You are getting a live look at 100 Centre Street. We are covering and on the air minutes after learning Breaking News, setting the stage for the ultimate confrontation in Donald Trumps historic criminal trial a person familiar with the case so the prosecution intends to call Michael Cohen to the stand on monday cohen, of course, is the former trump attorney and personal fixer, whose actions or at the very the heart of this case. Moments ago, the former president of the United States walked past cameras and into that courtroom for the 15th day of his trial. Back on the stand and moments is a very important witness, one who seemed to help both sides yesterday. A Trump White House insider who functioned as a courier for the checks at the center of this his case . Im Kaitlan Collins and new york and you are watching cnns special live coverage of Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial and im jim acosta and Washington Circle monday on your calendars, thats now when we expect Michael Cohen to go under oath and tell the whole truth about his role in silencing Stormy Daniels in those cohen is the nucleus of the case and whether a jury believes what he asked to say may go a long way in determining if they convict or acquit him. That is donald trump of 30 four criminal counts and minutes. Testimony picks up where it left off yesterday with Madeleine Westerhout, the former Trump Oval OfficeOperations Director westerhout is not exactly a health lets hold name and she witnessed how donald trump had his hand in every aspect of his business, even from the white house westerhout gave emotional testimony breaking down at points on the stand. She also claimed she saw trump showering affection and even doting on his wife. She says, first lady melania, shining a different light on the defendant, who has spent much of this Trial Sneering as witnesses, tell their stories. Court ended thursday with another trump legal loss. The judge denying emotion to declare a mistrial, brushing aside, the defense has claimed that Stormy Daniels testimony prejudice the jury against the former president , cnns covering every angle of this historic trial inside and outside of the courtroom. But lets go back to new york work and Kaitlan Collins, caitlyn yeah, jim, we are standing by waiting for the jury. And of course, the witness to get back on the stand inside that courtroom today. Yes, we are expecting this to start any moment now, ive got cnns Kristen Holmes and paula reid here with me in lower manhattan. Outside of that courthouses, we wait for this to start. The judge greeting mr. Trump as he does every morning saying good morning, mr. Trump. A notable ending because are beginning because the yesterday how court ended did not go so well for the trump team as the judge was basically reprimanding them for how theyd been handling their defensive this case. But apollo, on this news that Michael Cohen, we now know he is going to take the stand on monday. I mean, he is the last big blockbuster witness. And if we thought trump was angry watching Stormy Daniels testify, its hard to even imagine what its going to be feel like when Michael Cohen takes the stay on. Yeah. Cohen is not just a witness in this case. He is now the witness in this case because up until now, prosecutors have not established a direct link between these falsified Business Records and the defendant, Michael Cohen, can provide that but he is complicated and this is where the defense is focusing almost all of their energy. I get a lot of questions about why todd blanche, the lead attorney, isnt doing more of the crossexaminations. Thats because he is solely focused on Michael Cohen because this case, will succeed or fail on whether the jury believes good cohen. And of course, hes gonna get up on the stand under direct examination. Hes going to explain this alleged conspiracy where he spoke with trump and they agreed to this arrangement where he would be repaid this hush money and they would try to hide it. Now on cross though, theyre going to bring up not only his previous convictions for multiple offenses, including Campaign Finance violations related to this and leyen to congress, but also his outofcourt behavior has relentless attacks, not only on trump, but on the defense team. I mean, four years on his podcast in his books with every public appearance, he has shown animus towards the defendant and they are really going to capitalize on that. So this is this will make or break the case. Yeah. I mean, he was even speaking the other day about his testimony and i should note todd blanche is sitting with trump whispering to him as their the Defense Table with the other witness about to take the stand in. Kristen homes. What have you heard about how theyre bracing for Michael Cohen to be on the stand and how trumps going to respond to that. I think right now its mostly prep on how to attack Michael Cohen. How can they find twitter posts, as you said, obviously painting him as a liar, going through his past convictions, but its also really making sure that theyre rightwing social media. Army is in place to go after Michael Cohen because donald trump is under a gag order, but his biggest supporters arent. They have millions of followers social media and a lot of this is being played out in the court of Public Opinion. Remember at the end of the day, theyre really do not believe and thats trump steam. This is going to be an acquittal. Their best Hope Scenario right now is a jury and thats what theyre really hoping for that they can actually get through to one juror. Now, this being played out in a court of Public Opinion means the donald trump, whatever happens is going to paint this as purely political, particularly if he is convicted and that is what were hearing from these legal experts and friends of Donald Trumps who are on the airwaves every single night talking about how this sham trial that this is all done to embarrass the former president. This is a setup for that as well. Youre going to see these blatant attacks on Michael Cohen as part of that, trumps things now care about the Public Perception as much as what the actual verdict is youre and elie honig, Madeleine Westerhout may not be a household name, but she is setting the stage for Michael Cohen to take the stand. And because she was trumps eyes and ears outside of the oval office in what she testified about yesterday afternoon when i was inside that courtroom is about a meeting. Would Michael Cohen at the white house and of course that is the meeting he testified to. Congress was where he talked about getting reimbursed and where has checks were with the president of the United States . Yeah, exactly. Kaitlan as we look forward to Michael Cohens really make or break testimony on monday, what the prosecution is going to do today is try to set Building Blocks in place to support Michael Cohen. As you said, when we resume court, Madeleine Westerhout well be on the stand now. She was a Special Assistant to donald trump. She sat right outside the oval office and she had a lot of insider access. One of the things she has testified about is the all check she testified that from time to time during the early years of the trump presidency, stacks of checks would arrive. She would bring them in and then they would be returned to her sayyed. Now but one thing she said about the checks thats important. She said, i believe there were invoices attached to some of the checks sometimes now she didnt remember any specific check, but that piece of testimony tells you that donald trump had information about what the checks were four and if we combine the testimony of Madeleine Westerhout with another witness, we heard yesterday, Rebecca Manochio who works for the trump org. They gave us the whole flow of how these checks move. They started at trump tower in new york, were sent down to dc where Madeleine Westerhout would have them sign and she would then route them back up to trump tower in new york. Another important piece of westerhouts testimony, she talked about the access Hollywood Tape and she said that when that tape dropped about a month before the election, she said at the time i recall, it rattled the rnc leadership. She did add though that in her view, donald trump was actually less worried about it than other people around her. And then to the allimportant meeting kaitlan reference this circle, this date, folks, if youre following along at home, the february 5, 27 contain meeting at the white house is going to be crucial. Michael cohen is going to testify about this. This is the meeting where he is going to say he discussed this whole arrangement to payback Stormy Daniels directly with donald trump, Madeleine Westerhout set the foundation for this. They showed her an email. She said yes, the meeting happens. She doesnt know what was said, but she said yes the meeting happened one of the thing yesterday we heard from a witness from Harper Collins of Publishing Company and the prosecutors read to the jury an excerpt from one of trumps books, where he talks about how i go out of my way for the people who are loyal to me and bad times, this woman, not anyone who has anything to do with the case, but this woman was very disloyal. And now i go out of my way to make her life it looks like the prosecution is trying to explain to the jury the way donald trump treats people like Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, who he views as disloyal to other big developments just from the end of the day yesterday, the prosecution announced they will not be calling Karen Mcdougal. I think thats probably the right tactical call. They dont need to go back in time. Here we are on the brink of mine Michael Cohen and Donald Trumps team asked to allow donald trump under the gag order to make comments about Stormy Daniels. Now that are testimonies over the judge said, no can do i dont trust you to do that. And so that motion was denied kaitlan. So well throw it back to you at the courthouse. You can tell whats happening on a rolling basis. Yeah. The judge said that trumps track record as well known and thats why he wasnt amending that gag order. Elie, thank you for catching us up to speed. Theres a lot of moving parts here right now. Madeleine westerhout is back on the stand, were told that she smiled and the direction of the Defense Table, she did that several times yesterday. She was testifying. She is definitely not a hostile witness to donald trump. Shes someone who views and variably wrote about him favorably right now, the jury is coming into the courtroom and two, well see what the jury thinks of her testimony, polo, because yesterday, she didnt make some have some testimony that seemed like it could benefit both the prosecution and the defense, one with the defense, obviously, she was saying really positive things about Donald Trumps relationship with melodic trump in light of the access Hollywood Tape but she was also testifying about how closely trump paid attention to his money. The fedex and voices that she handled with where the checks coming to the white house that he signed from Michael Cohen and also about Michael Cohen himself being id else yeah. And those are going to be two really significant issues horses and necklace, the Defense Attorney to focus on during cross, because these are issues that actually speak to the charges, of falsifying Business Records. I remember you have Jeff Mcconney testifying that yes. Trump was very detailoriented about everything that happened in the Trump Organization until 27 team. So prosecutors have to contend with the fact that Defense Attorneys will say yes, he was evolved everything down to the paperclips until we went to the white house, who was the leader of the free world. And then other defense theyre going to argue that they were trying to put a wall between the Trump Organization and the white house because there were so much outrage about whether he going to profit from being inside the white house . Her testimony right there. That can be something that prosecutors can seize on and say yes, but she was closed at him. The Geoff Mcconney was in 2017 and she says he was still detail oriented so paying attention to the invoices. Thats really critical for prosecutors. In addition to of course, confirming Michael Cohens testimony about being there, because pretty much everything Michael Cohen says is going to happen have to be verified with someone else or something else. Yeah. And she had a desk thats right up against the oval office. Me chooses close to trump, as you could get, jim acosta yes. You sure was. I mean, she had access that a lot of people did not have in that white house, kaitlan. And thank you very much. You want me here in washington, michael moore, jeff zeleny, dana bash, elie made his way over did you got here in plenty of time . It was a long, didnt break a sweat along with elliot williams, former Manhattan District Attorney and prosecutor, karen friedman, agnifilo. Karam, those council for a firm that represents Michael Cohen. She has no contact with cohen, does not work on his case. There are no restrictions on what you can say about his case. Disclaimer. Disclaimer. Disclaimer elie. Let me go and dan, im sorry, but were out numbered here that the lawyer is out number, the political reporters thats actually yeah, thats probably a good thing. Its the way the lord intended and go to the experts for heres an update. Necklace begins by asking westerhout about 20 16 while she was working for the rnc. Lets Start Talking about that there. I mean, that is and dan and jeff, you guys can weigh in to this is a highly critical point in the campaign westerhout, as i recall, was with the rnc folks. She confirms the rnc and the Trump Campaign worked extremely closely together. She was sort of, under the wing of Reince Priebus and sean spicer at that time i recall she was reported as having cried on Election Night that donald trump won the presidency, but then became very much a trump person from inside, not happy to say that, not happy two years, exactly. So helpful. Yeah. Witness for which side . For the prosecutors in that respect . Because one of the key themes of the Prosecution Case is that when the Access Hollywood it would take a month before the election that said panic through the Trump Campaign. And then that gave them all the more reason when a week or so later when Stormy Daniels emerges with her potential allegations, they have more incentive to pay her off and the testimony thus far has been interesting because what westerhout said is there was panic inside the rnc, but then she qualified that in two ways. Once you said donald trump himself was less worried than others, not unwary, but less worried. And two, she says, and you get, you all know this was true. Trump was not the rncs preferred candidate for much of the time. So i mean, im interested to what your recollections yeah. We were there we remember that very well. If i may whats happening right now in the courtroom is that nicholas the trump attorney, is connecting her and having her explain the connection and the way that the rnc and the Campaign Work together. P