Americans are not. This is at the end of the de, this will be about whatever the jury thinks about all of that, everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you for watching a Special Edition of newsnight on trumps Hush Money Trial. Our coverage continues with a Special Edition of Laura Coates Live next Stormy Daniel aspides back against attempts to shame her and her career. Another trump inside are tearing up on the stand and the judge rebuked zone trumps lawyers welcome to a Special Edition of Laura Coates Live so we knew all this was going to be coming out. Right. But we didnt actually know it would be this explosive for this amount of time trumps team attempting a fullon assault on Stormy Daniels credibility on now day 14. And his Hush Money TrialDefense AttorneySusan Necklace, who was the one grilling daniels for hours, trying to paint her as being only in it for the money trying to make it appear as if she had a huge vendetta against trump trying to make her appear very unstable and try in a tarnish or work as an Adult Film Actress and director and throw it all stormy wasnt having it. She was defiant throughout. She stood her ground and defended her character in spite of the oncoming assault and one of the more combative exchanges, necklace going after daniels about whether she made up everything about trump that was asking so you have a lot of experience and making phony stories about sex appear real, right . Angles responded, wow, im at, well, thats not how i would put it. The sex in the films is very much real. Just like what happened to me in that room look, we knew that trumps team wanted to appear aggressive and going after daniels. But heres the thing im thinking about. What if their strategy actually helps the prosecutions case. I made the defense wants the jury to believe and they do that this woman is all about the money she only cared about that and her bottom line that she was ruthless and shrewd and had every intention and making sure the story got out there somehow some way it cut cost to anyone but herself well isnt that exactly what Central Casting would look like for the person that youd want to pay off to keep quiet tonight, we will dig into how that could play into the jurys thinking and speaking of intense testimony, we also heard from a trump insider who worked in the white house just outside the oval office, by the way and our name Madeline West or howd and if is using her to try to Connect The Dots of what this case is really about if those you forgot with all the details have been coming in its about falsified Business Records and the 34 counts of it the scheme all to try to keep Stormy Daniels quiet and hide it according to prosecutors from the transparency of an election. And her testimony, by the way, it did lay some of the groundwork for trying to bridge that gap and Connect The Dots. But she also showed that she wasnt there to tear down the form of resident, even crying. She does bribed her white house departure. And the days of crying and shouting back and forth witnesses that that wasnt enough. The judge will he scolded the defense again after the jury left . He rejected two motions brought by trumps team. One was a modified gag orders that trump could now talk publicly about somebody who was the longer a prospective or future witness. But a past witness, Stormy Daniels and get another move for a mistrial based on what they thought was the unlawful and wide scope of questioning that came in about the details of the alleged Sexual Encounter and beyond a lot to unpack weve just got the right group to do all of it. Weve got cnn senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz, cnn opinion contributor and former house gop Investigative Committee councils of nelson, former trump attorney jim trusty. See you political commentator karen fannie, and former republican congressman joe walsh all of you to have shorter titles because my mouth theyre all here. Theyre all here. Again, here are coming. So great to have you so, first of all they needed to try to discredit stormy out. Thats the whole point of the cross but a really effective cross is one where you just get yes and no responses. Stormy. She was talkative, she was defined at times combative why did they spend so much time with someone who technically according the falsify a documents themselves is irrelevant, right . Im in the relationships are relevant. The fact that there was an nda is not disputed i think there was a shift of strategy thats not great. I mean, ive preached from the beginning, if youre on the defense side of this your entire strategy is make it a referendum on Michael Cohen, the entire case rises or falls on his credibility. Thats the perfect battlefield. I mean, you can crossexamine him for seven or eight months and still be getting good points. So please dont do that. Were gonna be done by 20 25, but we look easy. A target rich environment, its going to be a lot of phone to crossexamine him, but you want the jury to be thinking the only way we convict is if we believe this guy and i have to say from the other witnesses not stormy. It does seem to be gravitating towards hes the guy that could supposedly deliver this kind of cryptic theory of whats going on with the ledger and the check entries. So i think what happened is they started off disciplined then they had the ability to regroup over time and theyre talking to the client as well, and theyre thinking hey client has opinionated client but theyre looking at it and theyre saying, boy, shed gotten a bunch of gratuitous stuff like the original discipline was, lets not object too much. Thats not make it look like shes hurting. Well, that let her get into all these insane vivid details that hurt so they come back after the break and ago weve got to go strong after her so this has played out with a Mistrial Motion as well. That strategy of taking it on the chin, but acting like it doesnt hurt and then trying to come back in and essentially Opening Doors with their crossexamination for harmful redirect. So it kinda spiral into a different case for a few hours with this crossexaminati on, i dont think that was particularly helpful, but i will say shes also fairly target rich environment. I mean, when you have somebody on the stand talking about how shes been talking to dead people and getting paid for that. Theres gonna be some new york jurors that are like this Ouija Board Crap is, or they might not say crap and this ouija board stuff is really getting kinda silly and crazy. I cant trust this woman the, problem again for the state spent too much time dignifying her as a witness for a case thats about paper entries. I mean, i have i have love 0. 06. It was a hell of a moody i see why that happened, right. Trump went into the room and went crazy on his lawyers and said, you go after her and you deal with her and thats exactly what what happened. And thats why you had all this focus on stormy damage to your point when you shouldnt have and i think they hurt themselves actually defense that it will be interesting to see if they do to cohen, but i think she heard them. I mean, it was the way that they went after her and i tell you, i maybe its because i have been a Sex Prosecutor before, karen. Yeah. And one of the one yeah, its one of the one of the tactics people often will use as they in their defense will try to do and say anything to try to suggest that somehow the person who is stating that there has been a Sexual Encounter grande this is not something has claimed Sexual Assault or rape. She has said that this is consensual. Shes repeated over and over in the cross and shes not a victim. But they were intent on trying to talk about the number of sexual porins that she had done too to get to the partner count. They were trying to have the jurors be disgusted by her. And i guess jurors theyre not proves and i love that they actually think themselves. I have to think youre disgusting to believe you. Well, also, it is it was a time tested tactic, right of attacking in a woman for having sex, for having what some might think is too much sex or rough sex, or getting paid for sex, or all of it. They were trying to make it all very unseemly at to go after her credibility but i kept thinking, you could have avoided this whole thing if you just want a stipulated to the fact that they had sex, we would not have had to hear any of that, but trump wont do that, right . The heat fundamentally, he says it never happened. So that is why weve had two days of testimony from Stormy Daniels and youre right. I mean, its who knows how the jurors took it. One thing that struck me was just from the tone and tenor of how the Defense Attorneys were questioning Stormy Daniels versus hope hicks versus right . For some of the women on the jury, they might have not recognize that youre going to bully this woman and youre going to coddle these other women now i understand my home by the way, are the same or the same age. Now, or when they started perhaps as she was when she had this alleged encounter. And its led to that point, caitlin, i want to hear from you so because i am constantly wondering when there are two jurors you got to please you got to please the 18 that are in the room and convinced that theres gonna be 12 ultimately who will decide the case. You got the larger court of Public Opinion and electorate whats more important to the Trump Campaign . Trying to prove that he did not have sexual relations with this person. Or that was a clinton next but there or was it that this is a weaponized government . Well, judge merchan actually address this with just the lawyers at the end after the jury leaves and says to them, i dont know why you guys werent objecting more whenever these facts were first coming out, not only were you not objecting as these details are coming out into the record from Stormy Daniels is stuff thats making donald trump embarrassed as a candidate, his lawyers are saying that to the judge he is embarrassed as candidate. He wants to be able to publicly talk more to refute her story. And they didnt and they reminded the jurors today, during the cross of all of these details and the judge said there were other ways that you could have done this and you didnt. Your approach was one that is not working here legally for you to claim a mistrial at this point, talk to me about Hurt Me Astronomy by the way, is no Shrinking Violet as weve seen. And at one point they have, theyd asked for the gag order not to apply the people blackcurrant. She hasnt had protection was probably their argument. Michael cohen as well. Shes been tweeting tonight and she has been provoke. Yeah, she gets off of the stand six hours of testimony over two days and tweets real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court obviously, taking a shot at donald trump, who she talking about we proceed, laura. Like thats why i think this just all politically helps trump this. Stormy has nothing to do with the crime. Youre right that trump probably shed go after her, but in a weird way, if he can make this about stormy and its just a weird, Yucky Flaying that he had politically, his supporters think this doesnt matter. Thats and if shes out there, 20 happening in the courtroom or is this about whats happening in the discussion afterwards outside the courtroom, he wants to be able to counter her message thats being shared about the reporting on whats happening, what shes saying in the courtroom. Yeah. Im luckily, youre right the, judge is saying no thats what she says to do it in the courtroom, put the facts theyre if theyre if there needs to be a counter to what shes saying, the place to do that is not not going your oath though, because he knows thats a whole big problem for him, so no lawyer, am i right is go let him on the stand. Am i wrong . Because obviously youve been pretrial rulings that would affect him dramatically in terms of testifying, the judge that he could be cross a lot of somehow e. Jean carroll is relevant to this case. Theres all sorts of stuff theyd crime plus examine an arm. But the reality i think is just a more straight tactical decision. You want to make it all about Michael Cohen, period anything else is a distraction. President trumping on the stand telling his story. Its a distraction. And the reason why they appear inconsistent with these other witnesses is theyre getting friendly crosses, theyre getting concessions without raising using their voice. That is by far the best tactic here for all of these witnesses that are controllers that are hope hicks types theyre upset, theyre throwing stuff out that helps or hurts both sides a little bit. But ultimately, dont turn it into a battle where you look like theyre hurting you. And i think that this i think youd go back to the gag order for a second. The gag order is become simply a measure of ego at this point, the jury is sequestered. Theyre told dont hopefully dont Pay Attention and immediate questions. Not in a literal told not to be able to look at not to do, theyre not in a hotel by themselves, right . Right. Right. I mean, i always wonder when the judge says dont Pay Attention in the media if theyre not all getting on their phones on the ride home, but but luck, the reality is theyre being told dont Pay Attention anything happening out about this court courtroom, just Pay Attention to what happens in the courtroom. So donald trump saying anything from a to z its not criminal on its face, and its not affecting the jury. They are trying to protect witnesses. Thats the other piece. Its not just well, heres the thing. I mean sympathetic when cohen and stormy now our taunting from the freedom of their speech while somebody i remember him are free hello, and he said in the past that hes going to stop now, the problem is for both stormy and michael, is that they have said a lot four years and they are you talked about rich targets in the sense of being able to cross on them everyone standby, we have a lot more to talk about. Dont you worry, especially that especially what was the indictment candle on bringing that up and all the merchandise i want to bring in someone whos been in court all week. Asha bach o shay, shes a Justice Department correspondent for usa today also a lawyer. Ayesha, thank you so much for being here. I have a lot of questions. And one of them let me get right to the point. I want to know what was the jurys Body Language and reaction . To the discussion and me crossexamination by Nicholas AgainstStormy Daniels, how were they responding the jurors were really attentive. They have been attentive throughout this trial, but they have not been showing their hand. It is not as if theyre really telling people in the audience what theyre thinking about, whats happening. You can see the kind of thing that lawyers often talk about wanting to see in a jury where people are turning their heads left and right, theyre following where people are testifying. If its the witness testifying, thats where their eyes are. If its a lawyer asking questions, their eyes turn there. So you can really see that theyre paying attention, theyre taking lots of notes but it is not as if theyre showing what theyre thinking it was a really tough crossexamination from Susan Nechele is today. But the jurors werent really tipping their hats about what they think its just really clear that theyre paying close attention. Show me their and describe the tone that Stormy Daniels had and reaction to the relentless questions from neck glas, where she was trying to suggest a lot about the work that she had done, the number of sex partners shed had in her films. It appeared from just reading the transcript and daniels would not be moved or was n was unbothered by the same time she was defined. What was that exchange like . Who had the upper hand . Yes. I mean, Stormy Daniels is clearly no Shrinking Violet. If anything, she kind of pay more into her own when she was under crossexamination, you could see that she was ready to fight back. Thats actually a point that Susan Necklace made today. She showed that when Stormy Daniels has been harassed by people online who it might be trumps supporters. Stormy daniels, house responded. So we saw that on the Witness Stand to when Susan Necklace was going after her challenging sometimes really tiny details that necklace said were inconsistent. But to mean stories that daniels has told daniels was ready to shoot back what does it matter or what . Really is the difference between these two stories . If one time i said that trumps body guard came up to me and said, mr. Trump would like to have dinner with you and another time i said trump did it, but the bodyguard is sort of trumps agent. Is that rea