Brandnew information breaking out of the criminal trial. Day two of testimony from Michael Cohen. His witness resume as you would know would lead most people to begin with one single fact, he lies as he breathes. Cohen has been convicted of lying to congress and even admits he is a liar. He is forced to untangle now some of those lies after admitting he submitted false invoices. When your Testimony Stabs even yourself. Im Harris Faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. Who knows if thats true . Who knows if anything he says is true . Yesterday cohen testified about his close Working Relationship with the former president. He says trump knew the reimbursement for a payment to the Sex Film WorkerStormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election, would be labeled as legal services. But some Big Questions over whether the jury will believe cohen, an admitted and convicted liar. Right now he is still under the prosecutions direct questioning. That has been many hours. One headline on whats to come for cohen, here is one. He will face a bruising Cross Examination by trumps lawyers. Experts expect trumps team to lean heavily on his Perjury Conviction and rampant social media attacks on trump. Trump has had to stay silent, as you know, on cohen and other witnesses or anything really about the case because of that gag order the judge merchan has put on him. The prosecution said he had up to 14 violations and the judge went to work with 1 thousand on the ones he felt were actually violations. Here is the former president when things opened today. The gag order has to come off. When you ask me a question about the people that we are talking about, im not allowed to answer. There has never been anything like this in the history of our country. It is a scam. It is Election Interference at a level that has never taken place before. Harris also in the courtroom today trump allies, House Speaker mike johnson, north dakota governor doug burgum, congressman Byron Donalds and cory mills and former president ial candidate vivek ramaswamy. Fox news Senior Correspondent is outside the new york supreme court. The drumbeat of surrogates getting louder and their presence is being known. Surrogates for trump, eric. That it is, harris. Former President Trump may be the criminal defendant here in this courthouse, later on today it will be Michael Cohen who is put on trial. As you said, cohen has admitted to this jury a few moments ago he did lie under oath before. When his Cross Examination starts, expect him to be torn apart and pummeled over that. Trumps attorney, todd blanch, will try to impeach cohens credibility. Slam his character and shake his composure. When cohen testified against trump last fall the Cross Examination with cohen at that time descended into a combative, angry us the el. He described his meeting with the new president back in February Of 2017 while trump signed off on reimbursing him for paying off Stormy Daniels. Trump asked me if i was okay and needed money. He said he told the president he was fine and trump then assured him that he would get the checks that trump would reimburse him for the 130,000 that paid to cohen paid to Stormy Daniels. That testimony links trump directly to paying cohen back, checks that prosecutors say were the false Business Records. While he was testifying, cohen did not say if he knew that trump knew that those were false Business Records classified by the Trump Organization. And among those attending the trial to show their support, as you said, House Speaker mike johnson. The crime that they are accusing President Trump of is falsification of Business Records. I think Everybody Knows he is not the bookkeeper for his company. President trump is innocent of these charges. And again anyone with common sense can understand what is happening here. In the midst of all this nonsense and corruption. Cohen also told the jury admitting he did lie to congress. He said he lied to protect mr. Trump and out of loyalty to his boss. But now prosecutors hope this jury believes he is telling the truth. Harris, back to you. Harris loyalty. A man who secretly recorded his client. Okay. Eric shawn, thank you. A mountain of analysis on cohens Opening Day On Stand was a bevy of information. Again dont know how much of it was true. Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley puts it this way. Mr. Fix it bombs on the stand and offers no new evidence to conflict trump. Fox news legal analyst gregg jarrett, Michael Cohens lies, and more lies could sink d. A. Braggs case. Jarret explains how cohens testimony presents the jury with a liars paradox. A twisted explanation of what it would take for them to believe an admitted liar. Bret tolman is here and former federal prosecutor. Phil holloway is here, former assistant District Attorney. You are with me for the hour and thats a great thing. Brett, start with you, a liars paradox. What is that . Harris, thank you for having me on. Looking forward to this hour as well. I will tell you that when i was a young prosecutor, i was sat down by the u. S. Attorney and i was told you need to be very careful if you think one of your witnesses is lying. And trying to reach a certain result in a case. And it wasnt just because you put your case in. There was a that said if i know knowingly i could be subject to penalties even as a prosecutor. It is shocking for me for alvin bragg to put oh witness on the stand and especially for so long. The longer on the stand the more likely it is that you will expose his lies and that really is a problem for the case but if i were looking into this case afterwards if there is an acquittal i would certainly want to investigate whether there was a conspiracy to sub oren perjury from some of these witness are necessarys. I agree. In a rational legal world, harris, this is the kind of thing that a prosecutor would never dream of bringing this case. But of course, in manhattan where alvin bragg clearly thinks the deck is stacked in his favor with this manhattan jury. But as a prosecutor i could not fathom bringing a case against anybody, let alone the former leader of the free world, on the uncorroborated, unsubstantiated testimony of a corrupt liar like disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen. There is so much reason to disbelieve him. He has got bias, he is running around wearing tshirts showing former President Trump in jail. Going on Tiktok Making Money Off of this trial. He wants to be center stage. He wants this to be about him. He is a convicted felon, the judge will tell the jury if somebody is a convicted felon you can disbelieve them on that basis. His felonies are lying and false statements and in addition he has a multitude of prior inconsistent statements. All things that can be used to impeach his testimony. If i were doing it, i would have it cataloged and go through hours and hours and hours of individual prior inconsistent statements to show that this man cannot be believed. The fact that they are bringing a case based on his word and his credibility is in my opinion reprehensible and turns the fundamental fairness thats required in our legal system, it turns it on its end and makes the system a complete joke as it applies to this particular case. Harris yeah, im trying to imagine if you do not have the resources in a Justice System that is willing to behave in the way you gentlemen are suggesting is possible in this case, what do you do . I mean, if you are a liar they put you on the stand and let you go through what you have to go through and they pick you apart and thats the prosecution . Imagine what the Cross Examination will look like . If you are out of prison, if you are not on home arrest, as Michael Cohen. If you are just a free person now who happens to lie a lot and they want to use your testimony, this could further ruin your circumstances in terms of ever getting a life that you could live proudly. Brett, your last quick word on that and i want to talk about an fec statement that he made. Well, you hit the nail on the head. It really comes down to corroboration. You notice they dont seem to have identified any other witnesses that will come in and corroborate what Michael Cohen has said. Harris, i havent heard yet anything that has come out in this trial from Stormy Daniels to Michael Cohen, i have not heard anything that goes to the elements of the crime that the prosecution is supposed to be able to prove. So without corroboration, what case do you have . Harris on the screen right now, the right box, which is where i send viewers every day. This is so helpful. You can get a moment by moment. Cohen is talking about that the f. B. I. Moved in on him, cell phone seized. He remembers it was 7 00 a. M. In the morning when they came to his home. So on and so forth. This was in 2018, and first of all let me get your thoughts on what he is describing right now, phil. Well look, if Michael Cohen is describing anything in this courtroom, then i would have to wonder whether or not it is actually true. I dont know what the prosecutor is planning to get at. I think what theyre trying to do, among other things, is take the sting out of some of the Cross Examination that they know is coming. It will be a bloodbath for him. It is part of the prosecutors strategy to take the sting out ahead of time to go ahead and tell the jury whats coming. It is not going to be enough. The Defense Lawyers have so many things to work with in this case that it is just there is just no rational way that a jury will be able to believe it. The question earlier about what do you do if that happens . Normally we dont have prosecutors who rely on this kind of garbage to bring felony cases. Normally this doesnt happen. When you have a judge, jury and prosecutors that are all on the gettrump team the system is you have all the elements in place there for an absolute disaster. You know, its turning the legal system on its ear and it is not the way its designed to work. Harris well get into more of it. The f. B. I. He says he was subjected to, the f. E. C. Investigation into a payment he made to Stormy Daniels, cohen states he did pay stormy. It was lawful and not a campaign contribution. Well get into all of it. That blows away this case, though, wasnt this about Election Interference . Im not really sure if he helped the prosecution with that. Gentlemen, well all stand by. When we come back there are surrogates showing up outside the courthouse and well get into that. People supporting trump, lawmakers coming from d. C. , more of them to support the former president. Stay close. Electric for short trips. Hmmm . Gas for long. Hmmm . Quite the paradox. It really is both. Hmmm. The lexus rx plugin hybrid. Did you know you can get 40 off a single pair of glasses at americas best . These savings wont last forever. Unlike your eternal elation. Ok, settle down. Shop online or book an exam at americasbest. Com. Why choose a sleep number smart bed . Can it keep me warm when im cold . Wait, no, im always hot. Sleep number does that. Now, save 50 on the sleep Number Limited Edition smart bed. Plus, 0 interest for 36 months. Shop now at sleepnumber. Com Sara Federico at st. Jude, we dont care who cures cancer. We just need to advance the cure. Its a Bold Initiative to try and bump cure rates all around the world, but we should. It is our commitment. We need to do this. Harris thumbsup just now from the former president of the United States, donald trump. He has left the courtroom for a ten to 15minute break. He has been out for a few minutes while we were in a commercial break. Theyre really fastidious keeping the time. These breaks are short before lunch. Well get a couple of these. On the outside of the courthouse is something that really has supported this president. The House Speaker, the United StatesSpeaker Of The House, mike johnson, here from d. C. Gave a statement and News Conference earlier. Not even an hour ago he was on that lawn and he was talking about supporting the president and each of these surrogates now that are traveling in. Today well see a number of lawmakers on the list for today. Well see vivek ramaswamy, the former president ial candidate. And well see doug burgum, who is interesting. Might he go from governor to Vice President ial candidate with this president who is now running again . Might that happen . His name is being talked about. Well see. The surrogates are doing what the president cant do right now. Yes, he can get out on the Campaign Trail on his days off, those types of things off of court every wednesday or whatever he can work on a weekend. Not the same as being able to take on a case that he says is a sham. Its not the case because he has a pretty strict gag order and already twice the judge has threatened to throw him in jail if he breaks the gag order again. These surrogates play an Important Role for talking specifically about a witness like Michael Cohen, who lies. I mentioned it before. As he breathes. So back with our legal experts now, Brett Tollman and phil holloway. Im trying to understand the positioning that Michael Cohen has been put in now. Not just position but now he is its a verb. He is having to maneuver now to get around all of the facts that are being tossed into this case and phil, he is trying to explain the payments to Stormy Daniels and saying at one point he was working with eric trump, in case stormy would want to go public that all that had transpired and what that would mean and i thought okay, is that about protecting former trump or is that about protecting Michael Cohens own back side . My First Response is so what . What does any of this have to do with the allegation that donald trump kept an improper Book Of Business at the Trump Organization . After all, donald trump, as the House Speaker said, is not the bookkeeper. This is a lump sum kind of thing and it was characterized as a Drop Down Menu how to characterize the stuff. Who cares about Stormy Daniels thought about things and what she was going to do . I see this as more irrelevant stuff coming into this trial and i wonder if judge merchan has even bothered to consider he might be in reversible error territory now if there is a conviction. Did he not see what happened recently with Harvey Weinstein because a judge let in too much stuff that had nothing to do with the issue at hand . This jury needs to be focused on the matters at hand and not all of this extraneous thing that do nothing to advance the needle in this case. Harris judge merchan you said may be in reversible error territory. What would it look like in terms of the case and for the judge . Well so unfortunately for a criminal defendant, harris, reversible error doesnt come into play until after there is a conviction and oftentimes years and years later. There are a lot of things that have to happen before you get to that point. But this has to do with allowing too many things in that are overly prejudicial to the defendant. Prosecutors will say all our evidence is prejudicial. You cant be so much stuff in there to slime the defendant because you are talking about Due Process Being violated. The protest and trial becomes fundamentally unfair. Harris real quickly, brett, i will come to you. We have opportunity to go to fox news legal editor kerri urbahn inside the courthouse now and just come outside. Kerri, if you could, give us a little bit of the flavor thats going on in the courtroom with Michael Cohen. I have notes here that say he is talking slowly, seems calm. Nate foye can tell he is agitated at times and he is shaking. So the prosecution is ponderously going through testimony with Michael Cohen. He is speaking slowly. Part of me has to wonder is if a strat