Money trial. And, late night talk show host bill maher reflects on his decades of comedy and commentary and todays political climate. We have to learn to live with, sit with, mingle with people who dont think like you. Theyre not raised like you. They werent from a part of the country that youre from. And thats okay. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including kathy and Paul Anderson and camilla and george smith. Cunard is a proud supporter of public television. On a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. A world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. A world of leisure. And british style. All with cunards white star service. The john s. And james l. Knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. More at kf. Org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Geoff welcome to the newshour. The legal fallout for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 president ial election continued in arizona today. Rudy giuliani and 11 other allies of former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that include conspiracy, fraud, and forgery. Its connected to the plot to install fake electors to back trump despite President Biden winning the state in the 2020 election. Following all of this closely is ned foley. Hes an election law expert at the ohio state university. Thanks so much for being with us. Ned good to be with you. Geoff it is worth noting that arizona prosecutors spent weeks trying to find rudy giuliani. They ultimately located him based on some of his podcasts and he was served a summons while leaving his 80th Birthday Party in palm beach, florida. Other defendants include former Arizona Republican party chair kelli ward, former white house chief of staff mark meadows, former trump attorney jenna ellis. Remind us of how this worked and what they were trying to accomplish. The good news is that it did not work. It was trying to undo the election based on claims that had no factual credibility whatsoever. As many people may remember, there was a lot of litigation over the 2020 president ial election after the networks all declared that biden had won and trump went to court with giuliani as his lawyer and his these other defendants were part of that conspiracy really to try to subvert the outcome. And for a while, they used an ordinary Legal Process to do it even though they did not have any legitimate claims. The courts rejected that. And then they went beyond normal legal means to concoct this scheme of alternative electors. Geoff arizona is one of seven states trump lost where his allies tried to put forward this slate of fake electors. What stands out about this arizona case . The arizona prosecution, a little bit like georgia, is not just focused on the fake electors. That is part of it but it is an allegation of a broad conspiracy which is similar to the federal case that the special prosecutor has brought against trump and i think arizona was wise to do that because part of the the heart of the criminality here is this plan that was concocted not really in arizona by itself, but within the Trump Campaign and some of their advisors. It was a multistate effort in and arizona was one of them and i think arizona is right to identify the broader conspiracy at the heart of the problem. Geoff donald trump is not among those charged in arizona. The details in the indictment suggest he is unindicted coconspirator number one. What does that suggest about his role in this arizona case in particular . That is exactly right. I assume, you know, the prosecutor has not said why he was not indicted along with giuliani and the others. I suspect it was because of the complicated issues involving president ial immunity that have taken up time in the federal case so leaving him out of the indictment makes it easier because none of those other defendants can claim president ial immunity. Geoff was 2020 a dry run to overturn the 2024 for the gop effort to overturn the 2024 election should donald trump lose . Do election deniers now have a blueprint for the future . Ned i hope not. Actually the good news is that we have a new law in place that should make it very difficult to use the legal system the way giuliani and trump and others tried to do last time. The new law is called the electoral count reform act and the reform was done in congress as a bipartisan effort led by senators manchin and collins and it tightens up the rules for submitting electoral votes to congress. The problem on january 6, 2020 2021 that was so tragic, is that trump and his team tried to exploit the old law that was from the 19th century. They did it incorrectly and without any basis but at least now, we have a better law that should prevent something similar. Geoff net foley, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. From arizona now to new york, where Donald Trumps defense team rested its case today in the trial brought against the former president by the manhattan district attorneys office. Donald trump did not testify. Next week, lawyers from both sides will make their closing statements to the jury, and then deliberations will begin. As William Brangham explains, while this case is often referred to as the hush money trial, the charges against the former president are more complicated. William . William donald trump is not being charged with making the 2016 hushmoney payment to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, covered that 130,000, and did so, cohen testified, to protect trumps chances of winning the presidency. Trump is charged with how he repaid Michael Cohen. Prosecutors allege trump was responsible for falsifying 34 different Business Records to hide the true nature of that repayment, calling them legal fees instead, and that trump did so intending to commit or conceal another crime, a violation of state election law. To help wade through these legal weeds, were joined again by jessica roth. Shes a former prosecutor but now teaches law at Cardozo School of law. Jessica, so nice to see you again. Thank you for being here. I want to talk through the Different Things that the prosecutors have to prove in this case. So during trial, as i mentioned, the prosecutor showed 34 allegedly false invoices, ledgers, checks, and check stubs all relating to payments made to Michael Cohen. While they were labeled legal fees, prosecutors say these were really a way to masquerade the true repayment to Michael Cohen. First off, what do prosecutors have to prove as far as Donald Trumps involvement in how those records were created . Jessica these records are the heart of the charges. As you mentioned, it is 34 counts of falsification of Business Records with the intent to conceal another crime so to convict donald trump of each of those charges, the prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that trump was involved in the scheme to falsify these records. They dont have to show that he personally created or maintained or falsified the particulars in these records. His signature does appear on some of the checks, but his signature does not appear on all of them and it doesnt have to be there. What they have to show is he caused others to maintain these false records or assisted others in maintaining them or requested others to maintain or create and maintain false records so that he is part of the scheme even if it was not that they were falsified by his own hand and further that he participated in this scheme, causing others or requesting others to falsify the records or maintain false records with the intent to conceal another crime. William when Michael Cohen testified that he and the Trump Organization top Financial Officer went into a meeting with donald trump and said here is the scheme. Here is how we are going to make these repayments to Michael Cohen. It will be to pay the Stormy Daniels thing back. That might be enough to meet this standard that he then helped set in motion the falsification. Jessica yes, because the prosecutions theory is that Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg went in to inform trump of the plan to get his sign off on the plan to conceal the payment to Michael Cohen through the disguise that they were for legal fees as opposed to reimbursement for the payment to Stormy Daniels and because donald trump signed off on the creation of these records to hide the payment, he caused the records, the false records, to be created and maintained in the files of the Trump Organization. That is the prosecutions theory of the case. William the defense washed the defense theory of the case is that these were legal fees, and that they were plain and simple, nothing to justify here. They also argue you cant believe anything Michael Cohen says because he is a liar. That is separate. If they were to address this particular issue of trumps complicity or not in the falsification, what is their best line of attack . Jessica the best line of attack is to say that there is not sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that trump was in fact involved in the scheme to falsify the records. There is ample evidence that Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg concocted this scheme and participated in it. You hear that not only from Michael Cohen but that is corroborated by the records, and Allen Weisselbergs handwriting showing exactly how the numbers were worked out so Michael Cohen would be reimbursed for precisely this amount but Allen Weisselberg has not testify so in effect, there are really only three people according to the prosecutions theory of the case who have direct knowledge of trumps participation in the falsification of the records scheme and Michael Cohen is the only one of those three who has testified. His testimony is corroborated circumstantially by other evidence. For example, by phone records that show that he was in communication with trump around the same time that he said he was or on the dates he said he was about this scheme. There was testimony from Trump White House assistant who said cohen came to the white house and had discussions with trump around the same time he says they were talking about this scheme and then there was testimony from employees at the Trump Organization who said trump was very involved in the nittygritty of payments and records at the Trump Organization which would suggest that generally, it was his pattern to be kept apprised of payments and what they were for. So all of that tends to corroborate what Michael Cohen is saying substantively about this matter even though there is no other witness with direct knowledge of it. William these falsification charges are normally misdemeanors but the manhattan d. A. Charged these as felonies and they are arguing that if you commit these falsifications in service of or trying to conceal another crime, then they become a felony. What do prosecutors have to prove in that regard . Jessica this is a really interesting part of the case and i think there is a lot of discussion today at the conference with the jury instructions about exactly what the judge is going to tell the jury about this but in essence, the prosecutors are now arguing primarily that that other crime was a new york state law that makes it a crime to promote a candidate selection through as candidates election through unlawful means. But that of course incorporates by reference other provisions of law because the government has to establish what are those other unlawful means, that there was a conspiracy used to promote the candidate puffs the candidate election . So the government has to specify, well, what are the laws that they can say were violated and that were concealed, essentially, through the falsification scheme . And they appear to be leaning primarily on violations of federal election law that placed limits on the amount that an individual can contribute to a candidate and the theory here is that Michael Cohen, by fronting the money to Stormy Daniels, made an Unlawful Campaign contribution to trump that also was not disclosed. One of the questions that remains to be resolved is whether it has to be a criminal violation of the federal election law to essentially count for purposes of the new york state statute or whether a civil violation of the federal election law, which is less demanding, also would count. So grateful that we have you to help us wade through all of this. Jessica, thank you so much. Always good to see you. Jessica good to see you. Vanessa im vanessa ruiz with newshour west. Here are the latest headlines. A fiveday mourning period has started in iran for late president Ebrahim Raisi and other victims of sundays helicopter crash. Early today, thousands of mourners crowded around a truck carrying the caskets through tabriz, the closest major city to the crash site. Later, the bodies were flown to tehran, where they were met by an honor guard. Iranian officials have not provided any cause of the crash, which took place amid dense fog above a mountain range. France, belgium, and slovenia have backed the International Criminal courts decision to seek arrest warrants for leaders of israel and hamas for the war in gaza. The court accused israels Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu, his defense minister, and three hamas leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Secretary of state Antony Blinken told a Senate Committee today, the iccs decision was extremely wrongheaded, but emphasized the u. S. Still has concerns about israels military operations. When your close friend is going down a path that you think may be counter to its interests and potentially our own as well then, of course, we have conversations with them. Thats what were supposed to do. Thats the nature of the relationship. Vanessa meantime, israel has ordered that camera equipment be returned to the associated press, after officials moved to block the companys live feed of gaza earlier tuesday. Israel had accused the a. P. Of violating a new media law by providing video to al jazeera. Police broke up a propalestinian encampment at the university of michigan today, citing a threat to public safety. Before sunrise, protesters on the ann arbor campus came facetoface with rows of officers dressed in protective riot gear. Police cleared about 50 people from the site, and arrested four. Tensions had escalated in recent days, after demonstrators placed fake body bags on a School Officials lawn. The Justice Department is suing oklahoma over a law that would make it a crime to live in the state as an undocumented immigrant. Those convicted under the law, set to take effect july 1, could face up to two years in prison. A top doj official said in a statement that oklahoma must adhere to the constitution and congresss framework for regulation of immigration. Similar laws in texas and iowa are also facing legal challenges. More than a Dozen Companies at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence made renewed pledges today to develop the technology safely. At a Virtual Summit hosted by south korea, Companies Like microsoft, x, samsung, and open ai promised public transparency and accountability in their ai innovations. They even offered to shut down their systems if they cant control risks created by the technology. South koreas president welcomed their shared commitment to universal guardrails. We must ensure the safety of ai to minimise its potential negative impacts and protect the wellbeing and democracy of our society. In this regard, i welcome efforts by leading countries such as the uk and the u. S. To establish ai safety institutes. Vanessa former President Trump has taken down a video posted to his social media account that included a reference to a, quote, unified reich. The term is often associated with nazi germanys third reich. In the 30second video, the phrase flashes during a montage of hypothetical protrump headlines. His Campaign Said it was not an official campaign video, and blamed a staffer for reposting it. President bidens campaign called out the incident, writing on social media that donald trump posting a unified reich video is part of a pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing antisemitic tropes. Biden called trump a threat to our democracy, and pleaded for americans to reject him in the upcoming election.