Tonight, the Michael Cohen testimony begins. The guy we saw this morning was credible and calm, if not a little freaked out. Donald trumps former fixer testifies that the candidate himself led the conspiracy. The most repeated line of Michael Cohens testimony was just take care of it. This is a total disaster. Women will hate me. The most important thing the jury heard today, he wasnt thinking about his wife. This was all about the candidate. Tonight, Rachel Maddow recapped the testimony with Lawrence Odonnell, lisa rubin, Suzanne Crane and katie phang, who were inside the courthouse. Plus, Nicolle Wallace, chris hayes, jen psaki and Catherine Christian as a special coverage of trump on trial begins, now. Good evening and thanks for joining us for our msnbc Primetime Recap of the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump. Im here tonight along with my colleagues, Lawrence Odonnell and katie phang and Nicolle Wallace and chris hayes. Big night, you guys. Todays proceedings , expected lee to me more like that helpful moment in the old Agatha Christie style british detective story. Been following along, more or less. You know who most of the characters are, you can at least remember most of their names. You know the basic plot of this mystery. But, then, there is this kindness, this great helpful moment in the story where the detective sits down under some stupid pretends with some other character and in their conversation they give you all the answers. It is okay you havent been paying close attention all along, they in this conversation are going to recap the whole story and not only will they get to the big answer, the big whodunit, they will also give you the solutions to all of the other little mysteries and red herrings that popped up over the course of the story. That was michael Agatha Christie today. For example, why did Michael Cohen make the Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels from his Home Equity Line Of Credit rather than from, i dont know, his bank account . Will and today it is because that account was paperless. No statements related to that Home Equity Line Of Credit were going to be mailed to his house. Michael cohens wife was never going to see some inextricable 130,000. 00 payment on a statement and question him as to what he was up to. Now we know. Also, why, when the reimbursement was made to Michael Cohen for campaigning for Stormy Daniels hush money, why did that include not just the Stormy Daniels reimbursement but a bunch of money for a bunch of other things . Well, we learned today that this was going to be the last money Michael Cohen ever received from the Trump Organization. In these payments, they included everything he was owed. They were zeroing him out, he was leaving the company. Why was he doing that . Because if Michael Cohen was still a Trump Organization employee like he had been, it wouldnt make sense for him to be getting checks as a retainer for Legal Services. He would just be getting a salary like he had been four years before. So, instead, Michael Cohen leaves the Trump Organization, becomes the personal attorney to the president , which makes the legal retainer checks look like that was how trump was paying for services as his personal attorney. In reality, Michael Cohen was never paid anything for being personal attorney to the president. That is just what they called it, that is just what they called him so it wouldnt look so weird that trump was paying him 35,000 resent checks every month. Now that makes sense. Also, why did prosecutors go out of their way to point out that Ben Roethlisberger, the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback had been at the golf event with donald trump at the time of the trump, Stormy Daniels encounter . Now we know. Contrary to trumps denials that he encountered Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen testified today that when he asked donald trump if anything had happened between him and Stormy Daniels, trump bragged to Michael Cohen that even though he was there at this golf event with big Ben Roethlisberger for the women there, like Stormy Daniels, they wanted him more than they wanted big ben. All the little mysteries that have popped up over the course of us learning about this scandal, all the little mysteries that have popped up or inexplicable sidebars and detours we didnt necessarily understand as the prosecution has laid out its case thus far, Michael Cohen today divided the all is revealed seen in this detective story, tying up the loose ends, filling in the gaps in the story. And, yes, bringing us to the main event, the big whodunit. Michael cohen, longtime lawyer, enforcer, bully, Quote Unquote Fixer for former President Donald Trump, men who in the mobile analogy was not so much a hitman as he was the underboss, the man who testified today about, for example, telling suppliers and contractors and vendors to Trump University that they would get 20 of what they invoiced Trump University for or they would get nothing and they would like it. Michael cohen gave Testimony Today that donald trump was in the room where it happened, in the worst possible way. The one piece of paper that has emerged in this case that is the most important piece of paper of all is this one. This document, people exhibit 35, is the Smoking Gun Document in this first ever criminal trial of an american president. It is a Bank Statement showing the Wire Transfer of 130,000. 00 to the representative for Stormy Daniels. It is the bank record showing that the Hush Money Payment was, in fact, made. On the bottom of the Bank Statement, on the right, you see we now know as Michael Cohens handwriting showing Something Else he wants to be reimbursed for, since we now understand, hes leaving the Trump Organization. At this point, he wants to make sure in this last payment that is coming to him, this other money the Trump Organization owes him will be included. That is on the bottom right side of this piece of paper. On the bottom left side of this piece of paper, you see different handwriting. This is handwriting from the Trump Organization cfo. It is him doing the math. This is how much Michael Cohen is owed since we are going to lie and say this is income for him instead of the reimbursement that it actually is. That means he will have to pay taxes on it. Heres how much we will add to what we are paying him to account for the taxes hes going to have to pay. Heres the add additional bonus line because he said he was owed money on his annual bonus and these are getting another one because hes leaving the organization. Usually over 12 part at the bottom, that means we will pay it over 12 months. It is 420,000. 00 over 12 months, 35,000 or cents a month. That document, people exhibit 35, what prosecutors have laid out is that that is the Smoking Gun Document that shows the crime. It shows what the payment was really for and how it was disguised as Something Else and the Business Records of the Trump Organization and it was disguised as Something Else in order to conceal its true nature because its true nature was that it was a campaign expenditure. That is the prosecutions case. That document shows the crime. And, we have seen this document before in this trial. Today, Michael Cohen testified for the first time that trump was therefore it that he, Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the trump cfo, talked it over, during which time they made those notes on that piece of paper. That is why theres two different sets of handwriting on that piece of paper. After the two of them worked up that piece of paper the way i just described, they then took that piece of paper and marched it down to Donald Trumps office on the 26th floor of trump tower and with that paper in hand, the three of them had a discussion about what exactly they were doing and why they were doing it and he said do it. Prosecutor, following the meeting with Allen Weisselberg and both of you and the handwriting to peoples exhibit 35, what did you do and where did the two of you go at that time . And, we went to mr. Trumps office to speak to him. Question, when was this apartment . Right before the alteration. Question, he was the trump tower at the time . What did you understand he was engaged in . Answer, being president elect. Was he at meetings at trump tower . Yes. During the conversation, Allen Weisselberg turned around and said to me and what were going to do is we are going to pay you over 12 months. The indication from the transcript is that Michael Cohen rebutted that. It was probably better if i get it in one lump sum. No, no, no, why dont you do it as over 12 months and it will be paid out to you monthly. Question, did he say anything about how it would be paid out of something . Answer, yes. Is like a Legal Service rendered since i was then being given the title as personal attorney to the president. Question, was this position you had with Allen Weisselberg mr. Trumps office, with mr. Trump . Answer, yes. Question, did Allen Weisselberg have within this document, peoples exhibit 35 . And did he show this document to mr. Trump . Answer, yes. Question, did Allen Weisselberg say in front of mr. Trump how much we were going to be paid in total . Answer , it was going to be divided by 12 and that they would actually start making the demons in february, not january, because there was a lot going on with mr. Trump moving to d. C. , the emigration, and so on. Question, is it stated, did Allen Weisselberg state in front of mr. Trump that you were going to receive 420,000. 00 over the course of 12 months . Answer, yes. What did mr. Trump say at the time . Answer, he approved it. He also said this is going to be one heck of a ride in d. C. Did he say those Monthly Payments would be a retainer for Legal Services . Answer, yes. Question, did you Say Something to the effect that you had a sense they had spoken about this previously . Answer, yes. Why do you say that . Because they always played that sort of game. I had been around that office more than enough to realize this conversation had already taken place between the two. When i asked for the 420, mr. Trump said it is better to do it over the 12 months. Trump defense counsel todd blanche, objection to that answer, move to strike. The judge overruled. Overruled. Question, when Allen Weisselberg laid out the plan of how much you are going to debate and over apartments and showed mr. Trump this document , did mr. Trump try to renegotiate . Answer, no. At some point, did mr. Trump confirmed the we was going to give you the title of personal attorney or personal counsel to the president . Answer, yes. When in relation to this meeting was that . Answer, around the same exact thing. And it was, was the 420,000 that you were going to receive back from mr. Trump going to be payment for your future Legal Services as personal counsel . Answer, that was what it was designed to be. Question, what was it actually . Answer, reimbursement of my money. Question, it was repayment of which money . Answer, it was a repayment of the Stormy Daniels payment. Question, you said you believe this occurred at trump tower some days before mr. Trump actually left for washington, is that right . Answer correct. Did Allen Weisselberg have within this document, peoples exhibit 35 . He did. Did he show this document to mr. Trump . Yes. Michael cohen testifying for the first time that just before leaving to be inaugurated as president of the United States, donald trump reviewed the Smoking Gun Document that laid out the crime. He then talked in detail about the crime with his cfo and with Michael Cohen and he said, do it. He approved it. So, if theres anything in this case that is in just plainly black letter proven by the documents and records, if theres anything else that weve been waiting for in testimony from witnesses, this is probably it, right . It certainly wasnt all, there is a lot to say about what happened today, but lets start there. Lawrence odonnell, you were there today. The one other wizard we got that is sequential here and important is donald trump at the time in october of 2016, the final days of the president campaign, directing Michael Cohen to make the payment to Stormy Daniels. He said he directed me to do it, we remember in Michael Cohens federal indictment for this that everything he did was at the direction of individual one, who turns out to be donald trump. You have both his praises here. You have in todays testimony Michael Cohen say he directed me to do this to pay Stormy Daniels and then you have the payback, which occurs after the election. The agreement to the payback. I have to say, rachel, we were sitting there as this testimony was coming out and we have all seen the document already. And, Michael Cohen was able to confirm, yes, that is my handwriting on The Other Side of the page, which, technically in the record had never been confirmed. The previous witness who introduced the document identified Allen Weisselbergs handwriting, saying ive been reading Allen Weisselbergs handwriting for 35 years. That is how that handwriting got in. It also got in today, the Allen Weisselberg piece when Michael Cohen said yes, i can identify that as Allen Weisselbergs handwriting because i saw him write it, which is about as good as his writing i. D. Cards. Then, Michael Cohen explains that is my writing over there, explaining to Allen Weisselberg what i needed. What we didnt know that was the next thing that was going to happen in the testimony is Allen Weisselberg and Michael Cohen are going to take that document down the hall and we were going to be in Donald Trumps office and Michael Cohen was telling us what donald trump said about this and he approved it and, as you put it, it was all there. That is where the final elements of what becomes the criminal charges all get put together is in that room. Katie, you were there. It was elegant because the prosecution had done such an