Earlier. The defense tried hard to undermine former National Enquirer publisher david pecker and upcoming witness, Michael Cohen. Trumps attorney, emil bove, a asking if he believed cohen was prone to exaggeration, pecker agreeing that he was the end of it all, the former president had this to say about the trials so far this is eight days that we all sitting in this courthouse. This is all bidenrun indictment its an order to try and win election political opponent nothing like this has ever happened eight days country is going to hell and we sit here day after, day after day, which is their plan well, the foreign president offer no evidence. Of course, who any of those claims. Theres no evidence that any of what he said is true. And im joining us tonight, new york criminal defense attorney arthur aidala, also attorney and former apprentice contestant stacey schneider, cnn Political Commentator earl lewis cnn legal analyst lets karen friedman, agnifilo and elie honig and cnns Kara Scannell, who was in the courtroom today. And well be going through the transcript for us throughout the night i want to ask this everybody for care of for you. What stood out today well, i had an actual Front Row Seat today, sitting just behind donald trump. And when david pecker was testifying, trump essentially maintain the whole the same addition the whole time. It would seem like it was a bit tedious or boring to him. He was just sitting back in his chair with his head cocked in the direction of david pecker. Its hard to completely make out his facial expressions, but when rhona graff took the stand, we saw his Body Language changed dramatically. You mean she was testifying pretty favorably about him . Their crossexamination by his lawyer. And he then had shifted his chair so we can look directly at her. And then when she was leaving the stand and happened to be at a break and he stood up, which is normal and it looked as though he was trying to move toward her as if to talk to her. But it didnt seem like they had made any kind of connection, but it was a long day in court and he seems to sort of just take it in listening, but not really even actively engaging as much as his attorneys as weve seen on other days where he was actively passing notes today, he just seem to be taking it in to you. What would stood out. So the banker, the third witness, is the least sensational miss that weve heard from, but also in my view, the most important because when people ask, well, wheres the crime . Its really important to remember because weve just spent a week immersed in Hush Money Payments and porn stars and payouts. The crime is in the financing. And now were finally getting to that this banker basically started to establish that Michael Cohen was eager to get this line of final dancing set up. He felt a sense of urgency and there was some need to be undercover about the way they did it. And its important to keep in mind, Michael Cohen is the prosecutions star witness. But they have to show he committed a crime because if the jury does not believe Michael Cohen committed a crime, its over. Theres no way donald trump committed a crime. Lets Michael Cohen isnt very easy to show. Michael cohen committed crime given he spent time in prison yeah, he pled to the federal offense, which is a little different than the falsifying documents, which is the state offense. The hilt say he committed a crime, so it wont be that hard. But you want to establish exactly how he committed the crime, which is through this financing and then tied donald trump right to that what do i think what stood out to me this week is the entire defense is starting to take shape, are starting to understand how theyre going to present their defense. And its largely through the peoples witnesses rather than going on the attack and going on the offensive against the witnesses that have testified so far, there sort of embracing the facts but saying yeah, these things happened. Yeah, there was hush money paid, but weve been doing that. That was being done for everybody, wasnt had nothing to do with the election. This is just a Business Model and this is how it went. This is essentially how david pecker made his money and i just benefited from it to soda but he had nothing to do with the election, nothing to do with the election interference. And the reason thats significant is because elys right, its all about the records, but thats just a misdemeanor. What gets it to a felony is if it was done in furtherance of some sort of other crime, like Election Fraud. So i thought that was interesting because sometimes Defense Attorneys will go on the attack and theyll really attack the credibility and say this didnt happen and there was a little bit of that. David pecker, but not a lot, just a few little, little things. It was really mostly, yes. This is what happened but nothing to see here. Its not a crime and they want me pecker has said that this was about the election i mean, he said hes also was concerned about his family, but the election was front and center. Yeah. He pointed out that more or less the family was at best a secondary consideration. I was really struck by the fact that even he had some limits. I mean, hes talking about a very unsavory pecker. Pecker, very unsavory enterprise paying people to to sort of buy their stories and then buried those stories are putting out proactively. I thought that was also interesting proactively putting out all kinds of false stories against trumps enemies. This was sort of a complete enterprise. But then to also hear him say that there were limits to that, that he didnt want to buy Stormy Daniels story. You know, he says im not the bank not going to be an endless source of money to buy off all of your mistresses are all of the people that you want to keep quiet. It was interesting to me that like even within this really distasteful enterprise that he was running, he felt like he had some limits and apparently had talked with some of the lawyers for the enquirer and was told, dont take that at extra step. This could actually have some reputational harm. This could be a problem for you somewhere down the line. And thats why Michael Cohen ended up dipping into his own resources. Stacey habit for him. What stood out . Well today is interesting for me because rhona graff took the stand and i know rhona graff from being on the show. She is the nicest woman in the world. I always wondered how she made it through more than 30 years working for a difficult donald trump. But she literally is his gatekeeper. She knows all his schedules. And even though Hur Testimony was really short, the prosecution is being strategic. They got in those nuggets that rhona knew that donald trump had Stormy Daniels and Karen McdougalsPhone Numbers in his directory, rhona controls everybodys all the Phone Numbers that donald trump needs access to and the fact that stormy day and hills was in trump tower. She has a memory of her being there and regardless of what the purpose of Stormy Daniels being there was at that time, when you have Michael Cohen coming in, who the defense is going to completely argue as we all know, has credibility issues, placing stormy in the building, a Trump Tower Power is an advantage rather than just stormy and donald trump being in a photograph together, its sort of little nuggets that eventually i think will be tied up later in the case. So that was an enrollment was also a unionizing witness for donald trump incidentally, she was a prosecution witness, but shes affection about her boss and she always cared for him. And when Michael Cohen comes in, who is the most disgruntled former employee on the planet . The defense might remind the jury and closing statement that, hey, you know, donald trump is not hu Michael Cohen says he is. That might be a strategy well see, are there anything to prosecution . Or the defense is doing well karen has an enormous amount of experience and the other night or maybe less night, when i said theres an underlying elements of jury nullification, which is like okay, yeah, this all happened really, folks, are you really going to put this guy in jail for this for these crimes that youre not even going to understand when the judge reads the charge to you exactly whats going on here, and we just heard from mr. Pecker that it goes on all the time with celebrities at different aspects. Are they alive with Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for governor of the biggest state in the 90 states of america. Like this is underlying current and like karens point also, there are some times when you can attack and then theres other times when you like. All right, theres no way i could get around this right so let me figure out a way to adopt it and make it my own and use it in the way most beneficial to me. Because ill lose credibility with the jury if i tried to say that black is white and white is black but if i figured out a way to say its either black and i loved black or its white and i loved blight or its a little gray but not be this like a tucked dog. What i was quantity sq was Susan Nicholas question this witness, correct. What was because i know i you know of her shes like a mentor almost in that shes a very, very wellknown and well regarded criminal defense attorney. What was it like in the courtroom with having a woman stand up and conducting this and shes really a skilled lawyer, so im just curious if the dynamic changed. Well, the prosecutor who did a question was also female was susan and hoffinger who asked her the questions and she went through she was using graph to get in these documents because they havent had stipulations on a lot of the Business Records. So were going to see a lot of these document witnesses. But when Susan Nicholas took the took the podium and she was asking rhona graff these questions. She was leaning into the humanizing factor of donald trump. And at one point there are a few questions that she got in the prosecutors objected and the judge had sustained it essentially was like, okay, we need to move on to the next topic because she was drawing out this favorable image of donald trump through the eyes of rhona graff, qarrah, you been looking through the transcripts which we get them late very late in the day, what noted. On the hello crossexamination of david pecker today, the core of his hes a vehicle by the prosecution to set the stage and just talk about this august 2015 meeting in which this catch and kill conspiracy, as the prosecution has laid it out, began where he met with donald trump and Michael Cohen. So they were trying to go back to that meeting and suggests that it was just like business as usual, it was Standard Operating Procedure for the National Enquirer so Aiml Beauvais want to trumps Defense Lawyers had asked pecker on the stand. I want you i want to stick with the august 2015 trump tower meeting. Pecker says yes, beauvais says, at that meeting, the concept of catchandkill was not discussed, correct . Pecker said thats correct. They asked and then there was no discussion of a financial dimension to any agreement at that meeting, correct . Pecker said, yes, thats correct. So trying to say that there was no blatant conversation about a catch and kill in that im going to buy the deals now on redirect with the prosecution, they tried to put that back together with pecker saying i talked about either someone would have to buy the magazine story if it wasnt me, it was going to be using i was going to tell Michael Cohen and Michael Cohen was going to find someone who would take care of it so they put it back together. But this was a strategy by the defense, was that October Meeting in 2015 . Dean is important for the prosecution because thats really the origin of this arrangement that then move forward and we saw the results with the doorman and mcdougal and then later Stormy Daniels, even though National Guard in via Stormy Daniel story, right . Exactly. I mean, this is the beginning of the conspiracy and it was as pecker testified, if i had, it was Donald Trumps idea to have the meeting and that donald trump asked him, what can you and your magazine do for me . So this was the piece that trumps team was trying to chip away at, that they would have published a lot of these stories about trumps opponents anyway, because thats what the National Enquirer does. And it was good for business for them because they would benefit their readers was like donald trump, that was one of the things that came out and the testimony that they had prior to that meeting, they had already published negative stories, isnt that right away . Then carson . And they went through a couple of things that they showed that the guardian had already published a lot of these stories about ben carson and the National Enquirer was just reading recycling and that it was coinciding with poll results. And they also establish that the National Enquirer had already done a bunch of negative stories on bill and Hillary Clinton that predated this meeting. So it wasnt something that was necessarily hatched then saying there was already a pattern here. So trying to really emphasizing that this is what the National Enquirer does and then prosecutors trying to say, but everything was different in 2015 because they did some of these things like bearing the Karen Mcdougal story that didnt benefit them much more to talk about, including more from the trial transcripts up next to a point that our lewis brought up earlier, the moment on the stand when david pecker admitted there were conditions under which he would publish a story damaging to the former president will its mango hint what it tastes, just like mango. How can water tastes just like fruit for a limited time, you, customers get over 45 author, drink hint. Com thats 36 bottles for just 36 only 1 per bottle hint ey, there brenda. Its carroll actually. Which like every operating on, you mean arm. Its all connected asking the right question can greatly impact your future. You share your an orthopedist actually, im a sagittarius, especially when it comes to your finances, give a question a us certified Financial Planner . Yes. Im a cfp professional Cop Professionals are committed to acting in your best interest. Thats why its got to be a cfp. Bind your cfp professional, and lets make a plan doubt or transfer your ira or your old 401 k to robin hood by april 30th. And well give you a 3 boost. With the biggest match of any ira on the market. Robin hood gold gets you the most for retirement when to leave works all day. So i can keep working nine, i take just one 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief ill leave. You do take it for and for fast topical pain relief, child leave x oh, yeah. Miss tickets from your inner child. What you really need life is some fricking torque was dodge cornered rt the totally torqued out crossover when youre home needs work, where do you go . Angie. Angie. Angie gay man with angie find top rated certified pros in your area, plus compare quotes and pricing to help you get all your jobs done well, find my name is oluseyi and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. Now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. Giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. Job. Now that stock x. Com, im kevin liptak at the white house. And this is cnn in a week on the stand, former tabloid publisher, david pecker gave jurors and upclose look at how he bought and killed stories on behalf of donald trump. This course at the center of the prosecutions theory of the case and why he was there lead witness today under crossexamination, though, he admitted there were limits to that arrangement and conditions under which he would publish something damaging to his friends specifically regarding the first catch and kill story of doormans false claim that the former president fathered a child out of wedlock. Heres the exchange between pecker and trumps attorney Emil Beauvais Pecker did testify under oath that if he ran the story, it would have been after the election, which makes the argument that this was to protect trump going into the election. But as soon as the election was over, pecker would have run doormans story because it would have been in his words, extremely popular or not his exact words. But he said it wouldve been extreme poplar among the National Enquirer audience back with the panel joining us as well as barry levine, former executive editor of the National Enquirer. Barry, im wondering, you know, david pecker, obviously, well, you worked with the enquirer for a long time. You had some involvement wit