But a lot actually happened. Michael cohen was back on the stand finishing his four days of testimony, and trumps lawyers began and ended their case, so we basically in one week saw the d. A. And the defense team both rest, and we saw the Defense Witnesses who at times stumbled. Heres how it played out. The defense wrapped up with Michael Cohen after three days of Cross Examination. It was a grueling three days. The prosecution has now rested its case. The defense has also just now called its first witness. Robert costello back on the stand later this morning after yesterdays fireworks. He was nearly tossed from the witness box and his entire testimony was nearly stricken from the record. An extraordinary moment. His whole attitude on the stand could have the defense team rethinking its strategy of calling him at all. The defense has rested its case after calling just two witnesses, but donald trump did not testify in his own defense. Thats how it went down, and it was actionpacked. Michael cohens cross raised some doubts about him as a witness. And weve covered that. We dont know how the jury will take it, but it wasnt all smooth sailing. Indeed this man whos on The Stand Alleging and providing evidence alleging Business Fraud by his old boss donald trump had to admit under oath that he himself stole from the trump organization. Prosecutors also got their turn with cohen on redirect, return to the bottom line where they basically said were you too busy to get trumps approval on this Stormy Daniels payment, he says he got the confirmation and the prosecutors are going to try to continue to turn this jury both in the last week we saw and in their Closing Arguments, because he was the person trump picked to be involved in all of this stuff, and he remains the key witness. The jury also heard this very simple statement that youve seen in any trial, fictional, Law And Order or real. Quote, your honor, the people rest. That is the only time we think any prosecutors anywhere in this country will be able to say that about defendant donald trump. This is, of course, the only trial scheduled to conclude by the election. Now, the evidence they supplied means the people, thats the d. A. Representing the people of new york, say they have proven every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. But thats their case. Trumps lawyers got to stand up and start their counterarguments. They called this one lawyer linked to cohen, who you saw in that highlight reel we showed you, this is someone that giuliani and trump have tried to use to discredit cohen. His name is robert costello, he also faced the grand jury, and he had a tough go of it this week. I told you were going to tell you exactly what happens, not whether its what you hoped happened, not whether the side you like is winning or losing, although everyones free to have strong feelings in this case. Were going to tell you whats really happening. For costello, the Trump Defense witness, the key longest witness they used, it was a disaster. He was rebuked by the judge for antics on the stand. He was interrupting, the judge found him arrogant and contemptuous, you dont say jeez, you dont give me side eyes, you dont roll your eyes. Im going to show you how the judge put it. This is not our commentary here, this judge who ive been in the courtroom has been very fair throughout, even measured, kind of mellow at times, he said this witness above all others was quote, contemptuous. That is a specific legal term. It means that you could be held in contempt, although the judge did not try to jail him that day, probably because it would become too much of a distraction. Some legal experts said the Trump Defense lawyers would have been better off not calling this troubled witness at all. It was after that witness the defense rested their case and said theyve completed their mission and they dont need trump to testify, and he has every right not to testify as ive told you. So they had about two days in control, and they finished. They called those two witnesses. Thats compared to 20 by the d. A. , a mismatch that is normal, that is routine because the d. A. , the prosecutors have the burden, so they have the burden of providing witnesses and evidence, the defense doesnt have to do anything. Here they called a couple of people to poke what they thought would be a couple holes. The jury was sent home and the lawyers have been hashing out towards the end of the week the Jury Instructions. Testimony now complete, jurors were sent home in the final phase of the trial got underway. A crucial hearing started about the nature of the Jury Instructions. What will be the last words to the jury before those 12 Men And Women decide the fate of donald trump in the hush money coverup trial. The final showdown between the prosecution and the defense set to take place next tuesday, when both sides present their summations before the jury. These Jury Instructions matter a lot. They might matter more than Closing Arguments, which are a big deal, and of course well be covering. Thats the last thing the jury hears on the substance. The last thing the jury hears on the rules matters a lot. It comes from the judge. It has that authority, theyre read out, and the lawyers here are clashing about exactly what goes in those instructions, and all of this will go to guide how this jury considers what trump knew and what he intended. Ive told you this as fair as i can. Part of the allegations here, part of the crimes have effectively been proven, by which i mean when you have the paperwork and its lying, and you have Donald Trumps signature on it, youve proven the basic element of the fraud, that is this stuff isnt what they said it was, and they lied about it. And you have cohen and paperwork showing that, but that is not the whole case as youve heard, and you need to have trumps intent on that as well as the secondary issue, the second thing about this campaign crime. Trumps lawyers wanted to take all of this, what i just referred to in simple form and tried to make it more complex with a higher kind of burden than the law might require. At times they were asking for special treatment, and ive told you they have the right to make these requests. The judge has been through this rodeo before and hes in charge, and he can just say, no, thats a ridiculous request. They did make some ground on some issues. When they asked the judge to consider the extraordinarily important nature of the case, basically the, hey, our defendant was president defense, the judge said im not going to change the law. Im not going to do that. In other words, you cant just say, hey, this guys important in some generalized sense. Remember, no ones above the law. Now, trump had also been seen dozing off in court throughout the course of this trial, which is a contrast to how he was during these Jury Instruction arguments. Again, sometimes donald trump in politics and in court, he plays a more disengaged or more aloof person than he actually is. Hes a reality show star, an actor in many ways. And suddenly we saw that he could perk up and pay a lot of attention. There was no napping during the debate over the Jury Instructions. Which suggests this defendant knows exactly how important they are. Now as i mentioned, on tuesday the jury hears the Closing Arguments and the judge has told the jurors they may have to stay late with the idea being, in fairness to everybody you set aside enough time here, after the break everyone can go rest up and all that, just like theyre human beings. But then the jury sits down and according to the judge, hes hoping to have them all hear these arguments, perhaps finish them on tuesday and turn to deliberations on wednesday. If you thought this thing wasnt transparent without cameras in the courtroom during the trial, Jury Instructions are secret completely. Hourbyhour we will know nothing about what theyre doing, what the vote might be, what theyre thinking, what the debates are, unless and until they submit questions that can be read out to the judge in court, ask for evidence or announce their decision. We dont know how long the deliberations will take. We dont even know which part os of this case will matter most to the jury. There are some big things we think will matter, Stormy Daniels, for example, testifying about something that trump says to his lawyer never happened is a big deal. Her lawyers coming up in this special, which i think could be interesting to hear from. Michael cohen, both what he said, basically eyewitness to the crime and then what he was attacked on. Does he tell the truth . Those are the kind of things we could infer the jury will care about, but we dont know. I say that not as an exercise, not as an observation, but as the actual humility of our Justice System the way it is supposed to work. We can watch, we can observe, we can report, but it is what happens inside among those jury members, a jury of your peers, thats all that matters in this courtroom in the week ahead. And we have two legal experts who know all about that and how important that process is. Were going to get into this when were back together in 90 seconds. When were back together in 90 seconds. 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Morgan Wealth Management. We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law. No amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring american principle. D. A. Alvin bragg speaking that one and only time that he addressed this case in public, announcing those charges that now have become the only criminal trial this year of defendant and president ial candidate donald trump. We are now joined by Andrew Weissmann and kristy greenberg, our legal eagles and msnbc analysts. Andrew, i want to ask you to broaden out. We are in this day by day, but this is our special. When we look at the entire case, what do you think has been proven . What fairly is the most clear and convincing evidence that the d. A. Has been able to bring, and what, if any, reasonable doubts do you think could be there . All in all holistic . Well, i think something that kind of gets lost is one of the things that i think has been established beyond any question at all, and frankly isnt much of a battleground in this trial is something thats pretty shocking, which is david peckers testimony that he had an agreement with donald trump. In other words, one to one, principal to principal that there was not just a catch and kill scheme but there was also a scheme to intentionally defame opponents. So you had a media outlet, many people may view it as a sort of down market media outlet, but one that was in cahoots with a political candidate. And so just from a political perspective, sort of to me it should still be shocking, and i think to the jurors it will be one of the reasons why they may care about this case because thats sort of one of the intents that informs why this is a felony. I think the area where theres going to be the most ill go back to you on part two, but on part one who you just said, moderators privilege, im not judge merchan, but i get to jump in. You said down market, super market, this tabloid matters a lot, and i really want to echo what youre saying because youre talking about the evidence as a lawyer. Its not for us to say whats better or not, the new yorker or the atlantic or this tabloid. This was an extraordinary secret agreement. It was unfair to the voters, obviously. It was also unfair to all of Donald Trumps republican primary candidates, some of whom complained there was something going on, but it wasnt exposed then, and so we think about the law as a search for truth. I really appreciate what youre saying because the case has already exposed more truth, unfair to the voters, unfair to the republican primary candidates and yes, unfair to the democrat and we know all the politics about that. You make a great point. I give you back the ball for the second point you want to make, and kristy, same question to you, please. Yeah, let me begin really quickly because kristys a really good trial lawyer also. Just really quickly, i think the area where i think there will be sort of Pitch Battles is about what did donald trump know about the false Business Records. You know, you obviously have Michael Cohen, but i think that youll hear a lot about putting together pecker, hope hicks, Jeff Mcconney, and just how unlikely it would be that Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg who by any stretch of the imagination clearly knew about the scheme, why they would keep it from donald trump. So i think youre going to hear that as the main battleground. It will be lots of embroidery, but i think substantively that will be the main issue. Kristy. I completely agree. I think as to the piece of this about proving that theres an agreement to unlawfully influence the election, theres just so much evidence from so many different sources about that piece hearing not just from Michael Cohen, but from david pecker about how the whole, you know, meeting in August Of 2015 was set up. Direct conversations not just between Michael Cohen and donald trump but between david pecker and donald trump, and also hearing about the fact that even after the election, you know, not just david pecker but hope hicks, both having donald trump say if either of these stories, whether its Karen Mcdougal or Stormy Daniels got out, it really would have been damaging to the campaign, and i dont see any way that you would describe why for Stormy Daniels they were delaying the payments if it was if the purpose of the payments was just to prevent embarrassment to his family or to himself and not to the campaign. The timing doesnt add up. Otherwise, he would have just made the payment at any point. So i think that point is very strong and there are just so many witnesses that corroborate each other in that. I do agree with andrew, the evidence that donald trump caused these false Business Records to be made, you know, that it doesnt have to be direct. It can be indirect, but there really wasnt evidence that donald trump was directing or requesting anybody to make the false Business Records. So where do you get this evidence . You know, i think ultimately theres going to be an argument, look, he was kind of working in concert with different people. You know, he understood Jeff Mcconney understood from Allen Weisselberg that there was going to be a reimbursement to Michael Cohen, and donald trump knew that there would be a reimbursement as well. There is a document, a very important document that donald trump signed saying that Michael Cohen was going to be reimbursed for expenses in 2016. Theres now the burden of proof is not on the defense, but the defense presented no theory when it put forth its case as to what those expenses were, and the expenses were between 100,000 to 250,000. So if its not these checks that are the reimbursement and these are for future Legal Expenses in 2017, what were these other payments for . So again, i think the evidence does come together really well that donald trump, in fact, knew that these payments of 35,000 checks each month were not for future Legal Expenses but were for the reimbursements. And kristy, do you ever binge watch like those episodic shows like ozark where you have to catch up on the story . Yeah . My question for you as a prosecutor is how will the d. A. Take that approach that everyone remembers in the first 30 seconds of episode 15. They dont even try to cover everything that happened but they quickly tell you you remember when they hid the gun and they found the gun and then this person got killed, and now they found the drugs, what will the prosecution in your view do, if they do it well you have a lot of experience. We showed just some of these witnesses and it was 20 in total. We dont expect them to summarize everything. So how are they going to catch everyone up and hit the key witnesses to drill home what they want the jury to remember . So i think <