Theyre donald trumps friends. On the defense side, youll probably hear a version of, try to keep an open mind. The evidence is not all in. We dont have the burden. Just sort of the standard fair, but youre not going to see anything as flashy, anything as dramatic, as exciting as were going to see during closing arguments. This is only going to be a preview, and it will not take the entire day at all. Interesting. You know, as danny said, in mob cases, there are jurors that will tell the judge theyre afraid for their safety and want to get off. He said this isnt exactly like that, but, really, it is in many cases, in that a lot of the jurors are fearful of repercussions if theyre in on a jury thats impaneled that rules against donald trump. I mean, because they want their names the judge trying to keep the names from getting out there, but, over time, this is
Expectations. When i do my opening statement, i want to tell them the baseline of what i can do to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Later on in the trial my goal will be to exceed expectations. I want to stand up in Closing Arguments and say i did all the things i said i would do. Here are additional things you didnt even see coming, that i blew this stuff out of the park. I think 40 minutes may seem short. Yes, this case has some complicated parts, but the prosecutors will put this out as a streamline narrative. I think 40 minutes will be enough time to set the stage for their case. As far as defense strategy, caroline, we know that michael cohens credibility as a witness is expected to be targeted by the defense. But would they do that in Opening Statements . Yeah. They absolutely could. They could say listen carefully to the witnesses that the prosecution puts on the stand. Listen to how theyve changed their stories. Stormy daniels, i think theyll likely go to her changing her
Share and at that point, it was Michael Cohen who paid her 130,000 to keep her story silent. David pecker in realtime, we are being told from inside of the courtroom, is now taking the stand and he is being sworn in to testify for what could be for a number of days, andrea. And chuck, this opening statement, it was supposed to be a statement with just facts, no argument. Thats why its called the opening statement. Its closing arguments. But chuck, at this point, how do you explain all the objections we saw . It sounded to me some of those statements were, the Prosecutions Case is a lie. Well, if the Defense Lawyer is saying that the Governments Case is a lie, that would be argument and it would be impermissible. Its hard to know why all these objections were made. Its possible that the Defense Team was beginning to cross a
they have to avoid it? great question. they are called opening statements and closing arguments. you are actually not permitted to argue in your opening statements. what you can do is lay out the road map. what you expect the evidence will be but you cannot, for example, say, i want to argue the inferences that you will be able to draw from the evidence. you have to say that for closing arguments. on his way out of court yesterday, donald trump was asked about his plans to testify. let us take a look at the moment. here it is. what you testify? yes. there he put it, plain and simple. could his attorney stop him if he really wants to take the stand? reporter: there are no sure