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
And senior fbi official. Chuck, im looking at The Jury instructions. One of the things that judge Merchan Insfrukted The Jury this morning is what the lawyers say at any time is not evidence. Were about to hear from the lawyers this morning in their Opening Statements. Both sides had the weekend to prepare. Whats the goal of Opening Statements . The Opening Statement and its not an argument, ana. Its a statement. Arguments are prohibited during opening is really roadmap from a prosecutors perspective. He or she will be telling The Jury what documents might be admitted, what particular witnesses might say. Its a promise to The Jury of what theyre about to see. If you were going to a movie, you might watch a trailer. The trailer would tell you whats in the movie. In this case the Opening Statement is the trailer for the trial. It tells you what youre going to see and hear. From a defense attorneys perspective, they can do a couple of things. Caroline made The Point earlier