Central steam and special coverage of Donald TrumpsCriminal Trial continues now and you are looking a lot pictures down inside 100 Centre Street behind me today, we expect to drama filled de, with important stakes for megarian, go a long way in determining of donald from gets convicted in ten days, 16 of trial right now, the former prisoners motorcade is on route to the courthouse. Once trump arrives in, court gets underway here, we expect the people to call the man whose evolve from protector to trump pariah, To Trump Prosecution witness Michael Cohen. Im interested. Cooper, new york. And then im jake tapper in y shoots and uci and you are wanting special cnn live coverage of Donald TrumpsHush Money Cover Up Trial Today the man who bent the truth and broke the law for his his former boss, the former president goes on the stand. Michael dean cohen the former trump fixer and lawyer whose imposed trumps will on whatever he could bullying dealing and lawyering his way into getting trump whatever trump wanted. That allegedly includes buying the silence of Stormy Daniels, the Adult Film Star and director, who claimed she had sexual encounter with trump in 2006, and then was paid to keep quiet about the tryst in 2016. Today, cohen tells his version of that story under oath. Process excuse me, say cohen is the link who can establish the panel and the water of the case that trump said he wanted to make Stormy Daniels go away, and that he wanted it done to save his chances to win the 2016 election. Trumps attorneys well of Course Cast Cohen in quite a different light. Its expected defense to accuse cohen of being a litany of things that a liar, a thief, and extortionists to devise and then freelance the Stormy Daniels scheme to line his own pockets. They will also portray him as a disgruntled former employee hellbent on bringing down donald trump. However, for he can cnns team of reporters and producers inside the courtroom, courthouse are going to bring you constant updates to capture all the drama from this de of testimony. But first, anderson back to you when new york jake, thanks your much. Im here with cnns paula reid. Paula, you have been covering all of these cases for longtime. What kind of a witness . I mean what do we know how Michael Cohen will do on the stand based on other trials hes been involved with no one knows. And ive talked to folks on the prosecution sayyed in cohens camp on the defense side. No one sure exactly how this is going to go, but everyone agrees that the case really rests on what happens while cohen is on the stand, its hard to overstate his significance in all of this exactly. And how complicated a character he is. Now hes really comes with the baggage of previous convictions. Not only election crimes related to this alleged Hush Money Payment, but also line to the irs lying to banks, Lying To Congress that doesnt disqualify you or make you an unhelpful witness is something you need to get around with a bigger challenge for prosecutors, is that Michael Cohen has made pretty much his whole identity over the past seven years attacking the defendant and speaking with sources close to the defense team they theyve been really focused on this, this crossexamination is their defense, but their biggest challenge is, how do you hold down what you put in front of the jury because theres so much material of cohen just attacking trump and their goal is to paint him as a liar who was out for revenge. Revenge is of course, the name of what it was. Books want to play something Michael Cohen told to to her colleague, erin burnett actually, but before we do that, lets go to outside the courthouse. Kristen holmes is standing by. Youve been talking to some of foreign President Trumps legal advisors. What did theyve been telling you . Yeah. I understand. I mean, its becoming increasingly clear to the defense that there is no real smoking gun in terms of evidence and that this case really hinges on Michael Cohen. Now these legal advisors are talking about donald trump. They talk to the lawyers within Donald Trumps a circle that will be in the court room with him. And they say, this is exactly where they want to be in terms of Michael Cohen because of the fact that they are going to try and paint him as a liar to try and say that he is not a credible witness. Now weve talked a lot about the fact that there is a social media post that we know that there is a book podcasts, all of the things that todd blanche, and the defense team had been going through meticulously looking for excerpts looking for examples to show during that crossexamination. But the other thing to keep in mind here is just how far back this relationship with donald trump and Michael Cohen goes. When you talk about what or who knows what Michael Cohen knows, probably everything there is to know about donald trump. Donald trump knows quite a bit about Michael Cohen as well. We talked what about what this testimony might look like. Are they concerned . They said no, they were much more concerned about the first day of Stormy Daniels testimony when they were unsure of how many details would be allowed in, would they be sorted details, obviously, as we saw, it was an or at least embarrassing testimony for donald trump. They feel like they know what Michael Cohen it is going to say here. So tire point of Michael Cohen for the prosecution is to link all of this together. The defense team is ready for that, and its policy. Theyve been preparing crossexamination how do you the prosecution paula is going to address the Credibility Problem here to get out in front of it and they started to do that actually during jury selection, a nod to Michael Cohen, they said, look, were going to put forward some witnesses who have some baggage. Clearly a reference to Michael Cohen. They have to have him walk through his so convictions and then its gonna be interesting to see to what extent they have him talk about the books, the podcast, the endless interviews attacking the defendant. Theres also another issue thats come up, which is the one thing prosecutors have proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and multiple witnesses is that nobody seems to like Michael Cohen. Itll be interesting to see if they have him address the comments that other people like david pecker or hope hicks have made about him, all of which have been critical christian. Do you have any insights about how trump is preparing for today . Whats theyve told him to remain calm, they do not well, the same thing that happened in the middle of what happened with Stormy Daniels where he was Audibly Cursing where the judge had to step in. They want Michael Cohen to be the person that reacts, as paula said, we cannot say exactly how hes going to react. All stand. We have seen different examples, some of them hidden, remaining calm, others than him flying off the handle i know hes a volatile witness with are trying to get from the Donald Trumps side of this is suing him not to react for him not to curse under his bread, to make audible noises or shake his head because i dont want it to show Michael Cohen that hes getting underneath prompt skin because thats what they believe that that Michael Cohen wants a lot once out of this is to get under trump skins where theyre trying to do with him, prepare him for what Michael Cohen might say, but also get him to not react i want to play something bad erin burnett talked about with Michael Cohen back in february about him testifying i had no problem the last time at the new York Attorney generals case of being in the same room as donald. Im not the only one who has said this i felt nothing. Theres no intimidation by him. Hes the one that sitting at the defendants desk not me again. Believe it or not, as everything take it with a grain of salt. Yeah, its strains credulity because clearly Michael Cohen has a lot of feelings. Hes been through a lot life has been based on trump. I mean, yeah, sure. Dr. Like donald trump. Theres a video we keep playing with him, walking through a Hallway Doctrine where hes moving a plant hes dressed identically to him who just the different, you know, i think he has a blue tied trump as a red tie or vice versa. I mean, now that hes turned against him, hes still being his life on him with podcasts, books, and all of that. Yeah. And a lot of emotion, a lot of feelings, a lot out of a tax, personal very personal attacks. And were talking across a multimedia, right, empire that is mostly built around his feelings, most negative about trump. And that is a challenge for prosecutors because all the Defense Attorneys need to do is so some doubt, right. They have to prove Beyond A Reasonable Doubt if you can. So just a little little bit of doubt about Michael Cohen since he is the only direct link between trump and this alleged conspiracy to falsify Business Records, you could potentially that is what is at the heart of it. Did donald trump know about the falsification of the Business Records . The only person it seems who may directly be able to say that on the sandi Michael Cohen, whether you believe or not . Yes. Allen weisselberg before cfo Trump Organization, could, but he is currently in rikers we learned theres no plan to call him and hes remaining loyal to donald trump. So theyre not calling him because they dont know what he would say exactly. They anticipate that he would plead the fifth wouldnt get them very far. A lot of disagreement among legal scholars about whether that was the right play, not to even try to get him on this sam get him under oath. But right now, this oh, rest of megacolon because no other witness has made a direct link between trump on these allegedly falsified documents. Just play that video. We have because again, its just so interesting to me that when he was working for trump, he pattern himself after not which i guess many people in trumps orbit did. But there is, theyre dressed identically. Its very strange well see what hes wearing today. Jay all right. Anderson, i appreciate it and jamie getting gail, im here with my panel. Jamie ginkgo, you have some new reporting on evidence that might be introduced today and also you have some insights into Michael CohenState Of Mind as he prepares for what is arguably one of the biggest days of his life. So according to sources familiar in addition to Michael Cohens firsthand Testimony Today, prosecutors may introduce new Documentary Evidence that we have never seen before. We do not know what it is. We do not know if it is a game changer, but im told its an example of the paper trail that goes beyond Michael Cohens testimony. I did speak to Michael Cohen in the last couple of days. He told me that he wasnt nervous, but that he was anxious. He wants to get it over he said that his tone would be repentant, remorseful, that it would be similar to when he appeared before Elijah Cummings in the oversight hearing, he pointed out that when trump annelise jim jordan came after him, he handled it without losing his cool. Well see if he can handle today without losing his cool and john king, Michael Cohens about to take the stand and just under, but maybe about 20 minutes or so. And stakes are huge. This is a case full of unreliable narrators. There is it is difficult to find one person that the, that the common observer can say, oh, this person always tells the truth, but you have a admitted liar testifying about a chronic liar about conduct to deceive people to hide things to live, for people to hide something away, Stormy Daniels to not exactly right. And so did the prosecutors create enough of a predicate to convince the jury, when Michael Cohen did this, he was trusted by donald trump. He may have been doing deceptive things. He may have been doing shady things. But at that moment, he was trumps guy. He was velcroed to trump. Everything he did was for trump at trumps direction. Can Michael Cohen convinced the jury . Well see what whatever new Documentary Evidence. So what other paper trail they have into the prior witnesses, the accountants, the dry testimony, the people who have no grudge against donald trump. Thats the challenge for the prosecutors and the lawyers can help with how this plays out to a jury. And it Michael Cohen was once trust me, been on the Receiving End of Michael Cohen when he was a loyal trumps spokesman, he was belligerent. He was a bully, he was tough and you know what . I actually enjoyed it sometimes because he was so feisty in defending his client, right . Yeah. We do. That happens in campaigns. The question is, can the prosecutors convince the jury that yeah, he has lied a lot, but when he was doing this, he was for donald trump and he didnt do anything big like this without trump telling them to do so. It believe it or not, it has been almost no, its been more than five years since Michael Cohen testified before congress and suggested a publicly that he had flipped it was 2019. So unless my man math is wrong and my son not, im not strong so i just wanted for you, casey, i want to play a little bit about what Michael Cohen testified to before the American People in 2019 he asked me to pay off an Adult Film Star with whom he had an affair. And to lie about it to his wife. Which i did. Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign. And i did that too without bothering to consider whether that was improper. Much less whether it was the right thing to do or how would it impact me my family, while the public and i am going to jail in part because of my decision to help mr. Trump hide that payment from the American People before they voted a few days later as exhibit 582, my testimony shows i am providing a copy of a 35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on August 1 Of 2017 . When he was president of the United States the president of the United States, thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money. As part of a criminal scheme to violate Campaign Finance laws so thats the basic charts and i suspect that Behind Closed Doors and courtroom 59, that is what they are going to hear. Right . Well and jamies point, if he says that this is the tone that hes going to take today that gives you a real sense and it is not the guy that was on the other end of the line. Ive been on the other line those conversations to write belligerent, its like a perfect word for what cohen would do in those kinds of situations. I think my big question here is, i feel like as a Campaign Reporter covering donald trump in the years leading up to 2015 and 16 when he ran, you develop hello to very good sense of the role that Michael Cohen played in his orbit, the phone calls you would get how close they were. The fact that he seemed to do everything on trumps behalf and with trump ordering him to do those things has the prosecution made that case and helps the jury understand that in a way that will allow them to believe what when is saying, even though he is an admitted liar lets talk about the dynamics between cohen and trump. Because now having been in that courtroom, i can say it is possible that Michael Cohen could come in and never actually make eye contact with donald trump. He walks in behi