Former Tabloid Publisher david well be back with wolf blitzer in situation breaking news tonight, The Trump Trial Testimony Begins and the official transcript was just released for the next hour. Well take you inside the courtroom from gavel to gavel. As this historic hush money criminal case unfolds the prosecutions first key witness takes the stand after both sides start to lay out their cases in Opening Statements are reporters and experts are standing by to break down all of todays most important developments and look ahead to whats next. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and arnd the world. Im wolf blitzer with a Special Report in this Room Trump Trial today lets get right to the breaking news on the Opening Statements and testimony in the first criminal trial of a former president of the United States, donald trump. At the Defense Table as prosecutors and his lawyers began cutting to the heart of the hushmoney case against him cnns Kara Scannell is joining us live from new york where she was inside the courtroom today, qarrah, we now have the First OfficialCourt Transcript well if there are no cameras in the courtroom, but theyre public interests in this case is insatiable. So the treat chief administrative judge here took an extraordinary step, and so they would make the transcript public every day so anyone can look word for war to see what is happening inside the courtroom behind me, this on the day when prosecutors laid out the evidence, they hope to prove in this case and trumps lawyers said what his defense would be saying that he was not guilty of this crime as Opening Statements got underway Opening Statements and the first witness, a former Tabloid Executive front and Center Monday as the first criminal trial of donald trump officially got underway i think very well. Prosecutor said the case boils down to a conspiracy and cover up that trump orchestrated scheme to corrupt the 2016 president ial election and covered it up by lying and his Business Records. Assistant district attorney, matthew colangelos saying it was election fraud, pure and simple. Trump attorney todd blanche argued the former president is innocent. The payments made were legal. Blanche also claimed there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election in his remarks, colangelos a lead prosecutor on the case, said the alleged crimes began at an august 2015 meeting between trump cohen and x National Enquirer publisher david the first witness to testify in the trial on monday, colangelos said the three formed a conspiracy at that meeting to influence since the president ial election by concealing negative information about mr. Trump in order to help them get elected. The prosecution said agreed to help by damaging information on trump to make it go away, move known as catch and kill. At the center of the case, a 130,000 payment to adult film star stormy he daniels just weeks before election day in 2016 the prosecution said a sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star on the heels of the access Hollywood Tape would have been devastating to his campaign. So at trumps direction, cohen negotiated the deal to buy daniel story to prevent it from becoming public before the election . Trump has denied having an affair with daniels prosecutor said trump did not want to write the check himself. So cohen put up the money, colangelos argued trump, cohen and former Trump Organization cfo Allen Weisselberg agreed cohen would be paid back in monthly installments through fake invoices to the Trump Organization. Prosecutor your said key witnesses like cohen have made mistakes in the past and encourage the jury to keep an open mind and carefully evaluate all of the evidence that corroborates Michael Cohens testimony, then it was trumps attorneys turn blanche said the das office should never have brought this case he said the prosecution story is not true, and the jury will find plenty of reasonable doubt. He pivoted to paint trump as a husband and father, saying hes a person just like you and just like me, trumps team suggested the Payments Trump made to cohen. Were not a payback for funds paid to Stormy Daniels, but instead payments to his personal attorney trump defended himself against these charges after chord on monday puts an invoice or whatever and they paid nick or legal expense, i got indicted for that land shifted blame to cohen saying the reality is mr. Trump is not on the hook, is not criminally responsible for something mr. Cohen may have done years after the fact. Blanche said the prosecutions outline of a supposed catch and kill deal with was not a scheme, but completely irrelevant and not illegal in the afternoon, as briefly took the stand, he did not look at trump, but trump look directly at him as he testified david was on the stand for about 20 minutes to de he was explaining to the jury how the National Enquirer operate, saying that they did pay for certain stories he testified on the Celebrity Side of the magazine industry, at least on the tabloid side, we use Checkbook Journalism and we paid for stories. He also said that any story that required a payment more than 10,000 required his approval and he testified that he had to email addresses at ami, one that are used for general businesses that is assistant often looked at and one that he kept confidentially. Now, before left the room, he walked past Donald Trumps table, said hello to the table. It wasnt clear if donald trump had responded. We couldnt get a good Vantage Point of that, but will be back on the stand tomorrow. Will he will get into what the prosecutor sees the core of this testimony, these catch and kill deals in the conspiracy. They say was hatched at trump tower in 2015. Wolf largerscale outside the courthouse in new york. Thank you very much. I want to dig deeper right now into the legal strategy. Both sides, cnn legal analyst Elie Williams is with me here at the magic while walk us through what you think are the key points in the prosecutions opening arguments absolutely wolf and everything in criminal prosecution starts with the Law Prosecutors have to establish elements of an offense and we flag the important one points here today. Also flying Business Records, thats the crime with an intent to defraud. But heres the thing. And most important in this case is up for the purpose of committing another crime or aiding or concealing, covering up a crime. And you heard the prosecutors today literally call it a conspiracy a cover up. So thats what were talking about here. This eight or conceal now this qarrah talked about this august 2015 meeting and this is critical for prosecutors efforts to establish an intent to defraud on the part of the defendant what theyre saying, donald trump, what theyre saying is that these three people got together at this august 2015 meeting and didnt just to Falsify Records, but agreed to Falsify Records for the purpose of helping the former president s campaign. Chances that crime is the coverup of the campaign. In 2016. Now, you also have to establish the records or falsified and remember that jurors know none of this. You and i might many viewers might, but jurors dont. And so they have to establish bush how Business Records were kept within the Trump Organization. And you have these three employees, jeff mcconney, rona graph, and deborah tarasoff, who can actually testify as to what happened within the Trump Organization, how they falsified records or allegedly falsified records, put them together and what they did. Now, what was the purpose of all of this . And kara touched on this . Little bit. We all remember 2016 swirling around the Trump Campaign were questions perhaps about this personal misconduct. They might have, and this is the allegation on the part of the prosecutors. It collaborated to benefit the Presence Campaign by essentially shushing these ends these personal intimate relationships. What were some of the key points in trumps defense teams Opening Statement that stand out to you, its important that we call them Opening Statements, not arguments. Theyre just saying what they think the evidence is going to be and they went hard after Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels on credibility witness credibility. Number one, Michael Cohen with he has criminal convictions and his record, Stormy Daniels might have had a reason for moving forward with this. She came forward with the story and finally, wolf, really important here too big points made by the defense using the term President Trump is innocent. Thats not something that prosecutors have to establish this idea of innocence versus not guilty. They said hes innocent. They swing for the fences here. And most importantly, they are attacking the very heart of the charge here by saying that theres nothing wrong with attempting to influence an election. Its called democracy. Now look a core part of the case is this this allegation that trump should not have been influencing election. The defense right after that here, a tech trump on it. Youre going to hear more about this over the course of this trial. Very important, very interesting elliott standby as we bring in more legal and political experts into our conversation. And andrew mccabe, the defense says, they will find their words plenty of reasonable doubt Hello Prosecutors overcome that. Well, its really interesting wolf the prosecution and the defense have two very different jobs. The prosecution has to essentially build a house and they do it the way they start with that, the way they did today, they put the foundation down with their Opening Statement in the first witness, and then they start to bring in more witnesses they enter evidence approve every element of the crime the defense simply has to tear that house down. They do that by insinuating doubt. They do that by attacking witnesses. They do that by attacking the evidence. And so they have much less of a coherent, broad theory. Its just more one shot after another one. And shot after another. And you will see the main witnesses take those shots very directly. Yeah, its interesting. David chalian, europe director, prosecutors are framing this as a 2016 Election Interference case potentially that could be illegal phrase, trump very regularly spins, including outside the Court Earlier today, after the session, listen to this this is done as Election Interference. Everybody knows that idea instead of being able to be invincible, bamiyan and georgia lots of other places campaigning. And its very unfair david, what do you make of that . Well, this is an argument were hearing from him on a daily basis now, and its not an argument thats going to be in court. This is not the difference between inside the courtroom and what jurors can actually use to adjudicate his guilt or innocence in this case, whether hes guilty or not guilty versus because what happens outside the courtroom when hes free to make a political grievance argument. And as hes doing here, but it has nothing to do with what the case will be decided on. That is an argument. Hes making to a political case to the American People. Rather than actually trying to improve his standing as a defendant in the case. And i think the distinction is key to understand because this is part of why the jurors are instructed not to consume media around this case, not to be on social media. Its exactly because this will happen in that space and it shouldnt go into their calculations. Will the American People by that donald trump is being sidelined in this campaign in some way by joe biden, who has absolutely nothing to do with this manhattan das case well see i mean, the American People have bought other untruths of Donald Trumps so well see if they, by this one. But this is something were going to hear on a daily, but i suspect youre right. I Gloria Borders with this as well as you took gloria trumps attorney todd blanche said this today. Im quoting him. Theres nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It is called democracy. Its a pretty stunning argument. Well, it is a stunning argument one mans democracy is another persons conspiracy. And thats, thats what we were hearing in the court today. He said what donald trump did was perfectly legal and normal and he was effectively just paying his attorney for services rendered, period. And youre allowed to do that. And as a candidate, youre allowed to try and get people to vote for you. Thats thats what elections are about. Now, the other side is saying, wait a minute, no, no, no, this was a conspiracy. He was trying to hide i the paperwork and that they were trying to dupe the American Public because he didnt want the news about Stormy Daniels out. So you have two sides of the coin here. It was interesting. Yeah, go ahead. I think that theory that todd blanche put out today is going to run into some trouble because if theyre going to hear from the prosecutors that it is actually a crime in New York State to promote a prevent an election. Its part of the New York State election laws, and it is specifically addresses a conspiracy between two people who tried to either promote or prevent an election through unlawful mean. So that is something they are going to hear. The prosecutors come back to time and time again. Im blanche says it was perfectly lawful and perfect legal, but thats the problem. Thats the issue. Sure. That gets you right back to the underlying charge, which is of course the falsification of business record. I think that there they have in some ways, i think logically painted themselves into a bit of a corner on the Defense Sayyed today by putting both of these defenses out, one that he basically didnt know what the payments were for that he wasnt involved in making those ledger entries and those fraudulent entries. But on the other hand, saying, well, he did what he did not to influence the election. He did it to protect his family and to spare them the embarrassment. I think those two things are fundamentally contradictory. If you knew that you were protecting your family, you knew what the paint and thats where for early it was interesting, david, of the National Enquirer. It came out today that he had a separate work email when he didnt want any of his assistance at the National Enquirer to see that private separate work email. Uh, how significant is this testimony . His testimony in this case overall, a. Given the fact that he has immunity its critical because of the fact that he was in that august 2015 meeting that we talked about over at the magic wall that he can speak firsthand to conversations he had with the defendant, and thats always valuable testimony. Now, the evidence about the Email Account is the kinda thing that doesnt need to be brought up at trial. It doesnt help too to establish any given fact, but you plant that seed and jurors heads and it just seems a little off in a little bit. Why does this man have a second email address . And its the kind of thing that little detail that prosecutors can get in to sort of make people raise an eyebrow, eyebrow and think, wait a second something doesnt smell quite. Right. Its interesting. David the court released the full transcript today of what happened in the court proceeding. About 1,000 pages. Now, theres a different eight was a short day yeah. If you if you go through i mean, its long, it keeps on going and going and going. I see over here page 953959. So theres a lot of pages that were released today, but theres a difference between reading all these pages and watching a video of what was going on. Theres no cameras are allowed in the courtroom that will have a Significant Impact. A pro, and con on the on this case well undoubtedly will have a Significant Impact in how americans are consuming the information out of this case, it will not be through memorable soundbites are the ways in which Instagram Video gets consumed now, for Many American voters i dont think