this is cnn breaking news. welcome back to the special live coverage. you are looking right now at inside of the courtroom. donald trump sitting down with his attorneys as you are getting just consider it like a pool spray. we have seen it in other moments and the cameras are allowed in for a moment to kind of scene set each day in the courtroom. this is donald trump moments before he is set to take the stand and be under oath to take questioning from the judge in this civil fraud trial in new york. as he was entering court a moment ago, he spoke to the reporters and cameras in the hallway, and he attacked the case, he attacked the judge and he attacked attorney general and then made a campaign speech. now, what happens next could decide him as a businessman and business empire, and also impact his presidential aspirations, and the other criminal cases where he is a defendant. >> yeah, and again, those pictures that you are looking at, and what is different this time, he is minutes away from taking the stand himself where he is going to be under oath, and we are minutes away from where that is going to happen. and we have people inside of the courtroom to relay information from inside to outside of the courtroom, and outside is katelyn polantz and paula reid. and kate kaitlan collins, and w are you seeing? >> i saw two attorneys, and more in the back of the room, and those are several of the political aides to the former president who are working on the 2024 campaign to give you a sense of who is in the room for the testimony before trump moves from where he is sitting there to actually getting on the witness stand in a few moments from now, and you are right, kate, we did hear from the former president, and he came out and spoke as he typically does before he goes into the courtroom, and it is not likely the last time that we hear from him in front of the cameras, and of course, what he says in front of the camera is different from what he says under oath. that is what we are watching closely for, and it is noticeable that we heard from the attorney general here letitia james, because she has not been in every single appearance here, but she did come out of the steps behind us a few moments ago and she was exactly predicting what trump is about to say, and right now, you can see that he is being sworn in, and taking oath before he gets on the stand, and this is the big question here what he is going to say once he is under oath, because what so much of this is focused on is who directed who to make these statements, and the statements that the judge has already ruled that were found to be inflated that they used to secure those loans. trump's defense of that has been that nobody was hurt here, and these businesses were repaid the loan, and no victim he claims except for himself here, and the question is who he actually pushes blame on to, because you seen his adult sons testifying and they were put in charge of the trump organization, and donald trump jr., and eric trump. donald trump looking to outside accounting firm, and eric trump saying it is not his responsibility, and that is a question for trump, structure of the organization, and that is notable here of course. i should note that we did hear from letitia james, and i wanted to play a few moments of what she said before she went inside of the courthouse. >> this morning, mr. trump will take the stand in our trial against him, the trump organization and other defendants. mr. trump has repeatedly and consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets. and before he takes the stand, i am certain that he will engage in name calling and taunts and race-baiting and call this is a witch hunt. but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers. and numbers, my friends, don't lie. thank you. >> of course, kate and john, about ten minutes after she was before the cameras, he came before the cameras, and called her a racist attorney, and also, the district attorney who is also black, and essentially predicting exactly what he was going to say, and wed will see what happens when he is under oath on the stand. >> and paula reid, the colleagues are saying that donald trump is now on the stand being sworn in. donald trump is now sitting down for this huge -- >> he has started answering questions and facing questions from the state's attorney at this point. paula reid, right to you. what are you hearing from inside of the courtroom? >> well, he has been asked a couple of the preliminary questions, what was his role in a certain year, and i mean, the stuff that you would ask any witness before beginning testimony, and we expect that most of the questions today will focus on the valuation of the property, and properties like 40 wall street, his doral golf club, and also mar-a-lago, and that's one that is really sensitive for him. we have heard him talk about this as he is enthorring courtroom, and the judge has found that the value around that property is $18 million and something that trump and the lawyers have taken issue with, and the challenge of trump while he is under questioning for prosecutor is to be compose and stick to the script that the lawyers have guided him through for the preparation which is to emphasize that there are disclaimers in all of the valuation, and also to emphasize the valuing properties is an art and not a science. but this case gets to something very close to his heart which is his identify as a business tycoon, and we know that he has pretty thin skin, and so this is a test for him if he can remain composed. we know he can do this, because he has taken the witness stand many, many years before long before he was a candidate for white house, and right now while he is on the witness stand, the political and legal interests diverge, and we will see if he can keep the answers concise, honest and hopefully along the lines that the lawyers have prepared him to say. >> yes, and good important and key questions, paula reid. kaitlan collins is also outside of the courthouse and keep us updated as they come in. legal analyst elie honig is here, and also jeremy is also with us, and karenin in agnifil >> and now, what doesn't matter is if there are actual victim, and the judge ruled on that one claim for trump, but on the ther six claims, it does matter if there is a victim or not, and what you will hear from trump is that the enormous loans that he took out from deutsche bank that they were not only repaid, but repaid with interest, and the argument, and this is atmospheric argument, and also a legal argument, is how can there be victims if they were not only repaid, but repaid with profits. >> and what paula reid said out loud is that he is facing questions of the structure of the business, and why would you start to ask him about the structure of the business? >>ecutor or the attorney general, i would start with questions that you get him comfortable, because you don't want to shut him down, and you want to start with, did you point your son trustee? yes. allan weisselberg? yes. and they don't hurt in any way, but you have to prove the case, so get the facts proven, and get him comfortable answering questions, and then you get to the harder ones. >> and also, to lean in and start moving to leaning into the defense that we heard from the sons is that this is below my pay grade, and talking about the structure of the organization, and how much did donald trump know, and is this as easy for him to say, that i knew nothing about it than the sons, and in doing so, is there potentially he could implicate his own sons? >> i don't know that he would directly implicate his own sons, because you typically start with who are you, what do you do, and starting with you are the boss, and one, make it harder for him to run from this, and two, play to his ego. it is hard for donald j. trump, former president to say, i am not involved in this, and i don't know. not his style. >> and how long does the state's attorneys go with the process here before they start to lean in? >> not long. i think that they will get into the heart of this very quickly. i think that for elie's point that this is who he is, and what he believes in, and it is not going to be hard to get him to start to get a little combative with the state, right, especially talking about his kids, and you know, he gets a little bit defensive over his kids and his monetary worth. his net worth. so i think that they are going to start quickly going into the actual facts of the case here, and michael cohen, if you credit his testimony, don't forget, he specifically said we knew what trump wanted. trump would say, oh, this came back at $1 billion, no i am worth $4 billion and go become to make the numbers fit that. if you credit michael cohen, it is hard for him to walk away from these numbers. >> there are some interesting things to play out. and we will read this together, because one of the colleagues has some details of the first questions coming at donald trump. the first question that the state asked donald trump on the stand is to confirm that he was, he was the director, president and chairman of the organization from 1981 to 2017 leading to a series of questions working to establish how the trust at the crux of the trial was set up. he was also asked why he appointed alan weisselberg as trustee of the trust. well, he was somebody who had been with the company for a long time, and i had trust with. and he was very good with who he had trusted. and so, did you trust him in ye, did. >> so they are warming him up, and asking him clean factual questions. >> so the equivalent of what is your name? >> yeah, you say that when you swear n anin and yes, you can't quibble with. and they are asking questions that they have documents and backed up with. and driving home, you are the boss, and the trump whose name is on trump tower, and you are the guy in charge, and that what they are starting with strategically here. >> and karen, this is before a judge and not a jury, and how does that impact the way that the state chooses to go about this? >> well, they have to prove their case and each and every element of the charges here. so they will continue to do that irrespective of judge or jury, but there is also an appellant record being created here on both sides. this will be appealed regardless, given the fact that there is already a finding for the first count, the persistent fraud count, and the other six counts, we will see what the judge does with it, and either way, it is going to be appealed. >> hold on, guys. back out to courthouse, and paula reid is getting a better read of what is going on inside of the courthouse. >> yes, the former president is answering questions of how he structured business and the trust after he left the white house, and at one point, he was thinkingf going back into business, but then he started to veer a little bit from the actual substance of this case into his own feelings about political bias, what he described as political bias in this case. he said that he was actually in politics more than he realized even after he left the white house saying that other thank you, and every other democratic district attorney and attorney general and district attorney were coming at me from 15 sides. and this is how he is trying to paint himself as martyr of the political bias, and this is the first time we have seen this campaign rhetoric so far on the witness stand, and now we will see if he leaves it there or takes it further to attacking anyone else. but currently, he is being questioned by the government and directed at this specific comment at that prosecutor who works for u.s. attorney general letitia james. >> paula, while we have, you any sense that the judge or the state attorney objected when trump started to veer into the political there? did they say anything or did it just continue? j so, we are looking and we have a great team giving a minute-by-minute and second-by-second, and no indication that the prosecutor objected, and now talking about the structure, the organization and the transition out of the white house, and all right, he is still inbounds even though he took a shot at the attorney general. they also know that there is more of this coming, and so maybe they are trying to pull the punches until something gets out of line, but no indication that anyone objected so far and we are continuing to watch second by second as he is getting the questions and answers them. >> we will get back to paula shortly as the questioning is under way. let's bring in jeremy on this. jeremy, to the fact that paula was talking about as he is for the first time talking about the feelings of political bias and democratic attorney generals were coming at him from 15 different sides as paula said he put it on the stand since he left the white house. just the fact that it is already this early in, and it is making the way on the stand into the testi testimony. >> i would let him allow to do that and get him riled up, and get him off course and be in a place where you want him to be, and it is not of benefit in front of the judge, because it is not doing anything for him, and nothing to be added to the what he is accused of and taking him off course. and, too, the statement that no one lost money, and people made money, and one of the themes of all of the offenses that we are looking at falsifying the records is the intent to falsify or deceive a person, it does not require that the person or the company lost money at all, and one could argue that they could have earn ord made more money, and there is that injury and that damage, and this is really donald trump controlling or dictating the conversation, and if i'm the attorney general, i am changing that. >> all right. jeremy, standby, and we have an important update from paula reid. >> we are seeing the challenge before donald trump on the witness stand. in response to one of the questions he launches into a lengthy explanation of what has happened in this case, and what he is going to testify coming up. it has to do with the certain bankers that they brought in to help with the valuations, but he went on so long that the judge actually interrupted him and asked him to quote not give speeches in response to questions. saying that he wants to keep things moving. this is also something that actually came up with both of his sons. sometimes there were yes or no questions and instead of answering yes or no, they would launch into the speeches, so it is difficult sometimes for the former president trump and certain members of the family to be concise. this is a man who is used to having rallies and people who came to hear him speak at length. this is a challenge for him. the judge is giving him some instruction to keep it concise, and keep it focused and not give speeches. this is going to be a challenge for him and we just got started and already the judge is asking him to move things along quickly. >> and part of that is not a surprise in any shape or form, and we both questioned trump for years at the white house, and he does not like to answer yes or no to the question. if he does not like the question, he wants to provide his own explanation, and certainly like this something, paula, which is at the heart of everything that means anything to trump, his identity, the real estate empire and what that looks like and it is not surprising at all that is how he is going to respond. i think that the judge knows that going into it, and we will see how patient he is with the former president as he is continuing to answer those questions and maybe not the question that he is asked, but he will answer the question that he prefers to be asked. >> it seems that he wants a lot of points into a direct question, and the judge just wants to make sure that this is controlled, that this is focused, concise and that he doesn't try to turn this into a campaign speech. this is, as you noted though, it is going to be difficult not only for the judge, but for the former president, because, again, this is so personal to him, as you noted. it is about his business, his family's livelihood, and again this persona that he has established as a billionaire tycoon. kate and john. >> thank you, paula, very much. kaitlan, you, too. and just so everyone knows what is happening, the reason they are and the phones there, is because we have people inside of the courtroom, and no cameras are allowed inside of the courtroom unfortunately r but people inside of the courtroom are relaying the information in realtime to paula and kaitlan on the courtroom steps so we can get in realtime what is happening inside of the courtroom, and you will see people reading off of the phones in the next few hours and going back and forth on the steps and that is just the way it is going to be. i wanted to ask about what they reported which is that the judge is jumping in, and 12 minutes. >> well, minutes in. >> 10 minutes into the testimony jumping in for the first time to say don't give speeches, but it is not the objection of the state, but the judge. >> judges can do it on their own, and this is the struggle for discipline that the judge is going to be struggling for throughout the day, because you want the witness to have a chance to answer the question, but you cannot let the witness to veer off course or give soliloquies, and when a person is on trial, it is a tightly-controlled and narrowly controlled exercise. it is not a campaign speech or social post or debate of point, counter point. it is question, responsive answer, and if the answer is beyond the scope of the question, it can be shutdown by the judge. and if the witness goes on a bender, the judge can say, as we sort of predicted earlier, and it was not a hard thing to predict, but the judge can shut it down and strike the testimony. the judge is trying to not escalate the temperature here, but he has to keep the discipline in courtroom. >> but still, it is significant, because there are different paths that any witness in any legal team can take when the star witness is taking stand. it is ranging from leading up to the moment, and to remind everyone, karen, get on the stand and plead the fifth and not say anything, and no matter if a negative inference can be taken -- back to paula, and the control room is saying more is happening. back to paula reid. what are you learning? >> so, for first time on the stand so far, trump is taking a shot at the judge suggesting quote that i am sure that the judge is going to rule against me, because the judge always rules against me. my law license is dusty, but that is not something that you would say to the judge. and our colleagues are giving the updates and the judge then asked the lawyer if that is necessary to answer the question if that had been asked, and the judge said according to the notes, look, you can attack me, and do whatever you want, but answer the question. that is similar to what we heard from the judge a short time ago instructing former president not to filibuster or give speeches, but to answer the question that he is being asked by the attorney general's office, and he noted that the comment that trump made that he always rules against him is not true. and once again, he asks trump to please just answer the question. big open question as kaitlan and i have been talking about since it started this morning, how is trump going to be on the stand, and focused, concise, and stick to the script that the lawyers have given him which is to talk about how subjective valuations are, and it does appear he is creating a side show and giving little speeches and even attacking judge. so we will see how this continues. >> what is notable here is that the judge is not just speaking to judge's attorneys, and he has five in th