Affiliate cnn if you ever miss an episode, you can listen to the show once you get your pod breaking news tonight and the trump trial, the Bruising Cross Up for the day after the defense repeatedly hammered the prosecutions star witness for his past lives, and aggressively tried to catch him in new lies. Under oath. The trump teams scoring major points and its bid to undercut cohens credibility. That includes getting cohen to admit he did not fully remember a phone call for trade as a direct link between trump and the Stormy DanielsHush Money Deal. For the next hour, well be taking you inside the courtroom from gavel to gavel with new testimony trend transcripts, breaking down all of todays most important developments and looking ahead to whats next welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Wolf blitzer is on assignment. Im Alex Marquardt a Special Report in the situation room, Trump Trial Today lets get right to the breaking news on a pivotal trial day for Donald Trumps defense, the former president s lawyer poking holes in Michael Cohens testimony and possibly sewing doubts. Enjoy tours minds. Cnns Kara Scannell has emerged from the courtroom in manhattan where shes been reporting on the trial. All day. So cara, tell us about the most significant and the most dramatic moments that you saw firsthand in that courtroom well, alex, just moments ago and trumps lawyers saying and still not saying whether the former president will take the stand and testify. But the judge told both sides they should prepare to get Closing Arguments in this case as soon as tuesday in this after a day of fireworks, where trumps Lead Attorney todd blanche had Michael Cohen in the Hotseat Brands thank him. A liar, and through aggressive questioning, painting him into a box trumps ex lawyer, Michael Cohen, in a dramatic moment on the stand, grilled over his memory of a key Phone Conversation that directly implicates former President Donald Trump in his criminal trial. Nobody wants to do this. This isnt fun. They get personal, they get nasty trumps lawyer, todd blanche confronted cohen on his testimony about the deal at the center of the case that he paid off adultfilm star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to kill her story of an alleged affair with trump, which trump denies cohen, who is the prosecutions key witness . Testified earlier this week that on october 24, 2016, he made a phone call to trumps bodyguard, Keith Schiller. He said, uh, you schiller as a conduit to speak with trump, to say the daniels deal was resolved and he was moving forward. But an Intense Exchange inside the courtroom that could undermine his testimony. Blanche showed records that moments before the brief one minute and 32nd call, cohen sent a text to schiller for help with prank calls. He was receiving from a 14yearold. There was no mention of daniels in the text. Blanche showed the text messages. Cohen said, who can i speak to regarding Harassing Calls to my cell in office, the dope forgot to block because number schiller responded, call me. Cohen told the Defense Attorney today he didnt remember the harassing phone calls, but after confronted with them, maintained, he spoke to schiller and also trump blanche pacing the courtroom, his arms flailing and his voice rising, set to cohen. That was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump on that . Night. You talk to Keith Schiller about what we just went through admitted cohen commonly replied, no, sir. I dont know that its accurate blanche moved to show the jury texts between cohen and the team, cohen writing this number has just been sent to Secret Service for your ongoing and continuous Harassing Calls over the past three days. If you are a minor, i suggest you notify your parents or guardian the prankster replied, i didnt do it. Im 14. Uh, please dont. Cohen responded, please have your parent or guardian contact me before Secret Service reaches out to them before getting to the Phone Call Blend spent the morning trying to paint cohen as a vengeful liar. Cohen confirmed he hasnt sold to trump countless times, including on his mea culpa podcast. Blanche played clips for the jury, are truly hope that this man dann, up in prison. But revenge is a dish best served cold. And you Better Believe i want this made to go down and rockin side for what he did to me and my family blanche, also proud lets cohen repeatedly about lying to congress in 2017 about the trump organizations moscow project. There were a couple of different leinz blanche asked, thats correct. Cohen replied. Cohen later, apologize to congress during his oncamera testimony in 2019, i am sorry for my lies and for lying to congress i have done some real Soul Searching and i see now that my ambition and the intoxication of trump power had much to do with the bad decisions in part that i made that trump watch the clock crossexamination very closely, turning his chair so he could face as attorney and look over at cohen answering these questions. Now, todd blanche trumps lawyers said that crossexamination will continue in some monday when court is back in session, the prosecution said their redirect should be over by lunch in trumps team said theres so assessing whether to call any other witnesses, alex. All right. Kirsten l, outside the courthouse in manhattan. Lets get more on all this with our legal and political experts. Thank you all for joining us. Elliot williams, i want to start with you this was i think we would all agree a very Pivotal Moment in this case, break down this moment where todd blanche, trumps Lead Attorney was grilling Michael Cohen about this phone call that would directly link the former president to these hush money . Absolutely. And we have some excerpts from some of our reporters who were in the room now, viewers who did not have Michael Cohen fighting over texts with the 14yearold on their bingo boards are right. You are not alone. This was quite a moment in terms of what it meant. So again, theyre going back and forth about this call that happened on october 24, 2016, were allegedly Michael Cohen says that he raised Stormy Daniels with keith, with President Trump. But as qarrah noted, the text, the records dont seem to suggest that so on the call or at least today on crossexamination, mike cohen says part of it was that the 14yearold, but i know that keith was with Keith Schiller. This is present trumps body was with mr. Trump at the time and there was more potentially than this, then todd blanche, the Defense Attorney, says that was a light, you did not talk to President Trump. You talk to Keith Schiller. You can admit it. Now, cohen when still staying pretty cool and calm here says, no, sir. I dont know that its accurate. I believe i also spoke to mr. Trump and told him everything regarding the Stormy Daniels matter then todd blanche says, we are not asking for your belief this jury does not want to hear about what you think happened, right there theres an objection and the prosecutor the prosecution objects. The judge sustains it because of the fact that blanche was forcing him are asking him to opine on what Somebody Else thought it just wasnt improper question. So at this Point Todd Blanche is pacing around, flailing his arms. Hes pretty appearing pretty upset with Michael Cohen. It says, but your memory is that you were testifying truthfully on tuesday a minute and 36 second phone call, and you had enough time to update schiller about all the problems you are having. And also update President Trump about the status of stormy day daniel situation because you had to keep him informed. Michael cohen responds i always ran everything by the boss immediately. And in this case, it would have been saying everything has been taken care of and has been resolved. So again, its what hes what todd blanche was getting at was in this minute and 36 seconds. Its sorted get up strains logic a bit to suggest that he raised both Stormy Daniels and this punk 14 yearold who he was fighting with and quite frankly, the prosecution did not prior to this, prepare the jury for the fact that there might have been some ambiguity as to what happened on this phone call, right . Nicky, lots youre a criminal Defense Attorney on this 96 second call the prosecution now has to prove that trumps involvement in this hushmoney scheme goes Beyond A Reasonable Doubt what did this crossexamination by todd blanche of Michael Cohen today, how much re much doubt do you think that raised at least for the jurors . I think it has to have raised some doubt. I mean the fact that there was testimony previously from Michael Cohen that this phone call was about x. And now there are texts that suggest its about why and as elliott said, not a lot of time for there to be a conversation about both x and y raises some doubt that that that and the y here obviously is that what trump said was disk or what cohen said was discussed had to do with Stormy Daniels. And if there was if there was just very little time to discuss both the 14 yearold issue and Stormy Daniels. Its its it is hard to believe that he got to the Stormy Daniels, so i think i mean, anything the prosecution sorry. Anything the defense can do to suggest that Michael Cohen isnt getting it right or is misrepresenting things, is important to raise those questions and potentially lying even further, right . Jim, trusty, you represented trump there has been reporting out there that the former president was disappointed with perhaps the lack of aggression by todd blanche, do you think that that change today . What do you think the former president s reaction is to how his lawyer perform . Well, hes gotta be its got to be feeling pretty upbeat. I mean, look the crossexamination is not usually like tv. I mean, you dont usually go to the ultimate question and thats why youre lying, mr. Cohen isnt it . But we kinda got there today a little bit and its a little bit dangerous territory for the defense. I think todd did a very nice job being very disciplined in his cross for the first big chunks which was established, facts established these bias established. He has a history of lying, but dont give them an opportunity to crawl out and make a speech, set it up for closing argument. I think it got a little fired up and went a little far and you saw the objection, but its not really the objection that matters. Its that he started making argument that cohen could figure out where its going. And cohen then comes back with i dont admit it. I will tell you why. Dont ask him the question of admitted to lie. Its not going to do it and so theres a little bit of an advocacy lesson there, i think in terms of getting to whipped up and thinking youre going to get the home run when a triple is just fine. But look at the end of the day. I like everyone. Im just shocked that cohen would lie about this call. Its an amazing in development for an otherwise perfect witness. Now, more seriously, they set the whole trial up. The defense that theyll child up to be a referendum on cohens honesty. Thats exactly where you want this fight to be. So its a good moment. New Milliken Henderson now, there are no proceedings tomorrow. So the jury is leaving with these impressions. They now have 72 hours, two but to reflect on this and really take stock of what sounds like a made for tv moment that of course we didnt see, but how do you think that impacts them . Listen, i mean, there are a couple of more questions crossexamination of questions from the Defense Prosecution will go back as well and try to rehabilitate Michael Cohen. Im not a lawyer were so i dont know all the ins and outs of what the final questions and the approach will be. Of course, therell be Closing Arguments. So they have more time to process this, right . We sort of look at this almost like its a its like a football game, right . And this is theyve still got some time left on the clock in there could be more to come i do. Think obviously you saw trump feeling very good today. He came out he was reading, hed clearly had folks look at cnn, look at msnbc, which he calls of course, ms in dc and, you people were saying that this was a good day for him and it kind of a bad day for Michael Cohen because this is a case that race, that breast on Michael Cohen its credibility. And you saw them really poking holes in it today, not to the point about how you rehabilitate here on on the redirect as the prosecution picking up on jims point, sort of like the budweiser or anheuserbusch adds know when to say when is it really important skill for prosecutors, quite frankly, and Defense Attorneys two and dont go too who far with trying to rehabilitate him, simply walk in and they can ask the question on that call on october 24, do you remember talking about Stormy Daniels and this 14yearold . Yes. No further questions and get out of there. It does not benefit the prosecution in any way to be going back and forth and pingpong what the defense about the facts of this of this of this phone call, the damage has been done but this was jims point. You risk stepping in it further. The more you keep lingering and trying to litigate really small points even if they are really damaging to your side. So nikki, to that point, the prosecution is going to have a chance to question Michael Cohen again. But how risky do you think it is to wrap up their case with him as the final witness like this. I think that the only other people who could shed light on it, right. Would be Keith Schiller or the chief Financial Officer and its not necessarily the case that schiller would have anything to add i mean, if it were the case that schiller simply pass the phone or was in the room but wasnt listening are left the room. There might not be anything that he could add, so it might not be it might not be the best witness to end and i dont it doesnt seem like its going to be on a very high note. But on the other hand, im not sure what else they could who else they could call. And now jim i mean, schiller is really a central character here, and there. So there are so many new questions about this phone call again in a minute, 36. So do you think those 12 jurors going to wonder why schiller isnt one of the witnesses. If they were still clinging to cohen as a possibly credible witness, maybe by the government has the burden burden here. So i think if youre the defense, youre moving on to bob castello ville, youre not worried about shiller because like cohen has just hes a Dream Come True for crossexamination. There are so many things to attack them on. Bias, convictions for lying, lying to congress, lying about his federal play. It never ends so yeah, theyve got a great gotcha moment on this, but i wouldnt even overplay that from the defense youve scored the point. Its the governments burden if they dont. And schiller would probably end up being a friendly cross. It becomes in for the government. I think they rest. And by the way, i think theyre resting here because they lost the ability to call Karen Mcdougal with the opinion that came out on the weinstein in case i think they realize theyre in treacherous territory with this other offense kind of conduct yeah. Listen, well see i mean, this was a huge moment, i think for donald trump. He probably im sure was very helpful to his attorneys because he knows Michael Cohen im very well. They work attached at the hip, folks who cover donald trump always its all Michael Cohen to the extent that the folks did so this was a real i think moment and you could tell that donald trump was very pleased with what he felt was sort of this guy who was so close to him now coming after him now seeming to crumble on the stand, it certainly sounds like he was very pleased on this very dramatic day, as we may be ending the the stages are neari