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happy friday, it is 10:00 eastern. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york, and donald trump s hush money trial just resuming this morning with a former trump white house aide facing cross examination. madeleine westerhout back on the stand, she s testified about trump signing checks and michael cohen visiting the white house. and speaking of cohen, we just learned that the prosecution s star witness will take the stand on monday. nbc s vaughn hillyard is outside the courthouse for us. also with us our legal panel for the hour white collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor sarah krisoff, and criminal defense attorney bernard via low na. vaughn, catch us up. what s happening inside that courtroom this morning? reporter: hey, good morning, ana. madeleine westerhout who was the trump executive assistant inside of the white house for his first two and a half years there is currently testifying under cross examination by susan necheles. they re currently looki ....
to quote stormy daniels, when somebody attacks me, i m going to defend myself. those were some of the final words from the adult film star before she was excused from the stand in donald trump s hush money trial. it is good to be back with you. i m chris jansing, alongside my colleague, andrea mitchell. defense lawyer suggested she was trying to extort him, and capitalizing on his fame with merchandise, prosecutors for their part pointing out that daniels was the target of nasty, threatening tweets for even coming forward about an alleged affair with donald trump. they asked daniels been telling the truth net positive or net negative in your life. daniels response, negative. over the next hour, we ll bring you live updates from the courtroom, the latest witness who will be back after the lunch break, a bookkeeper at the trump organization who handled checks, including of course the key checks, the ones in question in this hush money case. so let s bring in the panel ....
alongside andrea mitchell. our continuing coverage will continue with jose diaz-balart next. good afternoon, great to be with you. i m jose diaz-balart in for katy tur. it has been a roladex of witnesses. the director of oval office operations, madeleine westerhout is on the witness stand. during her time she was known as trump s gate keeper. westerhout s testimony comes after stormy daniels second round on the stand earlier today. daniel was grilled on the details of the alleged sexual encounter and the $130,000 payment that followed. i want to start with what s happening right now inside the courtroom. joining us from outside the new york city courthouse is nbc news national correspondent yasmin vossoughian, criminal defense attorney, and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, and new york law school professor and former manhattan assistant district attorney, rebecca. bring us up to speed on what s happening now. reporter: i m not a lawyer. i m trying to be one on t ....
freedom for everyone in our nation, from that experience, we know scapegoating and demonizing any minority is a threat to every minority and the very foundation of our democracy. moments like this, we have to put these principals that we are talking about into action. i understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. in america, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech, to debate and disagree, to protest peacefully and make our voices heard. i understand that s america. but there s no place on any campus in america, any place in america, for anti-semitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind. [ applause ] whether against jews or anyone else. violent attacks, destroying property is not peaceful protest. it s against the law. we are not a lawless country. we are a civil society. we uphold the rule of law. no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves. [ applause ] the jewish community, i want you t ....
reviewing it. we are also expecting additional comments from the white house. the daily briefing happens a little later this hour with john kirby, so we will get new information we expect then. the other big story we re following, just about 15 minutes, testimony will resume in donald trump s hush money trial. it has been quite the morning. the jury spent it hearing from jeffrey mcconney, a former top executive at the trump organization. he handled the reimbursements to michael cohen for paying off stormy daniels. there are a pile of documents we re seeing for the first time, including these checks. if you re familiar with donald trump s signatures, those are checks that were signed by donald trump himself after an explanation about the difference between a trust, which was an account for the company, and a, essentially, private account for donald trump. well, mcconney detailed how he kept notes and bank statements related to cohen stored in a locked door and how the hu ....