Back in court and on the attack, donald trump facing the new york judge who already ruled that he has been committing fraud for decades. The legal trouble the former president now faces and the tirade that he unleashed on prosecutors. Plus disaster averted, at least for about a month. Lawmakers are already battling ahead of another potential shutdown. And House SpeakerKevin Mccarthys fight with matt gaetz just got uglier. Also who is Laphonza Butler . Governor newsom just named her to fill Dianne Feinsteins senate seat and other democrats are already running to take it from her. That is all coming in right here to cnn news central. Donald trump back on trial. And this time his Business Empire is on the line. Opening statements wrapped up in his Civil Fraud Trial in new york and here you see footage taken earlier inside the courtroom. Trump seated with his defense attorneys, new York Attorney general Latitia James appearing at the camera at some point. The judge allowing cameras to roll briefly before Opening Statements. And just a few moments before that outside the courtroom, trump once again unleashed on the prosecutor and the judge that he was about to face. Watch this. You have a racist Attorney General who is a horror show. So well go in and see a rogue judge. But this is a disgrace. You will go after this Attorney General. Lets take you live outside the courthouse with brynn gin gingras. Walk us through everything that weve seen today. Reporter yeah, it is intense that courtroom and actually my colleague ckara scannell, i thik that you want to hear from her because i was inside this courtroom as it was unfolding. But we did just wrap up Opening Statements in this trial. And we are taking a lunch break at the moment. But first we heard from the states attorneys who walked through Video Depositions essentially showing the former president and also Trump Organization members sort of deflecting so who prepared financial documents saying that they all allegedly conspired to commit persistent fraud for a number of years. And doing so, banks took on some serious risks. One of the quotes inside the courtroom, while it may be one thing to exanxious rate for forbes magazine, you cannot do it while Conducting Business in the state of new york. The states attorney wrapping up his opening states by essentially asking a judge to bar the trumps from ever doing business in new york. After that it was trumps defense who had their turn to give Opening Statements essentially saying that the president had a huge Business Empire, that he made millions and always com blied with the reg complied with regulatory requirements and that banks were eager to do business with him. And he said there is no illegality, no fraud, and there are no victims. The a. Gf also in that courtroom listening to all of this actually were told trump didnt even acknowledge her from the several times he left the courtroom and went back in. But in the last moment before leaving the courtroom for this lunch break actually did acknowledge there was an acknowledgement between trump and the Attorney General. And also were told eric trump went over and shook the Attorney Generals general. But lets hear from what she said before she went into the courtroom earlier this morning. Donald trump and the other defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud. Last week we proved that in our motion for Summary Judgment. Today we will prove our other claims. My message is simple. No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. Reporter like i said, a lot of drama in the courtroom and kara scannell, tell us what it was like inside. As you mentioned the former president walked into the courtroom today and he didnt acknowledge the Attorney General. He had to walk past her three times. Only when he was leaving to devote out on the lunch break that he glanced over at her. Eric trump actually shook her hand and this followed some heated back and forth, one of ump theres attorneys saying to the judge in her Opening Statement that this was a witch hunt, this that this was something that Latistia James Hd campaigned on and she could have brought this case even before she conducted the investigation. The judge stopped her and send that this was something that he already ruled on, that an Appeals Court agreed with him and that james motivation was not an issue but politics looming large in the courtroom as it Opening Statement getting under way. The other attorneys were also pointing to the credibility of some of the witnesses and Defense Lawyer saying that Latitia James office will rely on Michael Cohen. He of course is trumps former fixer. James office credited him for why they opened the investigation in the first place because he had testified before congress that terrorism had inflated statements when he needed to and deflated them to gain other benefits. Cohen is expected to take the stand in this case. A portion of his Video Testimony was played in court but trumps lawyers saying he is a convicted felon, serial liar and someone that the judge should not believe because he is the one that will make the determine nation in this case. They are at lunch for now. Deter. They are at lunch for now. Donald bender is trumps long time accountant and he will be the person that cop opposed the Financial Statements for the Trump Organization for most of the decade under scrutiny. And he will be the first witness on the stand. And the Attorney Generals Office signaling also in their Opening Statement that it is not just Michael Cohen who shouldnt be relied on, they say that another Trump Organization executive will be testifying in this case and this person will say that the Trump Organization that they knew that he was told by Allen Weisselberg the chief Financial Officer that donald trump wanted his net worth high. And that is the heart of 9 the case because Attorney General is alleging that they inflated his properties all to increase his net worth on these Financial Statements and it was that net worth at the high level is what caused the banks to issue these loans, what caused the insurers to give them better rates. This is where the sparring will take place as the trial unfolds the next several weeks, the battle what have did the banks rely organization what statements were they told and something that the trumps attorneys are pushing back at. They spent some time focused on the value of maralago which tax assessment said it was 18 million and judge last week said that they inflated the value of maralago by a lot. And they are saying here that it is worth more than 9 adjustment. And so those things are at issue. And enormous implications for Donald TrumpsBusiness Empire. And im fascinated by the exchange between the new York Attorney general and donald trump and then Donald Trumps son eric as well. In part because these proceedings have become so personal. You can tell us more detail about what the demeanor was like when she they shook hands . Reporter yeah, when donald trump was walking out of court, and he passed by Latitia James sitting there at the corner of the front row, he just glanced down at her. There was no locking of the eyes. It was more of a passing glance. But first time that he acknowledged her. Other three times he just averted his gaze. And eric trurmg when he was walking out trailing behind his father and his fathers legal team, he stopped, turned to Latitia James, actually reached out with both of his hands to shake her hand and they exchanged some words. I couldnt overhear it. But it was much more of a personal exchange particularly after the lawyers were sparring about this and the accusations flying over a Political Campaign and trump calling her allegations a witch hunt. So that one brief moment and first time that we saw any acknowledgement between both camps. It looked like the Attorney General and eric trump had a pleasant exchange. Shaking hands. At least some kind of a greeting. But the former president walked past her just looking will glancing in her direction but he didnt exchange any words with the tfrAttorney General and she didnt appear to catch his glance. All right. Well let you get back inside. Appreciate the live mic handoff between Britain Begin G Brynn g and kara scannell. Daniel, trump made a lot of claims some of which have already been rejected by this judge. Here is one of the first claims that trump made, being a part of what he said is according naltsed election interference. The trial was railroaded and fast tracked. It could have been brought years ago but they waited until i was right in the middle of my campaign, the same with other trials and indictments. It is all run by doj which is corrupt in washington. Everything goes through them. Daniel, fact check that for us. Those are baseless. First of all the idea that doj is orchestrating all of this is nonsense. There is not a shred of evidence that doj is directing the stale Attorney General in this state lawsuit. It is a state issue. The claim about waiting until the middle of trumps campaign, this trial is the result of a state Attorney General lawsuit that was brought in september 2022. And trump launched his campaign in november 2022. So this saga began before he announced his candidacy for the 2024 election and the investigation began in 2019 when he was president. So none of that what you just played has any basis in fact. I want to get into something that weve heard from trump on the specifics of this case. And that is this Disclaimer Clause. So much of what is at stake here has to do with how the Trump Organization and its cohorts Value Properties and things of that nature. Lets listen to the claim from the former president. We have a clause in the contract, it is like a buyer beware clause. It says when you take a look at the Financial Statement, dont believe anything you read. This is up front. Dont believe anything you read. Some people call it a worthless clause because it makes a statement and anything you read worthless. It says go out and do your own research. Is this what is called a full disclaimer. We disclaim the financials. But even with a full disclaimer, which immediately takes you out of any fraud situation and any litigation. So trump essentially saying that because there is an addendum that says that the numbers may have been fussed with, he cant get sued. He is saying that except that is not what the Financial Statement actually says. Nothing in those Financial Statements says that the asset valuations in those statements are supposed to be treated as worthless. The word he keeps using. So what is he even talking about . There is disclaimer language in the statements that says trump and his team used a variety of valuation methods to come up with the asset values they listed including sometimes estimates from trump himself and that they dont necessarily indicate how much you get from selling the assets because you could come up with different values using different methodology. But nothing in there says that the valuations are supposed to be completely ignored and treated as worthless. And this is what s is what the wrote, he says it doesnt use the word worthless or disregard. And repeatedly says it is giving current values. And the judge wrote that, quote, a defendant may not rely on a disclaimer for misrepresentation of facts particularly within the defendants knowledge. So the judge saying you cant just make things up just because you have a disclaimer even one as Skrag Asvague as this one. Daniel, stand by. Lets bring in our former federal pruosecutor. Lets start at the top. He is late to court because he is outside deriding the District Attorney, criticizing the judge. An unorthodox approach. Thats right. I mean, it is an approach though that has generated our discussion here. Were here talking about his attacks and i think that is exactly why he did it. The reality is the judge found that there was fraud here in a Summary Judgment ruling. The judge already ruled that those attacks are completely without any weight whatsoever in court. So obviously part of what is going on, miss hobb is not a very good attorney and she doesnt have good control of her client, but this is also a strategy for trump to get us talking about police talking points instead of what is going on in the courtroom. So this a Bench Trial Meaning there is no jury, ultimately the judge who makes a final ruling. How could trumps criticism of the judge work its way into the proceedings . You dont have to be a lawyer to know that it is not a good idea when you are trying to get the judge rule on your side to start throwing pot shots at the judge. That is common sense. So i actually think that the trump team has already decided internally that any are going to lose this trial. They basically are laying down her Opening Statement was essentially full of talking points for social media or for terrorisms base. It was not designed to try to win this trial and trumps statements 00 are not designed to maximize his chances at this trial. I think these are just talking points for his supporters. So what are the implications if the judge rules against trump . Could woule see the end of the Trump Organization as we know it . Certainly a lot of problems for the Trump Organization and vaech could be the end of the Trump Organization as we know it once it gets through the appeals process. Typically speaking any business in this sort of situation, where you have some of the nations best attorneys hanging this case, and it would be life or death for that company. I think that there is some element of dishonesty priced into dealing with the former president for some period of time, so this may be a delayed reaction for him. But he is getting to the point where the music is getting close to stopping and at a certain point when you are playing musical chairs, there begin to be consequences. He is getting very close to that time. So lets focus on the defense about the Disclaimer Clause attached to these contracts. Weve also heard foreshadowing from the defense saying some of the prosecutions witnesses are unre unreliable. And we heard from trump saying that he hasnt focused that much on the details of the financial work of his Organization Since he started his career in politics. How do those measure up as potential defenses for him . Well, the clause, the worthless clause, that is not so worthless in that the word doesnt appear as daniel mentioned. But that is a worthless defense. There is nothing to that defense whatsoever. You cant defraud people by lying to them and putting a bunch of falsehoods in a legal document and then having a footnote saying dont believe anything i said. That is not how the law works. If you trick somebody out of their money or you try to desouthe deceive the banks, you will be taken 9 the task to that. And just to have a footnote that says we may be lying in here, that is not a defense. In fact that could be evidence of your intent to try to trick the other person. But separately, i do think trumps lack of Attend Tafness and the fact that he has many businesses, that is a typical sort of fraud defense. In other words, i didnt have the intent to defraud because ive got more important things to focus on and i dont really focus on the details of these documents. That is more typical. Something to that, but i really think that trump has an uphill battle here in this trial given the judge, given the lawyers hes chosen and the tact that he is taking. We appreciate your perspective. Thank you. You just examined the legal ramifications here. But of course there is the political ramifications as well. And former President Trump wasting no time this morning turning this into a campaign event. Kristen holmes is outsid