Breaking news welcome to the lead on jake tapper, right now, right this minute. I knew witness in Donald Trumps Hush Money Cover Up Trial. The prosecution just called its third witness. His name is gary pharaoh. Gary pharaoh is a banker who worked with Michael Cohen at the time that the payments were made to former playboy model, Karen Mcdougal and porn actress and director Stormy Daniels, both of whom alleged romantic entanglements of sorts with mr. Donald trump. This comes after rona graph was called as the second witness in the trial. Rona graph, shes on the screen right there. Shes a longtime trump assistance. She worked for trump since he hired her in 1987 after she cold calls to Trump Organization were on a graph, testified id two contacts you maintained at the Trump Organization were for Karen Mcdougal Stormy Daniels run a graph was on the stand for less than half an hour earlier today, trumps attorneys crossexamined david pecker, the former Tabloid Magnate and longtime friend o
situation room, stay with cnn are special live coverage of this truly historic criminal trial continues right now. on the lead with jake tapper cnn breaking news and welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper, donald trump s hush money trial is in its final phase as the prosecution is in the midst of giving its closing arguments, court will be back from break at any moment. the prosecution has been arguing that president trump, quote, quote, corrupted those around him, and he got them to lie and covered up unquote. trump picked michael cohen as his fixer. the prosecution says, quote, because he was willing to lie and cheat for donald trump this follows nearly three hours of closing arguments from trump s defense attorney todd blanche, who attacked michael cohen using trump like nicknames, calling him the gloat not the goat, the glutes. the greatest liar of all time. he also said that michael cohen is quote literally like an mvp of liars and added quote, i don t know how many leinz
Amid all the conflicting statements, we know that stone and wikileaks communicated directly from these private messages on twitter. october 13, 2016, stone messages wikileak that since he s been defending them and assange, they may want to re-examine the strategy of attacking him. wikileaks staff member replies in an attempt to distance wikileaks from stone. we appreciate that. however, the false claims of association of being used by the democrats to undermine the impact of our publications, don t go there if you don t want us to correct you. wikileaks tweeted this statement from an assange lawyer on friday. the charges against mr. stone do not allege mr. stone lied about his lack of contacts with julian assange. but rather about his contacts with others and about documents reflecting those communications. and goes on to say that the office of the special counsel has never spoken with mr. assange. phil black, cnn, london. phil, thank you. we re tracking developments in the philipp
Embassy in london since 2012, evading a feared arrest on anne unrelated matter and potential extradition to the u.s. within a few days of the e-mails, stone claims direct communication with assange. i have actually communicated with assange. i believe the next tranche of documents pertain to the clinton foundation, but no telling what the october surprise may be. reporter: sends this e-mail to former trump adviser sam nunberg. i met with my new pal julian assange last night. if wikileaks and stone s camps deny stone and assange ever meeting and wikileaks said there wasn t a back channel tweeting these are only stone/corsi attempts at braggadocio. we know that stone and wikileaks have communicated directly from the private messages on twitter. october 13, 2016, stone messages
With assange. i believe the next crunch of his documents pertain to the clinton foundation. but there s no telling what the october surprise may be. and sends this email to former trump adviser sam nunnberg, iodined by my new pal julian assange last night. stone later explained it was a joke. but was it? both wikileaks and others deny they ever met. and wikileaks maintains there wasn t even a back channel, tweeting friday, these are only stone, coursy attempts at brag darreno, no evidence of any back channel with wikileaks. amid all of these conflicting statements we know stone and wikileaks have communicated directly from these private messages on twitter, october 13, 2016, stone messages wikileaks, since he has been defending them and assange, they may want to examine the strategy of attacking him a wikileaks staffer replies, an attempt to distance wikileaks from stone. we appreciate. that however the false claims of association are being used by