls notes all week. That means my friend Laura Jarrett was slower to respond to text message. We have been watching this breathlessly but there are a lot of folks not watching it with the same level of detail. If someone was not tuned in all week what would you tell them what the top line of what happened . The top line is a man who has no donald trump for the better part of
one day that s going to be me. cnn this morning continues right now. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is in kyiv right now meeting with ukrainian officials. this is going to be very much about taking a fresh message back to washington, but also to the united nations. as they seek to hold support together for this in this 19 months. special counsel jack myth is accusing the president of making statements in the january 6th case. we don t have the opportunity to watch the judge. whether this case should be broken up into smaller cases. and you have mark meadows trying to get over to federal court. fani willis took a big bite here. now she has to deal with it. the longest sentence yet for january 6th insurrectionists. 22 years, that s how long the former proud boys leader will be in prison. it s not the first time we have heard defendants suggest that trump is behind what they did that day. we can tell you it wasn t even here that day. the importance of t
at the time. but we hear that the decisions he made, there is nothing he can say to you that can improve things. what would you like him to say? things. what would you like him to sa ? , ., , things. what would you like him to sa ? , . , ., things. what would you like him to sa? say? anything he has to say could have been said say? anything he has to say could have been said a say? anything he has to say could have been said a long say? anything he has to say could have been said a long time - say? anything he has to say could have been said a long time ago i say? anything he has to say could l have been said a long time ago that we are nearly four years since the beginning of the pandemic. it is continuing, people are continuing to die every week. i don t think he has got anything helpful to say at this point other than to tell the truth about why decisions were made and why failures happen in the kale that was at the heart of his government. do you think he can be
fraud trial against him, the penalty part. that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with breaking news in manhattan where donald trump is already inside the courtroom about to take the stand in his $250 million new york civil fraud trial. these proceedings are just getting under way this morning. nbc s vaughn hillyard is standing by outside the courthouse. also with us, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times. chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi attorney and former investigative council for the january 6th house committee. we saw those live images inside the courtroom. we aren t allowed to have cameras inside the courtroom during the actual testimony. i understand, vaughn, trump spoke moments ago before he walked into the courthouse. start us off there in mann with what the president, former president is saying this morning and what we can e