Welcome, to the special coverage of criminal trumps criminal trial. It is a week that could be make or break as key witness Michael Cohen unloaded on trump but then found himself on defense with trumps fate now hanging in the balance. The star witness takes the stand against donald j trump. Michael cohen now the star witness. The expresident coming face to face with the man who used to do his dirty work. Who now has turned into the key witness. Telling the court, everything required mr. Trumps sign off. Will he keep his cool during the crossexamination . I think the punches are building cumulatively. I think that tuesday there were bruises, and today there is blood. Stor cohen is a bad human being. If i was a juror i would think this guy is making it up as he is going along. We have heard different people, legal experts, longtime journalists, and other observers close to this. I can tell you, was inside the courtroom. Including the key cross on thursday. And cohen did give the da what they wanted including cooperation of what he says were realtime proof of trump being in on this criminal scheme. About as thursday continued, the defense continued to chip away at his credibility. Monday prosecution had Cohen Narrating the entire scheme. It looked bad for Defendant Trump. Questions were about the catch and kill, the playboy model and the adult addressed. Actress. He said that he knew there would be a Significant Impact if the stories came out. Prosecutors pressed him about the daniels payment and cohen said that trump was angry to learn that it had resurfaced. I thought you took care of this. An angry trump said according to testimony. Just take care of it. And he recounted what he did was at the direction of the defendant for trump. And this was a damning picture and that trump was not only in on everything, but sharing in real time his own motives. In other words, if you believe cohen, you now have the motive piece. He dont even need cohen for the tabloid and money piece because you have other witnesses. So that looked bad. It was bad. For Defendant Trump, and we reported on it. Then came the cross exam. Whatever happens in this historic trial, this is what everyone has been gearing up for, because over several days you had these Defense Attorneys going at cohens credibility, not just saying that he changed his story, that was explained already, but he continues to live, not just about the Core Evidence in this case, but about other unrelated stuff and that his personal vendetta has not only clouded his judgment, but that he personally care so much, as he confirmed, and raised questions about whether that has colored or even distorted his ability to tell the truth on the stand. Trumps defense aggressively pushing and questioning cohen on all kinds of things and lets be clear, and i mentioned this in my reporting thus far, some of it is not completely add up. Some of it did not create a logical counter story, but cumulatively, over the days, it did appear to poke holes in not only cohens credibility, but Something Else that jurors may care about. Theyre trying to decide who to believe, whether he overtime went straight and told the truth, or continue to be a kind of angry unreliable person who was constantly publicly insulting the man he used to look up two. Donald cares for no one or anything other than himself. I know what mr. Trump is, he is a racist, he is a con man, and he is a cheat. And im going to jail in part because of my decision to help mr. Trump hide that payment from the American People before they voted a few days later. You remember that moment . That is about five years ago and we have gotten all the way to this trial, the only trial trump is facing after effectively delaying the others with an assist from his own appointees on the Supreme Court. Some look at what you just saw and they see a whistleblower, they see someone who made mistakes but came clean. Other people though, and this is what the defense is pushing, might see someone who had one story that would benefit him one way and another story when he got caught, and maybe even another story as time went on. So they pushed him on the kind of resistance figure he has become with a podcast that repeatedly, meticulously documents his turning against trump, and tshirts that show is one time boss and mentor now in a prison cell. And how much he has been motivated by revenge. The man wrote a book called revenge. Trumps lawyer also just paid him. They showed a lawyer who looks clearly like the most upset person in the room or the most heated in this moment, saying we arent asking for your beliefs, the jury does not want to hear what you think happened. He called him a liar at one point and cohen rebutted that. The courthouse in Lower Manhattan became something of a gathering place. What you are seeing on your screen is not normal. I want you to see that. I want to cover this with the evidence. The people assembled to attack the rule of law to undermine the actual jury that is sitting, which is legally authorized to make this decision, those were the right wing republicans that gathered in person to do that, including the highest ranking republican, the speaker of the house, mike johnson, and other lawmakers. You can see him making this political pilgrimage, and then he was outflanked to his right by matt gaetz, a figure that helped topple the last speaker and who has leverage along with some other rightwing figures. They lionize trump in the same way that cohen used to and they are saying things that trump has been busted for saying in violation of the gag order, so he has handed but off, which some say could be a second violation, or the 11th or 12, literally, as they came out and did trumps dirty work. The judge inside, his daughter is making millions of dollars running against donald trump, raising money for Donald Trumps political opponents. The judge his own daughter is making millions of dollars doing Online Fundraising for democrats. The judges daughter is a political operative. And raises money for democrats. Rats. What you just heard is wrong, it is not just coming from a beleaguered defendant desperately trying to muddy the waters, or from his own random paid political hacks, but from people who are leaders in government. If you have been watching the special coverage, you may have noticed that we at msnbc are trying very hard to cover this historic trial fairly. You will see people on both sides and independent legal experts and people say things about the trial where some people might get mad, but dont shoot the messenger, we are just telling you how the trial is going. There are no two sides to this though. It might be a Gag Order Violation if donald trump was publicly personally riding those lines, because it is a violation to instruct others on behalf of the defendant to attack family members, children of the judge, as it should be, but second and more widely, i want to be clear, those officials have every right to attend the trial, to observe it and have every right to weigh in on it to some degree but they have systematically, several of them i have played for you and others have come to town, have not just done that, they have undermined the rule of law in advance before this jury even hears the case. They have contributed to an environment where, if they dont get the result they want, they will say we have already been attacking this court and if they do it is possible that the defendant could be acquitted or have a hung jury and thus not be convicted, and then they will just move right along without any apparent care for the system of government that they are in. Remember, they are not random commentators, they are members of the government, which has three branches, and this is one of them. And it is the Judicial Branch that is supposed to be respected precisely because it is the less partisan branch, it is not just do press releases. We have not heard the da respond to those politicians, let alone the judge, and yet these people are undermining it. It is not normal and it is not done. We have had a tradition of president s of both parties which changed recently with the one that is on trial, but a tradition of saying wait until you hear what the jury decides and we respect the ruling, the decision of the jury. Just as you must respect Supreme Court rulings, because otherwise the whole system crumbles and you dont have a rule of law democracy anymore. While this might look like an antitrump thing, it is a larger problem and i promise you, you folks show up at Bob MenendezsEruption Trial i will tell you about it. So far we have not seen that happen and we have not seen democratic politicians go there. We cannot do false equivalence when there is no equivalent to the underlying situation. Itua but we have to be careful at a time that people have already attacked the last peaceful transfer of power and that election, which had no real question about the winner. The current president one by three states and the Supreme Court did not take any appeals and there were none Strong Enough to hear. But you know what happened, we had an insurrection and now the same crowd is challenging the next election because trump might lose and they are already challenging that and now they are challenging the judicial process of our fellow citizens to judge him as they should judge any other defendant because that is what happens when you live in a rule of law democracy. So while this trial is about the verdict, it is also about so much more. And we cant have false equivalencies about that. Our coverage continues right now. We will make sense of this big weekend we have a top reporter from the New York Times and a veteran from the Manhattan Das Office himself, right after this. This. It helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. It worked guys Yeahhhh Downy rinse and refresh. Hi, im eileen. I live in vancouver, washington and i write mystery novels. 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That was Michael Cohen explaining all of this to congress. He Gave Congress the receipts which became a big part of the case. Case. As exhibit 5 a to the testimony shows, i am providing a copy of a 35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august 1 of 2017. When he was president of the United States, pursuant to the coverup, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me. The word used by mr. Trumps tv lawyer for the legal hush money i paid on his behalf. This 35,000 check was one of 11 Check Installments that was paid throughout the year while he was president. Dent. We are joined now by emily and veteran of the Manhattan Das Office. Welcome to both of you. Here we are. Okay . Im curious, emily, what you think having followed all the way back to when the story first broke, and all these other trials that have been delayed. They are basically all slated for after the election. And then the week started with Michael Cohen giving a version of that set of events to the jury, and it ended with him i would say on defense over whether he is always truthful. Yeah, i mean that clip really shows how this is the saga of Michael Cohen and Donald Trumps relationship, which was a Relationship Cohen wanted to hold so close and so dear. It blew up on him. You know, this hush money scheme, his own role in it and lying about it sent him to prison, and now he is trying to bring donald trump into that scheme with him. Of course, with the prosecutors behind him. So this story that he has been telling, that he got in big trouble initially for lying about, then he said he told the truth about to congress, now there are supposed to be real consequences for donald trump, who cohen casts as the principal. And then does he have enough credibility to have the jury believe that version of events so that he can pull trump down with him . That is well put. And jeremy, you have been inside of that office and you have tried these kind of cases, so you are a great expert for us. I want to play some of cohens history because there is so much talk about bias in the world and that word, sometimes the idea that you are only doing something for your political views were Something Else and there is also information bias, right . We have all absorbed what emily referred to as a relationship saga. We have no reason to believe that the jury has followed this very closely, and they are now instructed not to, so i was watching in the courtroom this week as they kind of got more and more detail about this very strange odyssey, and to them it is newer information. Here is some of where he started. Started. I know mr. Trump, i have stood by him shoulder to shoulder over the past decade. I think he is a wonderful man. Obviously very loyal and dedicated to mr. Trump. I will do anything to protect mr. Trump in the family and now the Vice President elect as well as the campaign. I think he is going to be a great president. Mr. Trump as a significant number of people and i would like to keep myself in that circle of extremely loyal people. People. Not exactly a resistance whistleblower. So the prosecutors argued that version of michael is why he did lie then and is now telling the truth, and the Defense Counsel argued how are you going to trust this guy . His case keeps changing. Sammy the bull was not a good guy but he was loyal and we know that donald trump supports loyalty and calls in loyalty. At some point when you turn your back on someone, if you believe the narrative, that person turns around and tells the story, but you are not getting the kingpin, youre not getting the boss are the major bad guy unless you have dirty hands. You want a choirboy . Then it goes nowhere. You need the person who is in that room as part of that crime or that bad act to get the main player you are seeking and in this case it is michael . Sammy the bull helped l . To godey. Godey. Teflon was not teflon. Did you see the same recent Credibility Problem . Because we have heard from veterans like you that they did get some punches landed because there were real questions about whether cohen is not just changed his story since he got in trouble, but then less than truthful recently. You have to look at this is not the haymaker down goes frazier knockout, it is body blows. And i dont know if they landed enough, because i think the prosecution did a good job humanizing him, and so far to Michael Cohens credit, he has not been bombastic and is cut from the same cloth as donald trump but different and would just go on these tirades. He has been respectful and calm, at times more so on day one then day two. He was a little evasive in answering questions. But it sounds correct. Today he was much more yes and no and if he did not recall, he did not recall. And going back to what i said before, at the end of the day youre getting the bad guy. And whether or not he wanted to become Chief Of Staff and he told his daughter or whether or not he asked for a pardon, he is a regular guy at the end of the day who wants to be vindicated and does not want to go to prison. None of this is a home run. In you think that checks out. Emily, there are so many lawyers in trumps orbit that are in trouble. Trump went to jail for him and other aides went to jail and today or i should say thursday i was in court and saw jeff clark, a codefendant in a different case. I dont know why you want to bring a codefendant from your other terminal problems into this courtroom,