Its not am here and then agnez, we are now entering the final phase of the first criminal trial of a former President Donald Trump is inside that courtroom there on the right side of your screen as the prosecution spinal and maybe most important witness, Michael Cohen is about to retake the stan moments ago, the judge we are warmer. Shawn, just informed the court that he does expect Closing Arguments will not happen this week, but he does expect them to happen next tuesday because there is no chance of a verdict this week come to see it as a special live cover. On Kaitlan Collins in new york. An object Saverin Washington in minutes testimony resumes with a third day of crossexamination from Michael Cohen, the former trump you would all fix her turn witness for the prosecution. Todd blanche trumps attorney will again ask the questions. The trump attorney landed several notable blows on cohen underlining seeming inconsistencies and cohens memory at one point, Blanche Accused Cohen of inventing, apparently out of thin air, a conversation with donald trump about the payment at the part of the trial, the hush money intended to silence Adult Film Star and director Stormy Daniels to critical and unanswered questions. This hour. What will the Defense Presentation . Look like . Well, they call any witnesses. One of the only events remaining they could extend the duration of the trial would bend history and break good Legal Counsel if trump takes the stand his own . Defense. Were going to start our coverage in new york with kate yeah. Jake, in that question that you just raised there, whether they will call any witnesses when its the defenses turn turn to present their case is still an Open Question, even for them. And one that they have been internally divided over is Robert Costello hello hes a name that was introduced to jurors last week. There were emails shown that he sent to Michael Cohen after the fbi searched Michael Cohens house in his hotel room in his office and Robert Costello is someone who was never formally retained by Michael Cohen, but he did serve as kind of this informal Legal Advisor and he was the person who testified to the grand jury before trump is actually indicted here. He testified on capitol hills. Well last week and can essentially trying to dispute Michael Cohens testimony, at least parts of it and paint him as a liar, which as we know, has been the defenses strategy here all along. Its still remains to be seen if they are going to call him. I am told by two people that they have not made a decision as of this morning. So were waiting to see what that its going to look like and how it affects the timing of all of this sentence. Elie honig is also joining us this morning at 11. This was a big announcement from the judge who was trying to avoid big breaks in what the jury is hearing. And when they get these Closing Arguments and ella, he just said that he basically theyve to make a big break now or take a big break later . The memorial day weekend. So the jury is not going to hear those Closing Arguments this week, yet, caitlin, i think that makes a lot of sense. The judge, what the judge does not want to happen is to have the deliberation split up. He wants to go directly from closings into Jury Instructions and then right into the deliberations. Now, looking back at last week, as you mentioned, we had a really dramatic moment in court during Michael Cohens crossexamination. I want to make sure people understand why this was such an important moment when Michael Cohen testified on direct examination when he was being questioned by prosecutors, he talked about a specific poly head on october 24, 2016, with donald trump through Keith Schiller was essentially his assistant, the de as Michael Cohen why did you need to speak with mr. Trump at that point in the evening of october 24, and cohen said to discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it, and then the question and continued, did you have an understanding about whether during that conversation you resolve that you are moving forward to fund the deal, meaning with Stormy Daniels and cohen answered yes. Key part of the prosecution in this case. However fast forward now to the crossexamination that call happened 280 2 00 p. M. Michael cohen to schiller and trump turns out theres a bunch of Text Messages before and after, but theyre about Something Else altogether earlier that night, about an hour earlier, cohen was receiving a series of Harassing Texts from some unknown 14 yearold kid cohen is exercised about this. He text Keith Schiller and says i need to talk to you about these Harassing Texts at 8 02 pm just before the call, shiller says call me. They have the call at 8 02 pm and then right after cohen tech, schiller, the phone number of these 14 yearold kid. So it looks like that call was actually about the 14 yearold kid who was harassing asking Michael Cohen. And when cohen was confronted with this seeming inconsistency on crossexamination. Heres how we answer. Part of it was the 14 yearold, but i know that keith was with mr. Trump at the time and there was more than potentially just this. So its unclear if cohen is saying maybe i got it wrong, maybe it happened some other time maybe we discuss both things, but very a from what he testified on direct exam, very different from what Michael Cohen told the grand jury. Now, as we move into the remaining portions of Michael Cohens crossexamination, watch for these three main themes. First of all Michael Cohen has made several prior false statements. He of course pled guilty. It was convicted to federal Campaign Finance violations relating to the Stormy Daniels payments. He made false statements to congress. He lied about Donald Trumps efforts to build a tower and moscow, and he pled guilty to both pay tax fraud and bank fraud in his personal capacity, the prosecution is going to note that Michael Cohen beyond his guilty plea, he lied to judge pauley. He claims that when he pled guilty to tax fraud and bank fraud, he was actually lying about having committed those crimes. Prosecution is going to point out that Michael Cohen lied to Robert Muller when he first went into meet with that team, lied to the fec about the Stormy Daniels payments even live to the media many times over including about Stormy Daniels the second main theme that i think were going to see the trump team pursue with Michael Cohen today, is that he has a personal bias against donald trump. He has very strong feelings against donald trump. Hope that this man ends up in prison. I want this man to go down and rot inside plus all the normal personal insults that you hear Michael Cohen throwing it. Donald trump. And i think the third theme that trumps team is going to continue to stress with Michael Cohen is he has a financial motive in the outcome of this case. They will point out certainly that Michael Cohen has made millions off of his books, that he has a podcast very much centered on attacking donald trump. Hes selling tiktok subscriptions apparently now for 5909 a month in his antitrump screens, these even selling merchandise including this tshirt showing donald trump behind bars. So jake, the prosecution is going to stress excuse me trumps defense team is going to stress these three themes today as their crossexamination of Michael Cohen resumes and should conclude within a couple of hours. The only person i know who subscribes to the Michael Cohen tiktok and i dont i dont i wouldnt be surprised if he has lots of followers, et cetera. But the only person i know is david urban, who watches them. So so so i guess you get your customers where you can get them yeah. Why dont know that he pays for it, but he says that he watches it, hasnt denied to us that he will and we will ask its clearly a hate watch. So, you know, its its people do that. Let me start with you, jamie, Michael Cohens expected to be back on the stand in about 20 minutes, right and the defense is expected to finish their cross of him overall, how damaging do you think trumps crossexamine trump teams crossexamination of Michael Cohen has been so first, i think we have to see what the prosecutors du and if there are terms of the cleanup in terms of cleanup, and take that on juries are unpredictable. We dont know what is going to affect them. There are also two lawyers on this jury, which i would argue has perhaps undo undo influence. But lets remember, prosecutors tried to inoculate Michael Cohen from day one by laying a lot of this out there the one thing we knew by the end of the prosecution case was nobody liked Michael Cohen very much. Yeah. I think one of the questions so dana is how well did they inoculate him . Like they were they tough enough . Weve had some of the lawyers here saying they could have inoculated him more, just to illustrate this on thursday, todd blanche trumps attorney, pointed out a series of things that cohen had said false under oath. Blanche. So just as it relates to that issue, you lied under oath, correct . Cohen . Yeah. Blanche. And you lied again when you met with the Special Counsel on august 7, correct . Cohen . Correct. Blanche and you as we talked about in november, November 29th of that year, 2018, you pled guilty to lying to congress, correct . Cohen i did. Thats a lot. And those are all thats not just like lying to your bookie. Thats lying under oath before like official proceeding or lying to us, line to the media, line to anybody in your life that is a very, very big deal. Youre right. And that was just one example. Elie just laid out what were going to see today. So theres going to be more icing on that cake, if you will. So the inoculation that the prosecuted prosecution did in their in their direct theyre going to have to do even more so in their redirect. And its an Open Question whether or not they can clean it up because the jury has heard so much. Thanks to the questioning from trumps defense that really puts what is the most important thing for the defense in the jurys mind, which is reasonable doubt. So right now, in court, a meal beauvais, who is trumps attorneys is talking about what mr. Smith can say and what mr. Smith cannot say. I think this is an election law on Campaign Finance. Expert and theyre getting into the nittygritty of what is important and what is not beauvais is arguing that the information they want to get into the record through their Campaign Finance expert is quote absolutely critical to the jury understanding of the governments allegations in this case. But lets take a step back. I want to ask my attorneys about this delay because we had thought possibly tomorrow, there will be Closing Arguments. And now the judge, Juan MerchansJust Announced that because of conversations over the weekend Closing Arguments are expected a week from tomorrow. What gibbs what you want the jury to have an uninterrupted ability to deliberate. Remember there, when they Closing Arguments and then theres a during interactions likely to be some fights over whats going to be in those Jury Instructions is a very important part. Remember, youre talking about a misdemeanor elevated to a felony. Youre talking about issues in terms of Circumstantial Evidence about what credit to give to different people if theres an expert testifying how they should regard that person as well. And so this will take some time to do and he hasnt one want to have a start and stop back in oftentimes be hard on a defendant, frankly, and their Right To A Fair Trial and deliberative process. Because if somebodys stopping and starting, were thinking, lets get it done before memorial day. I got plans. Thats not good for a defendant is not good for the prosecution either, but not for a defendant. So he wants to have a continuous flow of information and deliberate patient. Yeah. Judge marsha and head two options here. Both of them bad and i think he chose the better or the less bad of the two. Option a was have the parties close, say tomorrow. Right. But the problem is then the jury would start deliberating thursday. Theres no court wednesday, and then theyd have a five de break in the middle of deliberations if they started thursday would carry over till next tuesday do not want that for the reasons laura said, why dont you want legal because it just interrupts the continuity of it. You want a juries deliberated, you want them on a very short leash. Things can go bad. Someone can see something happening. If that happens during deliberation that is a big problem. So you generally want to keep deliberations altogether and as close to closing as you can. So option b, which judge merchan has chosen is well finish up the presentation of evidence today may be slightly into tomorrow. Will take a week long break, but then every well come back, well go closings. Right to Jury Instructions, right. To deliberations. Its smooth er that way i think he did the right thing. Have a jury note right. To the judge, and thats the part where you get concerned as a prosecutor or Defense Counsel because you dont want them trying to fill in the blanks. You want to have some surjection from the judge. Do you want to have them not having the delay and thinking themselves, ill just figure it out or its not that big of deal on the end. Gain. Thats not good for either side tim, let me just ask you some of the lawyers that weve talked to have said that they think the prosecutions case has been so weak that as soon as the prosecutions done presenting, they think the defense should im not exactly sure what the legal term is, but ask the judge just a kill this thing. Oh, theres no question. Yeah. Once the prosecution breast than the defense has an Opportunity Turning to make a motion for a judgment of acquittal, and basically go through the elements of the crime to show that they have failed to present evidence on certain issues, and as a matter of law, theres no way that any reasonable jury could find for a conviction i can imagine that they would do that. For example, all the checks out of his personal account saying those are Business Records, they havent shown that its anything other than his personal account. I can imagine that theyll do it on the on the subject of what is the target crime that they were trying to conceal since right now theyre arguing about whether bringing fec experts of how they actually presented evidence of what the supposed Campaign Finance violation would be as a matter of law. And so with those things, the judge can he can either get rid of the case entirely at that point. He probably wont write how he probably wont. He can cut it down. Ive seen judges do that where theyll take long list of indictment it takes some of the counts out at that stage and oftentimes what theyll do is theyll defer judgment on it because they want to allow the jury to render their decision. If they simply dismiss the case at that point, it limits the appellate issues and so if it were the the ability for the prosecution to appeal it al,hehereas if they h jury had already convicted. And then that gave the prosecution the grounds to appeal that judgment. And it was ultimately reinstated. So let me ask you, is it is it is it perceived as annoying when a defense team does that . I mean, like i could see that. Yeah. Again, im not alone here i dont the prosecutor, i mean, the knowing the judge like i mean, it just seems like oh, kneejerk that if im if im a Defense Attorney, im just going to make that movement im okay. Meant motion every time. No. No. You wouldnt do what . Its expected that you would do. So this is a really common thing to have gap. Its also equally common for a judge not to grant it. There are reasons you have to preserve things for the