welcome to our continued coverage. the new york criminal trial of former president donald trump. i m rachel maddow joined by my colleagues. also, lawrence o donnell is with us pick we are going to be joined by the star witness for the prosecution in this trial, michael cohen. he will speak to us exclusively. his first reaction to this verdict tonight. michael cohen will be joining us in one moment live. 4:20 p.m. p.m. and it is we, the jury have reached a verdict. 45 minutes later at 5:05 p.m. the jury was back in the courtroom and is seated. the defendant donald trump was seated as well. the judge addressed the four people. and the judge. without telling me the verdict, how s the jury? and yes, they have reached a verdict. take the verdict, please. with the foreperson please rise to the members of the jury agreed upon a verdict? yes. and how say you to the first count of the indictment, charging donald j trump with the crime of falsifying business records in the first degre
12 new yorkers have affirmed the principle that no one in america, not even a former president, is above the law. a jury unanimously found donald trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. the criminal case hinged on the testimony and evidence of the trials narrator, trumps fixer turned foe, michael cohen. he joins us here now. he is the author of disloyal, the true story of a former personal attorney to president donald j trump and how trump weaponized the u.s. department of justice against his critics. is also the host of the mea pope and political podcast. i am so busy. i want to get some context here. when this all began for you in many respects, at that time trump is in the white house, you had gotten caught up in this thing on your way to prison , how, having this, full-circle and watching what occurred this week, do you appreciate that role? that narration? i thought it was very interesting and important for you to frame this chapter in this c
the country and them most powerful people in the country to do it. those are the people a few generations from now. those are the people that are going to have blockbuster holograms made about it. lawrence, thank you. and i know that we will be back with you in one moment. joining us for his first interview since tonight s verdict is the prosecution s primary witness from this case, michael cohen. he is joined with his attorney. we are grateful for both. it is good to see you all. how are you? i guess the word is relieved. this has been six years in the making. remember, the very first time that i met with the district attorney s office. we talked about it when i was on the show. the first time i met with the district attorney s office when i was an inmate in otis phil. they came up to see me on three separate occasions. this is a six year process
in u.s. history of a former president to be held accountable for the things that i have been talking about for six years. remember, the das case did not start when i was released from otis phil, it started while i was in otis phil. three times, three times the manhattan da team came to visit me there. that is where began. that s what really began. that is where the saga began. prior to the start of the trial, you were very careful, i think, not to discuss anything that the manhattan das office discussed with you. you wanted to protect the integrity of the trial. now that the verdict has come down and that these of the trial is over and we move on to sentencing. initial conversation that you had with the manhattan da office when you found out they were going to bring this case forward, what was that
conversation? there were two separate das involved in this case first it was side vents. when i was in otis phil it was cy vance s team, then i met with mark when i was ultimately released from otis phil as a result of covid. the nutcase went away and we all remember that story and alvin brandt became the district attorney, he was looking at a different set of charges than what cy vance was looking at. a lot of people, myself included, were very disappointed because they believed there was more than enough in the other set of charges to come against trump and hold him accountable for those crimes. i guess we were all wrong and i am the first one to admit i was wrong. alvin braggs certainly brought the right case, 12 jurors