One day after cruised a portion of the wreckage as they work to read to refloat the vessel thanks very much for watching eri Burnett Outfront starts right now outfront next sparks fly. I was in the courtroom as trumps attorney went to battle with Michael Cohen, a brutal start for trumps attorney, but wasnt enough to sink cohen. Plus it out front exclusive Stormy Daniels husband speaking out for the first time what he said, he had stormy will do if trump is found not guilty. And breaking news, President Biden now reportedly sending his National Security advisor to israel. Will this trip the enough to pull netanyahu back . Fullscale invasion of rafah. Lets go out front and good evening. Im erin Burnett Outfront tonight, a crying Little Expletive. It got ugly in the Hush Money Case Today For Trump and right away, i mean, right off the bat, that was just one of the first leinz trumps defense attorney, Todd Blanche Confronted Star WitnessMichael Cohen, width as the crossexamination began this afternoon. So i was there watching as trumps former fixer went toetotoe with the trumps attorney and as i said, it was literally i mean, basically the first line, trumps attorney todd blanche starts his questioning by confronting Michael Cohen and hes he whether he was pretending to be or truly angry, he came off off. So angry that he was shaking and he pulls up a video that Michael Cohen and posted on tiktok and he said you went on tiktok and you called me a crying Little Expletive, didnt you . I mean, it was just so intense. Now, cohen responds sounds like something i would say trump leaned forward is blanche went on to grill cohen about other profanitylaced posts and this sort of intersperse tire afternoon, one of them was you refer to President Trump when he left the courtroom, you said that quote, he goes right into that little cage which is where he belongs in an effing cage like an animal if you, recall saying that, asks blanche cohen replies. I recall saying that again and again. Blanche tried to portray cohen is someone who is consumed with his hatred for trump. In fact, using the word obsessed and quoting it from one of trumps up, from one of cohens Books Blanche showed the jury a photo of cohen wearing this tshirt of trump in an orange jumpsuit. And a Month A Gleich that cohen cells online which reads, send him to the big house, not the white house. And the questions were fast and furious. Cohens answers were generally extremely short many times just saying Something Like sounds like something i would say now, cohen recently told me he was ready for trumps team to hit him hard, especially after seeing he said how they went after Fulton County de a fani willis, whom the trump team is still trying to get kicked off the Election Interference Case in georgia nobody, wants to do this. This isnt fun. Likud well, for example, with fani willis today, they get personal, they get nasty and i expect mine to be as nasty if not nastier than the questions that were thrown at fani willis hey, its gonna get even nastier as the cross continues blanche is the way skilled prosecutor he took on filing criminals and actually had worked in the same office as the Da Prosecuting Trump Alvin Bragg the formerly registered democrat, blanche is now changing his tune hes not registered republican and hes bought a home near maralago. He actually left his law firm and has gone out on his own with one big client, and he now works out of trumps 40 Wall Street building. And just about to state the obvious todd blanche is betting his future on trump you have a District Attorney indicting a former president United States, that is never, ever happened before and so being part of something where most of your briefing or most of your arguments at some point youre saying to the judge, this has never happened before, right . It is historic. The end though, is insight. Prosecutors say cohen is their final witness at the end of the day, blanche indicated that he was on track to finish his cross on thursday. Well see if he sticks to that. And the defense has left open the door to calling donald trump himself, which could change the timetable here paula reid is outfront live outside the new york courthouse tonight paula, what began as a very aggressive and direct crossexamination with blanche confronting cohen with the expletives that cohen had called blanch then took a very long and windy roads sort of going off here, coming back, going off theyre coming back yeah. It really did blanch jumped all over the timeline of this case and erin are told that is strategic because they know that cohen was prepared by prosecutors for a linear chronological, direct examination. Thats where he feels confident. So this approach was meant to throw him off his game. Now so far doesnt seem like its working, but we still have a long way to go Michael Cohen back on the Witness Stand Today facing tough questions from prosecutors and defense attorneys, were you have to set trump cohen trump attorney todd blanche came out swinging his first question to cohen. You went on tiktok and called me a crying Little Expletive just before the trial again, nodding in agreement, cohen said, sounds like something i would say trying to frame the witness as motivated by revenge. Blanche, question cohen about something he said on his podcast and october 2020, i truly expletive trump ends up in prison. Blanche press cohen on how he continues to defy prosecutors requests to stop talking about the case. Is it fair to say prosecutors have repeatedly asked you to stop publicly commenting on this case . Yes. Cohen replied, blanche noted that Cohen Profits from his relentless attacks on trump and on his its podcast, wore a Shirt Showing trump behind bars and you were encouraging people to buy it. Blanche asked. Yes, its part of the merch store. Said cohen. Blanche asked if on his podcast, cohen called trump a boris cartoon massage dentist, and a chito dusted Cartoon Villain that also sounds like something i said ed cohen admitted he was then asked if he was obsessed with trump. I wouldnt say obsessed. I admired him tremendously before he faced off with trumps attorneys prosecutors walked cohen through the documents at the heart of the criminal case, 11 checks. He says he received totaling 420,000 theyre submitting 11 falsified invoices marked for legal services. Were any of those checks in fact, for work during the months described in those check stubs, prosecutor asked no, maam. He responded. All part of the alleged conspiracy to pay cohen back the 130,000 in hush money. He paused similarly paid to Stormy Daniels. He also described how his relationship with Trump Unraveled as he came under federal Criminal Investigation and ultimately decided to break with trump and plead guilty to multiple charges in 2018, cohen are called how he felt after the fbi searched his home office and hotel room in 2018 . How to describe your life being turned upside down, concerned, despondent, angry. Cohen described a conversation he had with trump after the fbis search. The last time he says they ever spoke, he said to me, dont worry, im the president of the United States theres nothing here. Everythings going to be okay stay tough. Youre going to be okay. Cohen said, i was scared. I wanted some reassurance that mr. Trump had my back especially as this dealt with issues that related to him. He credited a conversation with his family, which she says convinced him to finally turn on trump. And begin telling in the truth. My wife, my daughter, my son all said to me, why are you holding onto this loyalty . What are you doing . Were supposed to be your first loyalty cohen said, i made a decision based again on the conversation i had with my family, that i would not lie for President Trump anymore. Cohen will be back on the stand thursday. Thats the last day of court. We have this week next week the defense is expected to call a few witnesses. Another client needs to decide if you too will take the stand. But aaron, at this point, it appears unlikely we will have a verdict in this case. For memorial day. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, paula. And everyones here with me, so norm, i was sitting behind you today you said yesterday that cohen took the prosecution across the rubicon, that everyone every prosecutor has to cross, right . That you that he had he needed to do that. He needed to prove that trump directed all of this but today, none of that even came up. I mean, blanche spent all this time showing that cohen hates trump and showing that cohen has profited off of state from trump. That was the de i was befuddled by todd blanches crossexamination e has a good reputation. I think that today we saw in that corner but room the tyranny of expectations, both ways. The expectations were very high for blanche, he disappointed coming Out Of The Box with objectional objectionable questions that were about him and co you are crying little had nothing to do with the case of very stern Revenue Furman from the judge got off on a bad foot. He meandered all over the map and then cohen benefited from low expectations. Everyone thought he would have a hard time on cross. He was disciplined. He was credible it was a bad start for blanche in and a good one for cohen, but as paula said, we have a long way to go. Blanche. Blanche had better throw out that big notebook that he brought with him today, tear it up, and start again tomorrow because it aint workin was there are any rhyme or reason to me because my notes today, i kept actually taking something that he would say, but how much money did you make on a book . And then i would just go put it up next to my notes about how much did you make on a different book because blanche kept coming back to the same point seemingly without purpose. What was the purpose to throw Michael Cohen, i mean or was it just not well organized. Well, no. Is start with this. This is the third time i am agreeing with norm. I dont know what that means, but i do think cohens stood up very well and i do think blanche did a poor job. He was all over the place maybe he wanted to throw cohen off, but i think hes throwing the jury off. You need to go sequentially. You meet the jury to understand what your points are and his points were, youre making money off of this, youre bias, youre not credible and you hate trump. Those were the points he was trying to make instead were all wondering where are you going . What is this winding road doing for us . I dont think he did a very good job. This is sort of one thing if you want to read real your big reveal, but you gotta give people some sort of a roadmap. Now jeremy, whats interesting is at the beginning, when blanche came out and there is a room in the courthouse, right where theres a lot of reporters and theres tv screens. Whats going on, youre not actually in the courtroom. So theres a little bit more reaction that room when when blanche starts off saying, you didnt you call me crying little you know. Okay. And theres eruption of laughter now on the actual courtroom, its completely stoic. But what was the reaction was a huge reaction. And so this room, it has probably about, i can have as many as like the 100 reporters and then theres about four rows of public. And so the public, they are lining up is our overnight lineups camping out to get in this courtroom and only about six or eight members of public, well get into the actual courtroom every day. Another 20 or so, get into the main courtroom and because were not in the courtroom, they can react. And obviously theres selfselecting. These are people who want to see this trial. Im actually not on trump, sayyed, i would say. And so there was a big reaction when when blanche started with that line and cohens response im going a couple other leinz he said there was that. Did you call trump aide chito dusted Cartoon Villain . And so when that went, stuff like that happens, you get a big reaction from the public. Who is there and does not have to be in court with the judge even in the courtroom, there was a little bit of a stuffy old snicker, a stifle to snicker, i must say just because youre talking about a tito dustin person, theres something farcical about the whole thing. Ryan, one thing though that stood out to me was in all of this blanche trying to portray Michael Cohen is a liar. No, Michael Cohen, of course, is admitted to lying, saying he did so to help trump. Right. But thats at the heart of this case. Is Michael Cohen saying yes, i did that. But blanche was emphasizing it. That was one exchange that i wanted to ask you about of how you think this went. But blanche is asking cohen about his testify his testimony to robert molar and the molar investigation it goes like this blanchette to cohen, is non Accurate Information. Ally cohen says, sure. Blanche. Says, again, is it a lie . Cohen says it was inaccurate. Yes. Blanche, was it a lie . Cohen . I dont know if i would characterize it at ally as a lie. It was inaccurate then cohen eventually says it wasnt truthful. You want to call it a lie . Ill call it a lie but that went on for a long time. Was that a Good Exchange . Not from Michael Cohen . And i think thats a Good Exchange for the defense team because what Michael Cohen is saying in that moment is, oh, that might have been inaccurate, but its not a lie. And then if i were a member, for the jury, i might think, well, wait a minute. Are you lying to us now . Like youre giving us so much testimony or you in your mind or youre telling us Michael Cohen, youre considering that and inaccuracy and not ally because youre splicing its so finally, so i dont think thats a good luck at the end. He does say, look, if you want to call that a lie, ally, im happy to call it that. So he recovers at the end that Exchange Just not a positive one. Yeah. I mean, what did you make of that . Hes refusal to just say ally was a lie it was not a high point of Michael Cohens afternoon, but those moments when blanche was able to score a point or few and far between he committed the cardinal sin of crossexaminati on. It was so tangled up at points that it was boring. It actually were some of the first boring moments. And all of the 19 or so days of this trial that weve had. So he because the prosecution is it headon points and because i believe with cohens testimony, if hes believabull, they have established proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This was not an easy case. Blanche had to really push cohen back across the line, scoring a couple of jimmys is not going to do it. Now, maybe hell come out swinging on thursday. Well, it is when you start a Examination Up with did you call me a crime little okay. You think okay. This is the this is a good date of 20 minutes later. I mean, people are yani. What does prefer dramatic shift from overdrive to sleepiness, but then he did recover. Jeremy. What was the reaction . Because blanche did go through playing tiktoks of cohen, listing all the things to basically show that cohen hates trump. Now thats not a secret. Cohen doesnt pretend to not hate gop. I mean, he does, as he said, a podcast twice a week, talking about his dislike for trump. But the chito dusted Cartoon Villain as blanche coat puts it with deadpan. No, not even trying to be funny what was the reaction to that . And all these other nasty things that cohen had said. One of the most surprising things i saw today was the lack of reaction from donald trump. He, you know, when keith davidson, came and testified trump turned in his chair. He was watching it. He was it seemed like enjoying watching Stormy Daniels lawyer get grilled by his attorney today, we really saw none of that. Trump looked in cohens direction a couple of times to see what he was doing. But for the most part, trump was in his sort of zoned out. Im not listening to this. He had his eyes closed for long stretches of the testimony and it was surprising given how much, as you said, how much fireworks and sparks we were expecting. And will there be a lot more because obviously, blanche has not yet done what blanche will do which is tried to make the case that took cohen did this on his own and trump didnt direct it. Thats the heart of this. He has even gotten there yet. He is not. I mean, if if e repeats his performance on thursday, then i think trump is in trouble even to the point that maybe trump would have to think. I do take the stand because at this point im losing. But thursdays a thursday and its a fresh day. Theres a lot of ammunition that the defense team has that has not been brought out today. And they can end Big On Thursday and then at the jury stew on ending big for three days because theres no trial on friday. Right. And the big things arent lying to congress, lyi