Minute, people the state of new york versus donald j. Trump started The Main EventOpening Statement hey, miss, youre looking at my picture in downtown new york. The courthouse and you hadnt soon the judge will gavel in and cmt the jury for the first ever prosecution of a former United States president. Minutes ago, we watched trump walk into court after his motorcade arrived at 100 centre street. We expect him to stop for the cameras and talk before heading inside get up in the judge and the jury prosecutors will chart a roadmap of what they intend to prove, how they say the former president helm, the scheme to buried the details of a sexual encounter with adult film actress. In the final month, the 2016 campaign remainders cooper, new york, youre watching Cnn Special Live Coverage of donald trump Hush Money Trial. And im jake tapper in washington today, a Courtroom Collision Filled with history shattering precedent, and a Stock Possibility that one of the two major candidates for president this fall will be a convicted criminal sometime soon the government and the defense will give two very different narratives about what happened been in that closing stretch of the 2016 campaign, prosecutors planning to present a mountain of evidence documents, and witnesses to corroborate it. All, alleging the donald trump as you near to plan to buy the silence and Stormy Daniels with whom he allegedly had a dalliance, and allegedly cover up what he did by falsifying Business Records now, the defense plans, campaigns, and altogether different picture to argue that the prosecutions case is built on Puzzle Pieces that do not fit together and built around the line hi of a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen. The former trump fixer who has sworn to exact revenge on his onetime boss today, we may see a critical prosecution witness named david packer is the tabloid mogul, who alerted the trump orbit. The daniels was shopping her story of a tryst with trump thats the first domino and the long chain of events that ended with trump facing 34 criminal felony counts today, lets get right back to anderson live outside the Manhattan Courthouse. Anderson jake, thanks very much. Im here. Were seen as paula reid and cnns kaitlan collins. I mean, it is a fascinating day here. Paula, what do we expect just in the next couple of hours . Well, you understand heres what should happen. We should see the jury enter the courtroom. Sworn in, and then theyll get their mission from the judge. He will charge that give them instructions on the case. The burden for the prosecution. Then we will get Opening Statements from both sides. Theyll have these dueling interpretations of events seven, some odd years ago. Now when it comes to the prosecution, theyre not telling us who is going to do the opening. It also speaks so what are the Security Concerns around this case right now . But theyve been trying really hard to rebrand this case that everyone dub the Hush Money Case instead, trying to reframe it as a case about the rule of law and whether trump broke it to help his chances in 2016 . Then the defense will have a chance to go. Weve learned that their statement will likely be a little on the Shorter Sayyed wouldve been told the themes of their case, theyre going to be look, there was no crime. Trump is not involved at paperwork at this level. Michael cohen was working for him doing legal work at the time in question, and since then, he is someone who now has a vendetta against trump and hes a convicted good liar. But i said thats what should happen to issues that we might have to deal with at the top of this hearing. The first is whether theres any other issue with the jury we saw last week one juror decided she couldnt do this. She just wasnt willing to risk to take the risks that are involved in this kind of work. And then we also saw another juror who are lawyers moved to remove from the case. So theres a possibility some other jurors may reconsider whether theyre really willing to take this on. Thatll take time to deal with. And then the judge is expected to issue a decision about what exactly trump can be crossexamined on this was a big issue last week, lawyers are trying to prevent prosecutors should be able to talk to chomp about some of his other civil liability. If and when he would actually testify. And thats a big question. Exactly. And according to my sources, this is something that they are still very much considering now, of course, he loves it when we get into the william wont he game but im told that he has learned lessons from his participants the patient or lack thereof, in the recent civil trials. And he is still seriously considering testifying, which is part of why they had to have this hearing kayla, what have you been hearing from the trump world that we may hear from him at any moment. I mean, hes just arriving at core. We will be hearing from him throughout the day that is kind of in the plan that they have hatched over the last several days of what this is going to look like. On his behalf before you know whether or not we hear from him actually on the Witness Stand, we will hear from them going inside the courtroom and leaving, which todays obviously going to be a shorter date. I think a big part of what this is going to look like and what his team has been preparing for is their Opening Statement, which is going to be pretty short, pretty blunt, but they are trying to also charm and persuade these jurors just like the prosecution is trump for his part. His life is about to change when you walked that courtroom this morning for the next six weeks, we dont know what the outcome of this is going to be, what we do know that for the next six to eight weeks, potentially, he is going to be someone who sits in a courtroom who doesnt have a chance to respond in realtime in those moments as he is watching people who were incredibly close to him get up on that Witness Stand and say things that he disagrees with, that he contradicts, and things that are incredibly personal to have these allegations and these are people like hope hicks, his former top aide, and one of his closest confidants, Michael Cohen, his former attorney, david, who we may hear from today is going to be fascinating. This is someone that trump is known for decades. She used to publish a magazine called trumps style, and he may be getting on the stand to talk about trumps direct involvement in this agreement. He could be a critical witness in all of this. David, who was the head of ami American Media incorporated basically had a meeting with donald trump and Michael CohenIn The Beginning of the campaign, essentially saying that he would help donald trump get elected yeah, ill be your eyes and ears. And he did help him both to amplify stories that would help him. So stories that werent great about his opponents. And also by suppressing stories that could hurt trumps chances. Now when it comes to the Stormy DanielsHush Money Payment that was not made by ami or david, but they did help to suppress two other stories. Another alleged affair with Karen Mcdougal, and then a story via dorman that turned out to be false, alleging that trump on pad a child out of wedlock, but these were two stories that was willing to catch and kill by the right, thats the term that was used internally. Catch and kill, catch the story and then kill it. Yeah. Hey, the person pay Karen Mcdougal for the rights to her story, but never actually published that story exactly. And he is such a perfect witness to kick goff this trial. Hes such a colorful new york character like you said, hes known trump for decades, and he was so loyal to him. He wanted to help him in the election of course, ami has has admitted it to a Campaign Finance violation for the Karen Mcdougal payment and david had a nonprosecution in agreement, but he did help when Michael Cohen also pleaded guilty. So hes a central character and all of this, even though he didnt pay Stormy Daniels and facilitate that payment, he tipped cohen to the fact that she was shopping her story to help them surprised Karen Mcdougal is not thats not part of the charges here. The catch and kill Karen Mcdougal story, but it is going to be introduced as to try to show what patterns actually of, of killing unfavorable stories thats going to be the challenge for the prosecutors here. I mean, that is really the heart of all of this is they have to find a way to more directly link trump to this payment to these agreements, to this entire process. And thats why theyre going to use those other stories to try to say that it was a pattern and notice how it came, right before the election. And in this effort. And thats why david could be key. But, but i think big picture when you look at what trump hes been saying, is he his mindset going into this . Hes complaining about the gag order incessantly. Im told privately the idea that he cant directly attack the judges family. The prosecutors in this case, he can go after alvin bragg, but not other members of the team. That isnt something that well talk about more tomorrow, but it has been a big thing of his the other thing interested, theres a lot of security outside the courthouse. Understandably, we saw what happened last week. It is a former president who is going on trial. Trump has been complaining that his supporters, when theres only a few dozen, its not a huge group because weve been live outside the courthouse for several weeks now. That they cant come closer to the courthouse because he he is viewing this all through the lens of the Campaign Trail and what that means going into it and the fact that they are kept cordoned off a bit of a distance so people can get in and out of the courthouse has been driving him crazy all right. Kaelyn will be back here. Jake, lets get back to you in washington. Thanks. Anderson so obviously a big dairy and beyond the legalities of it, which i definitely want to dive into as well are the politics of it. Donald trump is the Presumptive Republican nominee for president , dana bash. How is he going to handle the fact that he is . Campaigning at the same time, he is a defendant. Not well, by all accounts, not happy at all. I was just talking to somebody who was a very involved in his political world who said that the way that theyre going to structure the strategy is theyre going to take their cues from the legal trump legal world, meaning what we are going to hear from the Trump Attorneys inside the courtroom is going to be echoed rather quickly by his, his Political Campaign. And thats obviously in part just to kinda get the, the echo chamber out. But its also because there is frustration in that comes from the top, that comes from donald trump about this gag order that they were talking about a new york that weve been talking about weeks. Now because it does limit just on the rod politics of this. It does limit them in their ability to let say theres a witness and they want to put some dirt out on the witness. You cant do that because the gag order and i was just talking to laura before we were talking on air. The gag order doesnt allow them to do that. And the one thing i will also add is that a sources familiar with trumps thinking told me this morning that he is just mad at the world, that the world, and hes in the courtroom and jaime again go, this is a guy who is very used to control everything. It must be frustrating for him to not have any control of all these events. I think lack of control is going to be the key thing that we watch over the next four, six weeks the other de the judge told him to sit down. Hes not used to people speaking that way to him the other thing is, donald trump is really not used to starting his day at nine or nine, 30 in the morning. He famously would not show up to the oval office until 11 or 11, 30 he is going to be having to show up in court, is called and stay. The other thing is the jurors are going to be watching him. Theyre going to be watching every move i think over time the question is inperson, is he bigger than life or is he diminished . One of the potential jurors who was dismissed came out and said to us you know, he was just some guy just some guy lets dive into the legalities of it. All law codes. What are you expecting to hear from the prosecution today . Well, theyve got to hit the ground, not just running, but sprinting a lot of this in the facts had been known to some degree, he will know whos drama daniels as they know who Michael Cohen is, they know who david or least National Enquirer as they know donald trump. And so the prosecution is going to have to figure out a way to suggest that this is somehow different, that they is delete with their trumps, so to speak. And this is not a personal matter between a man trying to hide it from his wife. It was an intentional at trying to defraud people by having falsified Business Records that form these invoices and what not and prove it. There was actual criminal activity here. They cannot rely on a little bit of innuendo or suggestion, or maybe even a dislike for him and the political space they have to prove their case theyve got do it pretty quickly to head off or will be the opening from the fans which will surely try to show this as a political win. Elie honig, what, what about the defense was expecting to hear from them . So first of all, theyre going to argue they have to prove their case. The prosecution bears the burden of proof, not just probably not just more likely, but beyond a reasonable doubt. And the defense is going to argue they cannot do that the defense is going to argue this is an ancient decrepit sort of dragged up out of the Depths Paperwork Case from eight years ago and theyre going to say its built on the back of a proven admitted liar, Michael Cohen. Michael cohen will be a central focus of both oh, openings today, but especially the defense theyre going to say this is a guy who doesnt just hate donald trump, doesnt just spew venom at donald trump, although he doesnt for a living, thats his job right now, is to hate Donald Trumps. So he is as biased as a witness, can get the defense will say and they will say this is a guy who has lied to congress two courts, to the irs to doj, and hes such a liar that he piles his lies on top of lies because he pled guilty to all those lives. And now he says he was lying when he pled guilty to those lives. So folks on the jury you cannot convict another human being and potentially take away his liberty based on the word of michael color. Thats a little bit of a preview of what i think were going i see from the defense, karen, what are you going to be watching for today in Opening Statements . So the prosecution has to lay out their case. Theyre not allowed to make arguments, but by law theyre required to lay out the elements of their case and what they intend to prove. But youre going to see them sort of teeter on a little bit of argument to make some of the points and counteract some of the points that lie jess made because they go first and so theyre going to anticipate what the defense is going to say an opening and theyre going to want to take the sting out of any of the arguments that lhs talked about. Very interesting with Opening Statements in Donald Trumps first Criminal Trial, just minutes away, were going to get, uh, judges perspective. From someone whos known the judge presiding over this case more than a decade. Thats ahead the sinking of the titanic. How would really happen . 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