Here in new york day 13. And the trump hush money criminal trial. Now history, including the former president today facing the woman he denies having an a fair width and is buying her silence and tonight looking its Company Books to cover it up. Stormy daniels who testified in great detail today, so much of the defense move for a mistrial, which the judge, though displeased by some of it, did not grant, meaning the defense got their first chance to crossexamine her this afternoon managing and points to raise questions about her credibility, which in the end will be up to the jury to decide theres going to be more Cross Examination On Thursday at one point, judge merchan also ordered defense attorney todd blanche to speak to his client, donald trump, who he said was Audibly Cursing at points during Stormy Daniels testimony behavior, the judge called contemptuous. As for daniel, shell be back on the stand when the trial resumes thursday back with the panel right now, joining us cnn, legal analysts elie honig and norm eisen, who served as special counsel, the House Democrats during the first trump impeachment and is the author of trying Trump A Guide to his first election interference criminal trial. So youve been writing courtroom diaries. Norm, what stood out to you today were the biggest takeaways from her testimony Stormy Daniels is not a critical witness to the prosecution. Unlike Michael Cohen, whos coming up, shes principally a corroboration witness to provide additional evidence because all of the witnesses weve seen have credibility issues. I thought she was actually more effective on crossexamination, just watching the jury under the pressure of questioning from a Defense Counsel, her toughness and still came out. She pushed back on some of the aspersions that were cast upon her and she did provide corroboration about the 2006 sexual encounter, then kicked off this whole case, then the critical 2016, a Legend Campaign finance conspiracy. And then its cover up and you need that conspiracy and the cover up she centered on the conspiracy she brought us back after a very dry documents de so youre saying she was better on crossexamination because she was more natural and authentic as opposed to her initial dont testimony, which was i mean, it was certainly rushed from what we heard from outside the court. I felt that she was not as effective. Its unusual, but sometimes witnesses do perform better on cross. It was a challenge to her and her genuine persona came out shes a writer. She writes scripts, shes a performer and i felt that the direct was a little bit to performative. She was more genuine on the cross. What do you make the Defense Calling for mr. All well, we eleia and were chatting about this. There was no chance hence that they werent going to get a mistrial. They wanted to make a point the judge did agree with them that the testimony went too far, but i dont trump cannot have been too happy about this. The judge pointed out that the defense had failed to object at certain points that he had to suh a spontaneous on his own object at one point, it did go too far. Anderson, there were too many extraneous issues a reporter asked me, did she talk too much . I said the problem wasnt talking. It was a failure to listen. She was not hearing the questions and responding to the questions she was going over that script, but i do think in the end of the day, just watching the jury in the afternoon the prosecution continued to advance its case. This today was more of three yards and a cloud of dust. And both, both sides got things that they wanted from todays examination. So its interesting because it was doing our live coverage following along with our minute by updates from inside the courtroom. And i had the exact opposite impression. Now, you had the benefit of being in the courtroom, so i will defer to that, but we do also have to be careful when we play sort of amateur psychologists to the jurors movements, though they were leaning forward, theyre taking taking notes. Okay. They could be taking notes because they think this is a great point, or they could be taking notes because they think this makes no sense. And i dont believe it. So lets just all be cautious in reading into the jurors physicality my impression was she was plausible on her explanation of what happened in that hotel room. Its hard for me to believe that a juror heard that and thought this is entirely made up. There may well be some embellishments with arthur. Arthur, i think pointed out effectively in the last hour. But i think its quite clear they had sex in 2006 in that hotel room. But the cross exam boy, her responses were disastrous i mean, do you hate donald trump . Yes. Of course, she does. Thats a big deal. When the witness hates the person whos liberty is at stake. Thats a big dam feel and shes putting out Tweets Fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility the fact that she owes him 500,000, she by order a core owes donald trump a half Million Dollars instead, i will never pay him. I will defy a court order. The defense is going to say shes willing to defy a court order, why shes not willing to respect an order of a judge, why she going to respect this oath she took. So i thought it went quite poorly on cross exam at the end of direct, i thought. Okay. They got what they needed, but but i think the cross is making real i ask you both about part of the cross that that has been a theme of the defense, which was this whole thing is just extortion. These are people who had a way of extracting money from donald trump. And thats what they did with the threat of disclosure zinc stuff. He didnt want disclosed. How do you think that plays into this case . You go first look i thought that the importance of starting with pecker who makes clear that there is an agreement and he was very persuasive and the rest of the case, including put the documents half of the case two, the sayyed the cover up to the side, stormy didnt have anything to say about that. The rest of the case is all a followon to pecker establishing the contours of this Campaign Finance election interference conspiracy. So jeff, if donald trump himself set up the arrangement that was later executed, that rabbits the Extortion Point and let your point, its not the notetaking that i found so telling on cross it was that they didnt take notes. They paid attention, they listened and shes showed her still. What are you supposed to do . She did do that tweet. She does hate donald trump. I think juries, if youre honest with them, that is the one thing they want. You can. Arthur has made a very pretty good living off of this principle. If you are honest with them, they will trust you. They will leave not lose credibility on that point. There was one confusing line of questioning where she didnt seem to have a solid timeline on why she signed the agreement where she shifted from saying that it was not out of a desire for money, it was out of fear that she signed this agreement. She said that she didnt want the story to get out, but then she said that she she just wanted the story to get out. And then she said she assigned it because she figured it was just easier to do this, to stay quiet, to let them by her silence. I thought that was a little bit confusing given that is actually what gets to the heart of this, which is the catch and kill aspect of this the fact that she couldnt get out there with her story, what theyve been leading up to, what david pecker, karen mcdougal, now to Stormy Daniels, that was something that didnt get a lot of clarity in the courtroom today i mean, the more i marinate on this test maybe the strategy is in part to show frankly, with all due respect how mesto of a person, Stormy Daniels is and from Donald Trumps perspective, even his demeanor in the courtroom today, the way that she really gets a rise out of him it makes it very easy to explain why he would think, it is extremely important to keep this womans story from coming out at the exact moment that she was threatening to tell the world. She would have been a character that would have absorbed all of the energy in the campaign had she been outfront in that particular moment . For whatever its worth, the juries saw that today in for all its good parts and its bad part. Stormy daniels is who she is and shes not a clean witness in the sense that shes not always telling a straight story. Shes not always coming across as credible. Maybe shes acting sometimes, maybe shes not. There was definitely something that happened, but the degree to the nittygritty details youre not really sure how much of it is true. And all of that as part of the package. And you can see why donald trump didnt want that to come out youve talked to well, im the former president has denied any kind of sexual liaison with Stormy Daniels. Do most republicans supported theres and others believe him i its hard after today, i think especially i think a lot of people said, well, shes coming forward because hes running for president and look at this, but theres all these instances of donald trump denying this. I mean, there are countless when he was in the white house and briefing rhoad, and theres one where even after he was confronted by our border, he denied it were not changing any stories. All im telling you is that this country is right now running sos mode and to be bringing up that kind of crap and debris, bring it up, which ons all the time thats all you want to talk about. You didnt youre going to see you excuse me, not enough, but you have to excuse me. You take a look at what i said. You go back and take a look. Youll see what i said. To catherine. Lucys credit. She was the one who asked him the question on Air Force One where hes in the hallway and he denies know youve to ask Michael Cohen about that. I dont know anything about that. Obviously, we later learned that was a lie. He did know about it. I think the one thing that we havent talked about enough today is his level of anger inside that courtroom. I mean, i have been watching trump as he was in there with keith davidson, the moments where he was closing his eyes and not really paying attention or trying to pretend like the testimony wasnt happening. He made no illusions of not listening. Today, he was glued to that screen. He had a scowl on his face the whole time when he walked in and out of the room, he was downright angry the only time he didnt seem really furious was as he was exiting the courtroom at the end of the day after susan niclas had delivered a pretty brutal beginning of that crossexamination, but trumps anger and watching Stormy Daniels and the two of them being in the room for the first time in 17 years, they have not seen each each other since 2007. It was palpable even from where i was in the very, very back corner of the room. You could see how angry he was the longer her testimony went on. And you can see how happy he was as you just said, when he left the courtroom, because when he came outside his Statement Today was you could see this case is falling apart because i forget. I think that every day no, no, he doesnt know. He says every day that i cant get a fair trial. The judges, its not fair. The jurys not fair. But today, because i think when caitlin just said susan niclas came right out and said this wasnt about money. You said that this wasnt about money and of course its about money. I think i think abby said, were going to focus push it away from the sets and go about money, money, money. This was all about money for you before Stormy Daniels testified. I dont want to suck all the air out of the room, but before she testified, the jury heard from this publishing executive, and it was actually really interesting. The prosecutor had her read a number of passages from two different books. One was how to be a billionaire. One of the quotes was this is a donald trump in this book, which was written, says, as i said before, i always sayyed my checks, so i know where my money is going in the same spirit. I also always try to read my bills to make sure im not being overcharged another time and how to be a billionaire. He wrote, as i said before, owe same thing as i said, i always im my tax. This is what the case is about this is the charge in the case which is that he made false business records. So i thought that was extremely incriminating. Now, what i what i thought was hilarious and fascinating was his Charles Barkley defense. Now, you may not understand that reference is the Charles Barkley the basketball player and broadcaster rhoad, an autobiography even i know who charles, anderson, i always want to be careful issues. And he claimed he wrote an autobiography and he claimed he was misquoted and his own autobiography, the crossexamination, was effectively that is that will trump doesnt really really write his own books. I think thats going to be a tough sell for the jury, and that i mean, thats not going to seal the case, but that meticulous attention to his own bookkeeping is something that is very important in this case goes right to the issues and and i think is going to be a big problem. And a manner that yesterday i thought Sally Franklin, thats her name. Lets remember Sally Franklin to me, the legal nerd in me. She was the star of the day. I mean, that testimony about what donald trump himself wrote in his book is devastating. Remember, last night we were talking about what does he know . Does he know about the accounting . Is he familiar with the invoices . She quoted him saying, you have to check out every invoice you have to know every paper clip to me that was a much certainly better witness for the prosecution. Ultimately less dynamic, but more important. I know it sounds ridiculous. But it doubles down on what the jury heard yesterday from another the person who knows trumps practices very well, who said the same thing trump would get invoices and be like, dont pay this and go back. But not one. Jaroun is going home today thinking about what Sally Franklin test by closing closing. Thats gonna be up on the baby, but ill just say right now, im like what the theres a mistake on the prosecutors. Take it for the reality. Is all bad i mean, if i thought about it, youre thinking about somebodys salary for remember her name, right . But the fact delhi that just its trump like the quote from the book, right . Make sure youre not getting overcharged. Look at the bill and make sure you sign and youre paying the right amount of money. As you know, mr. Prosecutor, thats not enough to prove any element of this crime, correct . Oh, it goes to a very important aspect once the asymptote he was aware of the whole check scheme, the Reimbursement Scheme to Michael Cohen. Its onpoint, but its not its not recorded anyway, its got afforded in his book no, hes not signing the book. He doesnt have the book. This is just jim signing a check. Its gotta go. Wheres this book that is being recorded . And hes donald trump signatures in the check on the check, he does not know. Okay. Ill yslow burn put it down as a Campaign Expense or some other, you know, expense. We dont know the book, is donald trump . This is my practice. This is how i run my business. I check every invoice. Its not him saying i checked them. Michael cohen invoices that would be there was also a quote in one of the books about Alan Weisberg and how hes been there by aside for 30 years and how close they are and the book, another page of the book corroborated the story that we heard from geoff mcconney. Youre fired because he did not feel he was monitoring trumps cash positions closely enough for me the most this is real legal nursery but the most fascinating part of the examination of the publisher was the redirect, because the problem hi scooters later trap on cross blanch said, well, wait a minute, there was a ghostwriter, there was a coauthor, and then the prosecutors came back with all of the personal details of the acknowledged the cowriter was like a young mother who was quoted in there and it just hammered, but also the core right. Are wasnt like an established writer who would have just invented all this stuff. It was somebody who was like, part of the system works at trusts organization and sits outside his desk. So the idea that she is making up all these quotes seems highly unlikely. However, katelyn is totally right, but not a single juror remembers what morning woman she works for the trump organization. Shes a staff. Are there i think shes in her 70s now. Shes the one who helped melania trump, right . Her rnc speech in 2016, that plagiarized parts of Michelle Obamas speech. And she had to apologize and she took the blame for that just to bring this all Full Circle Living in 2016 at this moment, but so on so 30 good day, Stormy Daniels is back. How long . I mean, if you are the defense attorney, where do you go . Oh, wow what theyve done before. Okay. So this is how it works months ago, they take Everything Store again, those i said everywhere, and you put it. Im old school, so i just do it on paper, but they put it on an spreadsheets and its by topic. What did she say about how she met trump . What did she say in the book . What did she say . Hands as a group or what did you say . Heres what did she say there. So you have all those checklists and all these different topics. And then on this side its like all these different interviews and then look, you have to have it so memorized. So in your soul, when youre the lawyer stand ending up there, that youre react to, you dont have times they are hold on them and madame, witness, let me look at this. You ought to be like, oh, really, thats what youre saying today. We