To quote Stormy Daniels, when somebody attacks me, im 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 Trumps Hush Money Trial. It is good to be back with you. Im 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, well 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 lets bring in the panel joining us now, nbc Nati
Joining us, msnbcs Yasmin Vossoughian outside the courthouse. Temidayo agangawilliams, a former prosecuor and Defense Attorney caroline pull lisi. Yasmin, Jury Instrekss under way right now. Whats going on . Jury instructions under way ahead of Opening Statements, jose and ana. 45 minutes for the prosecution, 25 minutes for the defense. Theyre doing that because theres going to be a lot of details, much of a timeline, a lot of dates and they dont want to overwhelm the jury in the Opening Statements process. Judgments made from the bench that i want to talk about with you quickly, first, when it comes to the evidence if, in fact, the former president decides to testify, judge juan merchan is allowing six various cases to be decided if donald trump it was. Talking about the trump payroll judgment, the trump civil fraud gag orders as well along with e. Jean carol assault case and the defamation case. A couple more things happening in court this morning. The former president spoke about ho
Defense will have to make . Its certainly Fair Game if Donald Trump chooses to take the Witness Stand that we would expect him to say if he were to take The Stand like, you know, i just didnt want my wife to know or i didnt do it, i dont have affairs, whatever opens the door, as we say, to the ability of the prosecution to come in and bring the evidence that shows, well, actually you have a pattern of behavior, and actually here is what supports our case. This is exactly why so many of us have said very hard to imagine a scenario it can happen. But very hard to imagine a scenario where anybody on Donald Trumps legal team wants him on that Witness Stand. Theres just too much to attack him with including a whole bunch of things hes said inconsistently over the years. Caroline, is that unusual for folks that dont have the experience that you all do, for example, on what a trial normally looks like is it unusual for the judge to say, if the defendant chooses to take The Stand, these are si
Movie is conspiracy, in laymans terms, the agreement. The judge has already said to prospective jurors, this is about an agreement to conceal. The agreement begins with David Pecker in august of 2015. Thats the meeting, and Donald Trump is in the meeting. You have that top of the pyramid that caroline described, that temidayo so accurately discussed in terms of funneling down. That is the base. The agreement that says im going to help you win, and im going to help you win by ensuring bad stuff does not get out there on you. Remember, theres another thing that we heard when there was the evidentiary fight which is whether or not the prosecution was going to be able to introduce evidence that showed that David Pecker and his team were also overemphasizing attacks on opponents. Thats going to potentially come
Joining us, msnbcs Yasmin Vossoughian outside the courthouse. Temidayo agangawilliams, a former Prosecuor And Defense Attorney Caroline Pull lisi. Yasmin, Jury Instrekss under way right now. Whats going on . Jury instructions under way ahead of Opening Statements, jose and ana. 45 minutes for the prosecution, 25 minutes for the defense. Theyre doing that because theres going to be a lot of details, much of a timeline, a lot of dates and they dont want to overwhelm The Jury in the Opening Statements process. Judgments made from the bench that i want to talk about with you quickly, first, when it comes to the evidence if, in fact, the former president decides to testify, judge juan merchan is allowing six various cases to be decided if Donald Trump it was. Talking about the trump payroll