We have a lot to get to tonight after another day of major testimony in Donald Trumps first criminal trial. Michael cohen, trumps former lawyer and fixer was back on the stand today, facing crosses emanation from Donald Trumps current lawyer, blanche. For anyone coming, mr. Cohen has been on the stand for more than 14 hours, with more to come on monday. And nearly all day today, todd blanche tried to undermine mr. Cohens credibility as a witness. Blanche spent half the morning recalling different episodes when Michael Cohen lied publicly. Lying to congress, lying in court, lying about whether or not he sought a part in. Essentially forcing cohen to admit repeatedly that he has been untruthful. Blanche also tried to paint cohen as something of a renegade, a man who spent the 2016 Election Cycle Casting out on his own, speaking to the press both publicly and privately without Donald Trumps consent or his supervision. Blanche tried to call into question Michael Collins memory , his ability to recall key moments in this case. And that all built to what was probably the biggest moment of today. When the defense managed to cast out on a key part of cohens story. To understand exactly what happened today, you have to go back to 2016 when donald trump was running unusually lien campaign for president , and one of his unlikely Campaign Surrogates was his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. These are Donald Trumps words. He is going to stay true to who he is, and he is going to end up, in all fairness, hes going to end up winning this election. He is a mentor, he is a sage, he is like family. I have worked for mr. Trump for a long time, and i can tell you that mr. Trump mindscape memory is fantastic. I have never come across a situation where mr. Trump has said something that is not accurate. There are seriously . Yeah, seriously. In that same period, Michael Cullen was allegedly also negotiating the Stormy DanielsHush Money Payment on trump mindscape to have. But because Michael Cohen was publicly associated with the trump campaign, going on cable news to attest to trumps Sterling Recollection of facts and honesty and so forth, because Michael Cohen was one of the public faces of the campaign Michael Cohen was also being harassed by members of the public. Specifically, in the weeks before the election Michael Cohen was getting Prank Phone Calls from someone who claimed to be a 14yearold kid. On october 24th, 2016 cohen tested trumps body man to report the prank caller to the Secret Service. Trump mindscape body man wrote back call me, which Michael Cohen did. The two men spoke for about a minute and a half. The problem for Michael Cullen here is that he previously testified that that minute and a half phone call was actually a call where Keith Schiller gave his phone to donald trump and cohen updated trump about the Stormy Daniels situation. Today in court, todd blanche seized on that potential disparity to attack Michael Cohen. It was one of the few moments in this trial where todd blanche has expressed any emotion. Here is blanche. That was a lie you did not talk to President Trump on that night, you talk to Keith Schiller about the Prank Phone Call. Michael cohen, im not certain that is accurate. Blanche, you are certain it was accurate on tuesday when you are under oath and testifying. Cohen, based upon the records that i reviewed and in light of everything going on, i believe i spoke to mr. Trump about the Stormy Daniels matter. Blanche, we are not asking for your belief. This tree does not want to believe what you think happened. Prosecution, objection. Judge merchan, sustained. That was arguably the most credible attack on Michael Collins credibility in this argument so far. We will see what impact it has on the jury, if any. Other than that, the most meaningful thing the defense did today was to drag this whole thing out. For the entire second half of todays crossexamination, todd blanche really did appear to be Playing For Time, trying to stretch the crossexamination to the end of the day. Now, court is not in session tomorrow, so donald trump can attend his sons High School Graduation and then quickly leave him on Graduation Night to go to a fundraiser in minneapolis that is 1700 miles away. Every family celebrates differently. That means the jury will now sit with Michael Cohens testimony for three days, which is either a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, the jury will be left to spend the entire weekend thinking about the defenses First Successful attack on Michael Cohen. On the other hand, the prosecution will have the entire weekend to think about how to respond when they get their chance to question Michael Cohen on monday. At which point we may be nearing the end of this whole thing. Judge merchan in the day by telling both sides to be prepared to give the closing arguments as soon as next tuesday. Michael cullen will be the last witness for the prosecution. As far as the defense goes, we still do not know which witnesses they will call, if any. The defense still does not know if it is going to call the only Expert Witness on its list, an excerpt on election law. But there is some that the defense may call a witness that is not on their list. Close to rudy giuliani, dispatched in 2018 to try to keep Michael Cullen in line. So it seems that trumps defense is making decisions on the fly, including the biggest decision of all. Today trumps attorneys told the court that they still do not know if donald trump will take the stand. Joining me now are my great colleagues, Rachel Maddow, host of the Rachel Maddow show. And lawrence odonnell, host of the last word with lawrence odonnell. Its a pleasure to have you both. Rachel, i know you followed the saga, as we all do. And i just wonder, the sort of conventional wisdom out there is that todd blanche had a better day than he has. I wonder what your assessment of the events is. I think your observation that he seemed to be Playing For Time is a good assessment. Because everybody who i have seen direct reporting, including our own reporters and Staff Members who have been in the courtroom and overflow room today were all remarking kind of throughout the course of the day, where is this going . Where is this going . Not only was there no sort of cinematic or dramatic rhythm to it, it just kind of sprawled. That said, as you pointed out, he did seem to catch Michael Cohen in a bit of a culdesac on this question of whether or not one particular conversation that cohen recounted when he was testifying under direct examination from the prosecution, whether one particular conversation with trump actually happened the way cohen remembered it. Now, i say it was just one conversation with trump, because i think it is important that that particular phone call wasnt the linchpin of Michael Cohens testimony, or of the prosecutions case. This one call that cohen described with trump was just one of the communications he described in which he sort of updated trump on the status of the Hush Money Scheme with Stormy Daniels. It is not a key matter. By trying to shake Michael Collins memory loose on that point, i trying to make the jury may be question whether or not that call went down exactly the way cohen said it did, they are essentially trying to sort of Stick A Prybar in that crack and mess him up as a witness, and make it seem like nothing he said can be trusted at all. That is certainly a real legal tactic. That is a thing that happens on crossexamination. It appears to be the only thing they have accomplished on cross examination. So i will be really interested to see, when redirect starts, when the prosecution gets cohen back as a witness, and when both sides do their summations, whether this will be, effectively, their whole defense against this whole case for donald trump. A Prank Phone Call that led to a call to steve schiller. Lets just talk about how it landed in the courtroom. Because the transcript reads that Michael Cohen, he sticks to his line, effectively. He does not capitulate. But because todd blanche showed some emotion and was on attack mode in a way that he had been, it is seen as a win. How did it feel to you . First of all, let me try to get control of this emotion thing. We have all heard tv shows, tv, political chat shows where it is louder and angrier than one todd blanche did. It is the loudest todd blanche has been, and it is the loudest voice ive heard in that courtroom. But this is the most mild mannered courtroom i have ever been in, including Michael Cullen and as rachel knows, especially the judge and the other lawyers. There was a certain amount of excitement surging out of that room with the reporters, who finally heard somebody Say Something that sounded really, you know, dramatic. And it did. And it was extremely effective. One reason why it was extremely effective is that it was a surprise. This was not a piece that the District Attorney had prepared us for. The crank caller, we found out about in crossexamination. We did not know about the crank caller on direct examination. So we are all sitting there learning about this crank caller who turns out to be 14 years old, and Michael Cohen handles it kind of generously for him, once he found out that it is a 14yearold kid. But he was trying to scare the kid about dont do this. The Secret Service is coming after you. What it eventually became for Michael Cullen is okay, the call i made to keep schiller at 8 02, and earlier tonight i just reread the way he described that with the District Attorney. What happens today is not contradict what he said to the District Attorney. It amplifies it. So what Michael Cohen adjusted to was okay, yeah, i called Keith Schiller right in the middle of that harassment business, and yes, i said something to keep schiller about the harassment thing, what we do about that . And then he handed the phone to donald trump and i said to him we have to wrap up the Stormy Daniels thing. And all that happens in a minute and 32 seconds. And if you write that dialogue, it can happen. Especially when Donald Trumps responses in these dialogues in other spots include lines like just do it. Thats good. And the just do it line comes before this phone call happens. So, rachels point, which is important, is that this phone call isnt the only testimony about donald trump ordering this payoff to Stormy Daniels, which, in effect, causes the false Business Records to be created. Which is what, by the way, the trial is about falsifying Business Records. There are 34 of them. Todd blanche hasnt mentioned one of them. So did todd blanche have a good day . Yes, as long as you count the day as 10 minutes. But i will say, the rest of his day was effective, because it was messy. The d. A. Did this chronologically. He just rambled all over different dates, and that is a smart move. Because it makes Michael Collins lying chaotic, whereas in the d. A. S version of it, you understood okay, his profession was lying for donald trump in house for donald trump, whether it be to Gossip Magazines or eventually for a political candidate. Then it comes a time where his line for donald trump gets him indicted, and now you got him in this weird crossfire of his own lies. But when you hear it in that biographical way, how it was told by the prosecution, it makes sense. When you heard it through todd blanche today, it is chaotic. So it was a smart move by blanche tanaka chronologically. Rachel, to lawrences point, and your point, the defense has not focused in on why donald trump would be paying Michael Cullen 35,000 a month in installments if it was for what Legal Service . They havent gotten to the essence of the charges here at all. They have really focused on the credibility issue. And i was reminded of something said about Michael Collins credibility in the civil fraud case. I will just read an excerpt. This fact finder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means that you can never tell the truth. Michael cohen told the truth. I mean, it is a very simple concept. But i think it could hold up here. So, a, Michael Cohen couldve been lying about other things and not lying about the things he has testified to. That can rationally exist. The other thing, though, and i think this might have been what the prosecution was driving at in their opening statements, when they essentially conceded yeah, Michael Cohen, controversial guy, youre going to hear a lot about Michael Cullen here. But everything important you are going to hear from him we have corroborated. We have witness testimony, documents, other ways to prove to you that the important things he is going to say our things that actually happened and that we can bolster from other sources. So, the prosecution has been preparing for months and months for the whole defense mounted against this case on trumped my in behalf to be Michael Cohen is a liar. If that is what they are trying to do, if that is what they are trickling down on, if that is the only defense they are coming out with here, ultimately what the jury is being told is donald trump hired a guy who is a real bully and a liar to do his work for him, and had him work for him doing that for about 10 years. And oh, by the way, the underlying scheme that is being charged here as a felony is effectively a lie. When you are paying hush money to someone, you are telling them to lie by omission, to not tell a true story because you dont want it to get out for other purposes. So if what they are proving is donald trump, as a way of doing business, had somebody on his payroll whose job was professionally to lie and intimidate people. And that is, in effect, a description of the underlying conduct that led to these charges. I am not sure the jury ultimately has a great revelation. Not light dawns on marblehead about there is a liar in this room. It is effective to the prosecution and defense. Lying liars and the people who lie. Lawrence, did you get a sense that the killing time was really another part of their strategy in all this . You got to remember, it is not killing time. It is entertaining donald trump. Donald trumps definition of torture on a Witness Stand is just being on a Witness Stand. Which is why he never does it. So he thinks every minute you are on the Witness Stand under oath, his demand from his lawyers is simply make sure it is hell for those people who get on the Witness Stand and testify against me, like Michael Cohen. It is a risky thing, because jurors catch on when you are treading water and they dont like it. But i dont think todd blanche has reached that point with this jury. I think he kept it alive enough today, and the fact that he kept jumping around chronologically i think was helpful to keep everybody alert. And look, he did something that is rarely ever done in any trial. He surprised everybody. He surprised everyone. This 14yearold Phone Call Harasser who turned out to be a key element of a certain important phone call was not in this case until he pulled that rabbit out of the hat. So jurors are not going to penalize you for that area that keeps them awake. If that 14yearold now, i believe, 22yearold is out there, we invite you out of this program. Would love to hea