Students say theyre now enduring on campus after todays a propalestinian demonstrations at some of the countrys fomost universies. Good eveni. Anks for joini us today. 12 w york cy juro and s alternates got their fsteek reved fromhe everyday ld far whitecoar charges tyve been chosen to hear a wod of celebrity tyons, pn stars, allege payof, Sleazy Tabloids and legal fixers safe to say, 34 counts of falsifying Business Records never looked like this before. And no president or president ial candidate has ever been where ts one is or demonstrably less in control of his owfaith that donald trump which seemed to be written on his face as he sat tough Opening Statements, then watched his onetime Tabloid Publisher friend tests to five for the prosecution trump is facing possible present time if convicted and fines for allegedly violating a gag order d trying to explain at he did not with the prosecution alleges, namy, Cover Up Hush Money payments to porn star to keep voters from finding out this is a se where y pay a exact term they use. s the Legal Expense in e books. They didnt call it cotruction, they didnt y youre buildina building, buhe puts in an inice or whatever a bill and ey pay me go into Legal Expense. I got indicted for that today. As Kara Scannell starts off, n she was inside the courthouse during the trial. Now shes outside. So at was the scenes like . What was it like Behind Closed Doors . So interesting, you said donald trump sitting at the Defense Table, he was taking notes and handing pieces of paper to his attorneys during the prosecutions oping statement. And then when his lawyer took the lectern to address the jury, trump had turned to face those jurors and more than half of them raise their hand when the judge asked if anyone wanted to know pad and a pen, so they were actively involved paying close attention, but also in an extraordinary move today, the chief administrative judge agreed to publish a transcript of the proceedings every day, so the public could follow word for word. This historic proceeding as Opening Statements got underway today i think it went very well prosecutors open their case today saying it all boils down to a conspiracy and cover up that Trump Orchestted A Scheme To Corrupt the 2016 Presidtial Eleion an coved it uby lying ihis dirict attorney, matthew colangelos ying it was ection fraud, purend simple. Trump attorney todd blanche argued theormer president is innocent. Blanche also claimed there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election in his remarks, colangeloa lead prosecutor on the case. So the alleged crimes began at an august 2015 Meeting Heating between trump, Michael Cohen, and x National Enquirer publisher david the first witness to testify in the trial on monday, colangelos said the three formed a conspiracy at president ial election by the concealing negative infoation aboumr. Trump in order to help him get elected the prosutions said agreed to lp by damaging infortion on trump me it go away, a move known as catch and kill at the center of the case, a 130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels just weeks before election day in 2016, the prosecution said a sexual infidelity especially with a porn lets start on the heels of the access Hollywood Tape would have been devastating to his campaign. So at trumps direction, cohen negotiated the deal to buy daniel story to prevent it from becoming public before the election, trump has denied having an affair with daniels prosecutor said trump did not want to write the check himself. So cohen put up the money colangelos argued trump cohen and former Trump Organization cfo Allen Weisselberg agreed cohen would be paid back in monthly installments through fake invoices to the Trump Organization in a nod to cohens past credibility issues, prosecutors said key witnesses like cohen have made mistakes in the past and encourage the jury to keep its been openmind and carefully evaluate all of the evidence that corroborates Michael Cohens testimony then it was trumps attorneys turn. Blanche said the das office should never have brought this case. He said the prosecution story is not true, and the jury will find plenty of reasonable doubt. He pivoted to paint trump as a husband and father saying hes a person just like you and just like me, trumps team suggested the Payments Trump made to cohen. Were not a payback for funds paid to Stormy Daniels, but instead payments to his personal attorney. Trump defended himself against these charges after court on monday so whatever bill and they can make all the Legal Expense i got indicted for that land shifted blame to cohen saying the reality is mr. Trump is not on the hook, is not criminally responsible for something mr. Cohen may have done years after the fact, blanche said the prosecutions outline of a supposed catching killed deal with was not a scheme, but completely irrelevant. Events. And not illegal in the afternoon as briefly took the stand, he did not look at trump, but trump look directly at him as he testified care what was david what did he talk about on the stand because it was limited his time today . David was on the stand for about 20 minutes and he started to describe to the jury how the National Enquirer operates, telling them that they engage in checkbook journalism, meaning that they would pay for stories. Now he also said that he had to email accounts, including one that he used for confidential and sensitive matters, will be back on the stan tomorrow and he is expected to testify about these catchandkill deals at the heart of the case, anderson curves can help. Thanks so much showing his now jury consultant, jill huntley taylor, former Trump Campaign adviser, davidai, urban bestselling author and former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin also form and hadnt chief assistant District AttorneyKaren Friedman agnifilo, and timmy agangawilliams, who served as Senior Investment get to counsel to the House January 6 committee. A lot to talk about, geoff. I just reread your piece from the new yorker years ago about david profile of him, what stood out to you today about, i mean, why is he the first witness . Why is he so important . Well, you could see that in the way coenzyme talk about the how this case is going to work. Thats the prosecutor prosecutor, which is this was a conspiracy to help donald trump win the election through the suppression of bad news stories as three of them one of them being Karen Mcdougal the one alleged affair with alleged affair. The other was adore man who alleged falsely the trump was the father of a child. And the third, of course, with Stormy Daniels, who is the basis for the charges in the case. And david is the key figure in all three of these who basically controlled the money, or at least for two of them he controlled the money for how these stories were going to be suppressed. And that, thats what thats what colangelos talked about in the Opening Statements, and thats what cracker began to testify in his testimony today. And qarrah white is the suppression of these stories matter . Because at the time hi and what they were trying to do in the Opening Statement and what theyre going to try to do through the witnesses is take the jury back to 2015 and 2016 when none of this information was out in the open and the access Hollywood Tape had just come out and the campaign very much did not want these negative stories. Trump was not the candidate that he is today with the popularity that he has now, he was sort of a candidate that, that was a long shot candidate and he was trying to suppress these stories. It was very important to his candidacy to suppress these negative stories on the heels of the access Hollywood Tape, i think the insiders, like hope hicks, like david, like Michael Cohen, are going to really take us into what it was like back then and why they were so desperate to get these stories suppressed and the defense said in their Opening Statement, spoiler alert, theres nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. Its called democracy so whats wrong with trying to influence an election by suppressing these stories. Well, i think what what the prosecution is going to argue and is arguing that these were unlawful election contributions in part, write that here, donald trump, he could have paid for a catholic kill. Thats fine. Youre allowed to enter ndas. Thats fine. What you cant do is getting this kind of conspiracy here to how fons going to impact an election because we have rules and regulations as to how you can spend Money Election and have it has to be reported. Donald trump here, the accusation being that he took bunny had it paid out, didnt report it like would be required and then engage in this still meant and thats part those Business Records. So its the underlying Business Records crime and its done to conceal a separate crime here, potentially being this election fraud. So i think thats whats interesting here, is that theres really going to be approving up of initial crime that is charged, that focuses on Election Schemes or whatnot. And i think later on were going to get to the lesson kind of the more boring crime which is these documents, these 34 misrepresentations allegedly by the prosecution, but its all going to come down to why were these payments made was donald trump just a husband trying to protect a wife, perhaps, or was he actually a candidate trying to protect the campaign . And that would make it unlawful. Urban is lavish chocolate i actually have a little bit of hope there. Lets inductively die. Explain that. I was like, wow, if a jury has got to buy that, maybe were gonna get a hung jury. Maybe we get a not guilty because that is a lot of ifs ifs that ifs and its a lot of Connective Tissue to get the actual crime. Hear what trump is saying in what he just said was, look it said on the 34 things there signed legal fees or whatever the exact wording of it what i mean if its a payment to an attorney, hes saying its legal fee. So any payment in tune, attorneys illegal arguments have great jury appeal. I mean, they have great jury appeal. Theres simple. They make sense. Its like why i paid a lawyer. Thats a legal fee that makes sense. I can influence election, of course. Of course everybody does that. Thats democracy. He makes these very simple arguments. And no matter how complicated the case is, a jurys going to make it simple, but i felt the defense pointed out what appears to be a real weakness in the governments case. Today which is, i dont think the jury is going to have any doubt that this was hush money. I you know, this this whole idea that it was just money to cohen. I think its ridiculous, but the charge in this case is that donald trump cause these documents to be filed filed falsely, and donald trump was the head of a very big company and a bookkeeper filled out these forms. How did trump tell the bookkeeper what to do when it appears that trump had no contact with the book, but what were some of these checks done in the white house itself . Im in trumps sign these chairs, right . I mean, i dont think theres any doubt that trump signed the checks, but the issue is how were they recorded in the corporate records of the Trump Organization . The charge here is that that was false. And how trump made those entries in the corporate records false that leap is something i havent heard how the government is going to prove it. We have a long way to go but thats something i think is raising a question. Is it to influence the election or is stay off the couch, right . I mean embarrass wife and bears family. I mean, is that what it was paying for the argument against that is he then later on after the election, sort of at my understanding, is asked Michael Cohen, do we have to actually go through during pe Stormy Daniels . So if he was really concerned about his wife finding out, im not sure he would be raising the question of whether or not he needed to pay. Well, thats thats got of Michael Cohen get on the stand and testify. And if somebody were about that right. But i think the timing context is going to be everything here. I think i do not think theyre gonna be able to prove up that he was a caring husband that was worried about what his wife at home thought. I mean, one, theres consistency with the behavior of potentially would still be daniels that he was just caring husband, that the Defense Lawyer suggested in their opening. But the timing is going to be everything this this will camp it Michael Cohen had a Campaign Email address. These are individuals hope hicks, shes not shes not working for him personally. These are folks are trying to get this demanded elected president. And thats a contact by which its happening. And if after the election he no longer thinks he asked to follow through, he still married to bolonia, so if he was concerned a motivated by protecting information why would the fact that hes now president changed his views if it was really a family personal issue, he would still be as committed to protect information i would just simply say that maybe its not maybe the store is not that interesting once hes elected a lot of other things coming down the pike, right . And it just kind of an adjunct to this, just were quickly to raise republicans look at this and saying, this seems awfully similar to what happened with 100 biden laptop pre the 20 election. Youre hearing a lot of that from republicans so it doesnt take as it has enough, dont know with hunter biden . No, no, it does. Hold on for a second. Let me explain, right. So people will say the biden story was put put out there and saying 75 intelligence officials said that this was all russian propaganda and didnt get in the news. Nobody really looked at it before the election, right . There was a conspiracy, a coordinated effort to keep it out of the media until after the election. And people say, nobody peel back the onion that no one is looking at that. And so why, why does trump and jeff again, it seems like playing people in congress are looking at things they just havent really found anything. So when they do, we can talk about about the conspiracy to keep it out of the media before but nobody took it seriously. For The Last Hunter Biden has never run for president , has never been subject to Campaign Finance regulations. Were talking about candidate trump when a president. So i think thats a clear distinction what stood out to you about the former president s . Did anything stand about the form persons behavior today . Yeah, a lot stood out to me the main thing though is that he once again violated the gag order. He walked up of court and started talking about Michael Cohen and tomorrow morning, court is not starting until 11 or the jurys not coming back until 11 because theres a hearing in the morning in order to determine whether donald trump violated the gag order ten other times, but then he walked out yesterday or this morning . I should say. And talked about it again was to talk about witnesses. Hes not supposed to talk about the witnesses and so its going to be can you call him a liar and fraud and a couple other things. And so i think the judge but like Michael Cohen, people were sort of public figures now other witnesses and the comments about the jury, he he made some comments about the jury last week, which i think the judge is going to be especially concerned about because judges quite properly are very concerned about protecting the anode anybody protecting the safety of jurors. They didnt sign up for this. Michael cohen is a public figure. Stormy daniels is a public figure, but these jurors are not public figures and private information is already leaking out about these people. And i think the judge quite properly is going to be very concerned about making sure these people can stay to the end. And not just throw their hands up and say, im not im not going to be part of this. Sorry, everyone. Thanks. Karen mentioned, judge them or sean, we want to bring in johnny jones, the form the third, the former chief judge for the us middle district of pennsylvania, joe jones. Appreciate you being back with us. What was your biggest takeaway from Opening Statements . Well, its interesting i think the Opening Statements were not unexpected theres a lot that the prosecution didnt say and im curious about that i think theyre kind of playing hide the ball, not inappropriately with some witnesses. I agree with y