[ laughs ] aah protect everything your family does online with aura. Absolutely free doctors preferred better science, better results hello, and welcome to have you as joining us here in the United States and all around the world, you are watching cnn newsroom. And i most, which just ahead. Okay . Witness is due to take the stand in former us president Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial in just a few hours, we will take a look at how the jury might receive former fixer, Michael Cohens testimony. The us is warning that a fullscale israeli invasion of rafah could lead to massive civilian deaths any in rafah say they dont know where to go next. And wrapping up their trip, prince harry and meghan were a hit in nigeria, will have a live report from legos live from redlands this is cnn newsroom with Rosemarie Good to have. You with us today. 16 of Donald Trumps criminal Hush Money Trial. Will kick off in new york in the coming hours. Trumps former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand and prosecutors say its entirely possible. They will rest their case by the end of the week Cnns Zachary Cohen has more prosecutors in Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial are expected to call a key witness to the stand on monday, the testimony of Michael Cohen, trumps onetime attorney and fixer could make or break the manhattan district attorneys case against the former president. Hes the only witness who will testify about trumps involvement in both the alleged decision you should to pay Adult Film ActressStormy Daniels 130,000 to keep her from going public about a past encounter with the former president ahead of the 2016 election. And the plan to reimburse cohen for advancing the money. Now, tying trump to both the decision to pay daniels and the reimbursement is critical for prosecutors who are seeking to prove trump allegedly falsified Business Records to keep daniels quiet. Now, the jurors have already heard a lot about cohen from other witnesses who have testified over the last three weeks and most fit has been unflattering. Trumps Defense Attorneys will likely try to further undercut cohens credibility during what is short of b, attends crossexamination prosecutors meanwhile, have tried to lay the groundwork for cohens testimony by introducing documents, including email males and texts, they say backup his version of events. Ultimately, the case could come down to whether or not the jury finds cohens testimony credible, or if trumps attorneys are able to convince them otherwise zachary, cohen, cnn washington but nauta via lunar joins me now from new york. She is a Criminal Defense Attorney and former new york prosecutor. Appreciate you being with us thank you for having me. So a star witness in Donald Trumps criminal Hush Money Trial. Michael cohen set to testify in the coming hours how significant is this moment . And can we expect him to say anything that we havent heard before . Yeah, its absolutely Michael Cohen is a crucial witness in this case. While we heard so much about him through other witnesses who tend to corroborate what he is expected to say. We still also know from other witnesses that he does have credibility issues. But they key testimony that were going to hear from Michael Cohen is a about that crucial meeting in february of 2017, inside of the white house, inside of the oval office, where Michael Cohen is expected to testify that he and donald trump had this conversation about the hush money i was paid to Stormy Daniels and how he was supposed to be we paid for that hush money in order to conceal feel that testimony from ever coming into light that about Stormy Daniels herself while the prosecution views cohen as a star witness who can potentially link an alleged coverup scheme back to trump the Defense Paint him as a liar with no credibility, motivated by revenge, which narrative . Will likely when and which has the stronger evidence so the defense is going to go with that Michael Cohen is obsessed with donald trump has been obsessed with donald trump four years that hes constantly posting about donald trump talking in media about donald trump. And he so fixated on donald trump that he has become delusional. And you heard some of this through the defense is opening statements, so thats how we know. Thats where theyre going with donald, with Michael Cohens testimony in terms of the prosecution to prosecution is going to allow Michael Cohen to be the person that he is. And then later argued that this type of person is the same person that donald trump need it. And trusted to fix his problems to try to hush Stormy Daniels, to try to hide and conceal this from ever comic delight. And end. The prosecutions going to tie Michael Cohens testimony and all the corroborating evidence, including meetings, telePhone Records that Audio Recording we already heard earlier in the trial, as well as statements that were made previously in order to find and tell this jury that you can find him credible. And as you can find donald trump guilty based on his testimony, but not just his testimony in total, all the testimony that theyve heard throughout the defense, of course, is going to try to poke holes through it all of that and find reasonable doubt. And given that how important has it been for the prosecution to hear testimony first from the other witnesses before cohen presents his testimony with all his credibility issues it was a strategic move by the prosecution to try to corroborate Michael Cohens testimony before bringing Michael Cohen to the stand because in addition to his credibility issues, youre also going to care about how he pled guilty and he are we serve time in jail as a result of his crimes . But that can also backfire to the defense that they decided to poke holes into that. Because remember, he pled guilty as a result of what Campaign Finance violations having to deal with donald trump it was crucial for the prosecution to bring out the corroboration from other witnesses, bringing out the Phone Records began that crucial Bank Statement where Allen Weisselberg wrote out in detail how the payment was going to be reimbursed to Michael Cohen. So things like that is whats going to prepare this jury for Michael Cohen to testify and theyre going to be able to at least have an open mind when they hear his testimony because they they know that it is going to be corroborated and has been corroborated as well and the prosecution could rest. Its case by the end of this week, then we hear from the defense the big question, of course, is, will we hear from trump himself . What do you think . I think its highly unlikely that donald trump is going to testify now in any given case, of course, attorneys had to decisions in terms of Strategic Moves of how they present and crossexamine witnesses however, when it comes to what defendant has to buy, the only person that can make that decision is the defendant. And it is donald trump that is the sole decision of donald trump. In fact, judge merchan, at the end of the trial, will turn to donald trump and ask him what he wishes to testify and whether he had enough opportunity to determine whether you wanted to testify or not. It is highly unlikely he is going to testify because of the prior rulings by the judge where he will be allowed to be crossexamined, having to deal with the two cases, having to deal with e. Jean carroll having to deal with the new York Attorney generals case, have a deal with the fine said he received from judge engoron the 5,000 and a 10,000 for a not abiding by a court order. So its just subject to so much crossexamination and hes just not a good witness that he cant control them. So i think a jury is not going to take him likely. So thats why i dont think hell testify. Well be watching and listening. Bernardo via luna. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Thank you thank Corruption Trial of us lawmaker is set to begin in the coming hours. Prosecutors say senator bob menendez was involved in a wide ranging Corruption Scheme to help the egyptian and qatari governments in exchange for lucrative bribes. Prosecutor due to say he received hundreds of thousands of dollars and items including msaa, these bans, carb and gold bars. His wife nadine, has also been charged, but will be tried separately. The couple have pleaded not guilty this is the Second Corruption trial for menendez the Corruption Case against him in 2017 ended in a mistrial with the jury deadlocked as israel continues to plan an expansion of its Military Operations in rafah, us officials are warning that a full israeli invasion of rafah. Cool could lead to massive civilian deaths the us Secretary Of State says, it could leave a vacuum filled by chaos meanwhile, gazas Ministry Of Health says the Palestinian Death toll from the war in gaza has already passed 35,000. And the idf Chief Of Staff said he bears responsibility before the military is failure to defend civilians on october 7 general herzi halevi spoke at israels Memorial Day Ceremony at the western wall in jerusalem. And how scott mclean joins us live from eastern ball. So its got what more are you learning about the rafah evacuations . Hi, rosemary, look, the un in israel often agree on very little. They are often publicly at odds with one another, but they agree here on the scale of the exodus 300,000 people have left rafah in the last week or so where they disagree is on the safety of where theyre actually going ahead of unrwa and the United Nations relief and works agency said that the idea of safe zones in his words is false and misleading because no place is safe in gaza israel is sending people to an area along the coast. Its calling a humanitarian zone. The area is called al mawasi. People are pitching tense there, but theres very little in the way of infrastructure to support that volume of people. There is also variable aid getting into Southern Gaza at this point, there had been some disagreements on precisely how many trucks its have gotten through, but no one is claiming that it is a lot in fact, unrwa, the World Food Programme say that they are at risk of running out of food. Very soon. If more isnt allowed in the streets of rafah are also looking increasingly bear. But according to our cnn stringer on the ground, theres a lot of people who will tell you that they are either there are unwilling or unable to leave because of sickness or exhaustion case in 0. 1, elderly man who spoke to cnn said that he had initially decided to stay put in rafah and then later changed his mind to be with his wife and his daughter, but he has no money for a car. Theyre very expensive right now in rafah, given the a scarcity of them. And so hes going there on foot, but to Add Insult To Injury on his way there, what little he had a change of clothes and some food. Was robbed. Here. He was robbed of that. Other people doubt the safety of that almuwasi humanitarian zone as israel is calling it saying that israel could strike there. Anyways, heres what one man told reuters over the weekend and rafah, listen rule. We are tired and lost. We dont know where to go. And a small area, we are lost. No one is standing with us, not netanyahu nor muslims are saudi arabia nor any arab country. This is the destruction we are working as workers. I lift with a shirt and a torn undershirt. Im working as a worker for ten shekels. We are suffering from the high prices from one side and the war from the other side. And we are displaced, i swear since five days, i only had one meal and us Secretary Of State, Antony Blinken did the rounds on us tv this weekend, making very publicly the case against israels looming fullscale invasion of the rafah area. The us is arguing now that this will lead to chaos and a power vacuum that will very likely be he filled by hamas. Usa obviously is not wanting to supply any weapons to israel for that invasion the Us National Security adviser jake sullivan, also had a call with his israeli counterpart and at least according to the us version of that call, Rosemary Israel confirmed that they were taking into account us concerns. But if you look at whats happening on the ground, it seems like a very different picture. It seems like israel is pressing ahead with its original plans, whether the us is on board or not all right. Thanks to sculpt claim there with the latest and earlier i spoke with alon pinkas, a former israeli consul general in new york, and i asked him what israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahus next move could be as he faces increasing pressure from the us and most importantly, rosemary, hes defied the very idea of commiting op are drafting an idea for postwar gaza to right now if he, if he intends to push forward with this offensive in rafah, which remains to be seen by the way. Because the scale and the scope of such an operation varies. And a Ground Invasion may not happened and may not happen and we may yet see this thing burning until found in two, three days. But if he does go on if he if he serious about his on attainable goal of eradicating hamas, then israel needs to essentially occupy the gaza strip indefinitely. And i dont see that happening necessarily so why is it . Prime minister netanyahu appears to be willing to alienate his countrys biggest ally by possibly invading rafah, despite calls from the us not to do so. And despite advice on how to defeat hamas without an expanded invasion of rafah well, in one word grows very politics in two words personal politics in three words, cindy, personal politics, and combine, combine these three options and you understand his Modus Operandi he has a vested interest in prolonging and lengthening the war he knows that if the war ends now, which by the way, rosemary, any, any hostage deal, that is accompanied by a ceasefire, a sixweek ceasefire, and eight weeks ceasefire, four weeks ceasefire would de facto end the war. And if the war ends now that he cannot claim victory, he cannot claim that hamas was eradicated or that it was militarily and politically. Most importantly, politically toppled still ahead, russias president replaces his Defense Minister the same man who was criticized for his handling of the war in ukraine will explain after the break, plus ukrainians are evacuating areas near the countrys northern border as Russian Forces try to open up another front in the war, a live report yesterday known as a passionate artist known for loving the outdoors known for getting everyone together no one wants to be known for cancer. But a treatment can be keytruda is known to treat cancer. Fda approved for were 16 types of cancer, including certain early stage cancers. One of those cancers is triplenegative Breast Cancer, keytruda may be used with Chemotherapy Medicine it says treatment before surgery and then continued alone after surgery. 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