Is more like it the same goes for my foot work. Why one handsfree with wide fits, get your sleep dry wipe fit sketcher, slip a game of risk that prosecution may have just lost. Good evening. Im abby phillip in new york tonight, the Trump Defense strategy was obvious from the job. It was to paint Michael Cohen as a line liar obsessed with revenge but what was an open question as crossexamination started was whether he had the strategy would actually work. Of course, we wont know until the jury actually renders its verdict. But if anything made israel, the governments case against donald trump, it might be what happened today. Todd blanche, the lead lawyer for the former president , is on the attack. He asserting that a phone call that cohen claimed was about the Stormy Daniels payment hey, man wasnt made to trump at all, but rather to Keith Schiller, whose trumps bodyguard. And it was about Something Else entirely. Now, cohen has claimed that the call drove directly the heart of the case that donald trump knew the intimate details about the 130,000 payment that cohen would make to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The defense instead said that it was about crank calls and that was based on Text Messages that cohen had sent Schiller Fixating on the pranks of a 14yearold just minutes before that phone call happened. Now, it is an Alternative Theory that threatens to collapse the prosecutions case like a Wobbly Banga Tower The Defense highlighted cohens alleged lie after alleged lie to catch him, cast him as the opposite of a reformed truth teller. And they used cones, own words against him. They replayed portions of his podcasts the jury listen to cohen in his heavily accented new york baritone. They promised t promised to make sure that trump brats i truly hope that this man ends up in prison. It wont bring back the year that i lost or the damage done to my family but revenge is a dish best served cold. And you Better Believe i want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family joining us now, nick ackerman, former assistant special gw watergate prosecutor tim parlatore, cnn legal commentator, and former Trump Attorney for former attorney for donald trump Stacey Schneider is a criminal Defense Attorney and former apprentice Contestant Joey Jackson cnn legal analysts and dante mills, civil and criminal attorney weve got enough lawyers, i think at the desk here today, which is great because this is this were getting to the point where the lawyers are really necessary here. But joey and dante, can you please walk us through some of the key parts of this crossexamination in all of your theatrical glory. No doubt this was a big day today, i would say for the defense made your revelation, so lets get right to it. I will be the Defense Attorney. Im gonna be colon, but im thats my family, not the Hold It Against Me so blanche and here here it goes. When you testified on tuesday that that you had a specific recollection that a oneminute and 36 minute phone call on october 24th was not with Keith Schiller. He of course, is the president s body man right . Bodyguard that you called Keith Schiller and he posed and pass the phone to President Trump. You finalize the deal with Stormy Daniels and you said, were going to move forward and he said yes, because you kept them in all the time. That was your testimony, right . Thats correct. That was a lie. You are actually talking to mr. Schiller about the fact that you were getting Harassing Phone Calls from a 14yearold, correct part of it was the 14 yearold, but i know that keith was with mr. Trump at the time there was more than potentially just this thats what i recall based upon the documents that i reviewed five minutes ago, i asked you if you remember Harassing Phone Calls and you said no. And then i refreshed your recollection. Its totally fair if you dont remember, but now youre testimony is that you were testifying Hi Truthfully on tuesday to a oneminute and 36 second phone call and you had enough time in that one minute and 36 seconds to update mr. Schiller about all the problems you were having with these Harassing Phone Calls and also update President Trump . On the status of the Stormy Daniels situation because you had to keep him informed because every time you make any decision, you ran it by the boss. Thats your testimony. I always ran everything by the boss immediately in this case. It could have just been saying everything is being taken care of. Its going to get resolved. Thats not what you testified to on tuesday, you said you had a recollection of a phone call on october 24th and 802 pm, where you called mr. Schiller and gave the phone to president then trump, and you told President Trump about the updates that you were moving forward with the funding and he said, okay, go that was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump on that night. You talked to Keith Schiller about what we just went through. You can admit that. No, sir. I can. I am not certain that is accurate. You are certainly was accurate on tuesday when you will under oath and testifying, you are certain it was accurate. You had a phone call to President Trump, but now you are saying you are not certain it was accurate based upon the records that i was able to review in light of everything that was going on believe i also spoke to mr. President trump and told him everything regarding the Stormy Daniels matter was being worked on. And its going to be resolved. Were not asking for your belief. The jury does it want to hear what you think happened so abby, this is a big deal and ill tell you why its a big deal. So much of the prosecutions case has been predicated upon the notion of corroboration for everything that of course was testified to. Write by Michael Cohen. Theres one critical component that has not been corroborated and that is the details with respect to what he told trump and whether trump was aware of the nature, the purpose the structure of this arrangement. Guess who was on this phone call when he was calling . It was either only schiller or which trump . Trump is a defendant who doesnt have to testify, so he can keep quiet and shell im sure if you brought him in there, the body man, hell say he was talking to me about the harassing for it 14 yearold. And so this element of corroboration goes to a core issue in the case, the fact that the prosecutor didnt initially and direct examination get out. The fact that he could have been talking about a 14 harasser in addition to updating the president is a big deal. I think it was a game changer and it was so easy to do. Yeah. All they had to do is say on that call, did you talk about Anything Else . Yes. We also talked about the 40yearold and none of this would have been a problem. But when youre relying on colon to seal the deal and fill in those gaps that you have in your case. And now you have a clear clear example of him probably lying or may be lying about one of those gaps i think that leaves some either a major screw up by the prosecution or if the jury views it as an intentional omission of Important Information thats really problematic. It is an and to me it seems like a screw up. The prosecution, they should have caught blowing this is such a minor little blip on the scheme of things first of all, you cant ignore the fact that there are 250 some odd documents that basically backup what cohen has said, what pecker said what all of these various witnesses have said . One little phone call like this. This is not im notch ammonia i had this happen before in a trial where i had a guy who said he was at a certain place, at a certain time for a meeting. I was able to get restaurant records that show absolutely not. He was at a different place at a different time this is not that kind of see its huge because take just let me let me tell you why its a two part crime, falsifying Business Records, the felony in New York State requires that theres intent to falsify the records and there has to be either the commission or the coverup of another crime so i will concede with you one point only and that the prosecution did really well in establishing the other crime which was perhaps election interference, perhaps even a tax fraud. That, thatll come later. But the Michael Cohens act was established by all those other witnesses, david pecker, whom you refer to. But now we come to the crux of the New York State penal code, which is did donald trump had the intent to falsify the Business Records with only Michael Cohens Testimony Saying what Donald Trumps new or directed or ordered thats the only thing that people have. The people, meaning the people of the state of new york, the prosecution it is true, it isnt true. Theyve got those records because youve got the notes of weisselberg or hes writing down the 420,000 heisenberg, are the notes of weisselberg Michael Cohen is the link between Allen Weisselberg and donald trump. And it is his word that is the bridge between those two. Thats not right mcconney also identified those records and he identified them as being in weisselbergs handwriting. He doesnt talk about why it is not on Trial Designs coming out. Lets be a close case. Hi, to be called psaki. Interrupt you, abby, but there was after tuesdays testimony, i believe there was a conference with judge merchan and the attorneys about where is weisselberg . Its almost like the wheres waldo situation and weisselberg is now on Rikers Island serving a sentence for perjury so the prosecution has no incentive to bring him into this case. They already have an issue with Michael Cohen being an alleged perjure or a perjure either alleged or on alleged. Hes not coming in. So the only tie to Donald Trumps knowledge at this point in the case, which is why this is such a big turning point. Is Michael Cohens testimony. So if the jury doesnt, by the connection and if they do rely on this phone call and its not cleaned up properly by the prosecution. They got problems, so i want to read a little bit of justice for context. Just people understand exactly what Michael Cohen sai earlier this week. This was on monday during direct with the prosecution this is susan hoffinger. She says, why did you need to speak with mr. Trump at that point in the evening on october 24th, cohen says to discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it, hoffinger says, and did you have an understanding about whether during that conversation you resolve that you were moving forward to fund the deal. Cohen says, yes so he makes it a pretty hinge conversation where its like he had this conversation, but he knew that he could then move forward if i can do when youve got youve got that. Congress doesnt make any difference. You said he spoke to to trump, spoke to keith. Has one to bodyguard issue. What you do. I thank in direct examination as the prosecutors, you say, sir, there came a time you made a phone call, right . He get he gets into the specific phone call. And in that phone call, tell us about it. Well, there was a 14yearold harassing me and i addressed that with the security personnel, but trump was right there. And at that time, i had a conversation nothing said about it. Its not said that not set in the grand jury, but the defense has something to say. So now all of a sudden that wasnt the only thing i talked to him about right. It was about the 14yearold and it was this so it looks like the bottom line is i think youre doing exceptional lawyering, which is what they are going to have to do. Write that man thats the thing is that theres a lot of corroboration for a lot of these go the other acts. But those are not the crimes. So theres not the elements of the crime. What youre doing is exactly what prosecutors we would expect them to do. They would say look at all the corroborator fission of all this other stuff. But since thats not the elements of the crime, the actual elements that they need to prove as his personal involvement, his personal knowledge. Theyve corroborated Michael Collins evolvement. Theyve corroborated how am weisselbergs involvement. But to actually connected to trump, they need to the contents of these phone calls which we now know, Michael Cohen lied about. What you cant say. He lied about it. At best he was mistaken about another issue that came up at the time, clearly at that time, if you look at all the circumstances, what was going on in terms of Stormy Daniels . He had to get his permission to pull the trigger real thing is you hinge everything on that conversation, they said, well, we know we have to prove that trump knew well, cohen, youre on you understand how do we know, how do we know trump knew what on this particular call . I told him this is the call y got permission. Now, that call was about Something Else at least. So he hinged everything on that call. And now that cohen is everythings not hinged on that call, its also other conversations, other meetings where it was basically decided at that point how this money was going to be paid out. But the interests winning all these lets just check a second because i do think that there is a point to be made here that again, it doesnt really matter whether or not donald trump had a conversation with Michael Cohen about whether Michael Cohen was actually going to pay Stormy Daniels because to your point, that is not what hes charged however and this is what i think you got to address Michael Cohens credibility is on the table here as it relates to another big part of part of this, which is at the end when they are deciding what to pay him and how to structure and he is the person who says that donald trump knew about them hes the only person whos saying that. Well, its also donald trump who signs or think its also donald trump on tape. Who knows about the whole scheme when hes talking about karen mcdougal. But you cant just look at this in isolation because the problem with that is yes, he signed the check. But did he put the annotation into the book . No. They has to play a lot. You dont have to know, but, but its a false Business Records rights. And so the false Business Record is not the signature on the check. Its the annotation of what the check is four, because if we its the invoice, it goes out papal to the can. So and thats what he saw when he signed each and every one of those things. Thats going to come forward. This is trumps defense without him taking the standard saying it. I was in dc, Michael Cohen didnt get paid until 2017 when those check started going out. I was in dc running the country. I was just i was not dealing with the Trump Organization in new york, whatever they did over there Allen Weisselberg did it and he knows how weisselberg isnt coming into court because hes in jail right now bringing up hes got the perfect way. And it just got confirmed. Im not saying the outward when with the jury because there was i agree with you. There was corroboration on the catch and kill scheme and all those people. But the crux of the charge is, did trump had the intent to falsify the Business Records of the Trump Organization, and we have one more point that the people id say think is obvious. If you think about this whole thing, why is trump in trouble here . He could have done a side deal with Michael Cohen, who is his private attorney, who wasnt really even working for the Trump Organization anymore at that point in time, trump was transitioning. He was on the campaign he could have just said michael, lets take care of this between the two of us and ill give you the money, whatever take care of it. But what happened here is that money allegedly was run through the Business Records almost like a tax deduction, like taking your family out to dinner for a Business Meal and then running it through your tax deduction. It was like it was grossed up yes they could have just reimbur