Out recovering for a few weeks. I leave you in the most capable hands. Capable, and carrying youve got kate bolduan here, john berman, and if they act up, dm me we wanted no matter what, and we cannot wait for you to get back better than ever. Thank you. I think you. Thank you so much for being with us today. This is cnn new central, cnn Special Coverage Of The Trump Trial starts now moments ago, donald trump, as you could see, theyre leaving trump tower to the head here where we are outside of the courthouse in minutes, the likely final hold Defense Witness for donald trump will be under oath and on the Witness Stand yet again, well see if it goes better than it did the last time. Robert costello provoked a dressing down hello, from the judge over his courtroom behavior after just minutes on the stand yesterday, he has now been warned not to roll his eyes, say, jeez, after a ruling not, to stare down the judge, all helpful tips. I was in that room when all that happened yesterday is the judge Admonished Castello and warned the former president s attorneys that if he keeps it up everything is witness says may be stricken from the record. Was the kind of de that made you wish there were cameras inside that Courtroom Testimony is quickly winding down and sayyed 100 Centre Street, here behind me, pushing the country closer and closer to a vertex that will go down mystery know less about or what it is. Good morning to our viewers. Im Kaitlin Collins in new york and im jake tapper in washington. Youre watching Cnn Special Live Coverage of Donald Trumps hush money coverup hello, on the 19th De Of Trial Yesterday Prosecution rested on the 20th. The defense may follow suit on the stand in moments. Robert kraft Stella Stella is the lawyer who offered cohen advice when the former trump fixer was facing charges, hes now offering an account that directly contradicts what cohen when told the jury, castellows says that cohen related to him, that donald trump knew nothing about the Hush Money Cohen funneled to adultfilm guard director Stormy Daniels, win cohen made those payments and you cannot ignore the possibility that costello delivers a Repeat Performance of his behavior yesterday, the kaitlan just referred to again fingers judge juan, were sean in a way that kinda harm the former president s defense when costello steps down, the defendants may close out its case and then from, Closing Arguments. And then the case of the people of the state of new york versus Donald John Trump well, then it goes to the jury and kaitlan, as you mentioned, you are from report yesterday watching all of the Chaos Breakout tell us more about that i mean, jake in a trial that has had a lot of insane moments. This one might take the cake so far, and typically its been pretty normal inside that courtroom for all of Donald Trumps bluster and posturing outside of the courtroom. He is normally quite quiet at the Defense Table watching all of this happen, but yesterday was a moment, really like no other and ive never seen the judge, justice juan merchan this furious as he was yesterday. It didnt take long after Robert Costello was on the stand though he would continue to answer questions even though the judge had sustained objections to those and he was not supposed to answer, then he would tell the attorney who is questioning him to strike it from the record. You could see how visibly irritated the judge was getting at Robert Costello as he was basically ignoring the judge, even refusing to look get him at the beginning. And it was in that moment when the judge sent the jury out of the room, notably, and then had this complete dressing down of castello telling him that he was not going to roll his eyes or tried to strike testimony from the record when thats something only the judge can do inside that courtroom or even motor audibly and where the jury could hear it when he didnt like how the judge had ruled, but then Robert Costello basically was staring down the judge and that was the moment where he tried to clear the courtroom of the press, which obviously makes up most of the back of that room. Jake, you know, youve been inside that room and it was remarkable because the press did not want to leave. They believed that they should be there to witness that moment, given there arent even cameras inside the courtroom, it was pure chaos with Court Officials yelling at reporters to get out of the room to clear the room that theyd take our questions outside. An attorney for the press protesting that they wanted to stay and then of course, we saw in the transcript last night what happened in that moment where the judge said that he would strike all of Robert Costellos testimony from the record if he continued to act the way he did, of course, well find out pretty soon because he will be back on the stand. Cnns paula reid and john berman are here with me outside of the courthouse and paula it was a fight inside the trump team over whether to bring Robert Costello. And when i was watching that yesterday, i was thinking this is exactly why some members of the trump team did want to put them on the stand . Yeah, some members of that team having a big i told you so moment this morning, the concern was how he was going to perform on the stand now, his purpose for being there was to further undercut Michael Cohens credibility. Most importantly, to testify that Michael Cohen repeatedly told costello that he had no evidence of Criminal Wrongdoing by trump, and that was what he really was supposed to offer the defense, but instead, that kind of got lost in this spectacle. But to put it in the full context of the case does not the defendant. This is not Michael Cohen. This is a b list witness who instead of helping of the defense and a marginal way instead just created the most dramatic moment weve seen. So far. This is not going to make or break the case, but it does appear to be a forest error for the defense. They could have ended on Michael Cohen acknowledging that he stole from the Trump Organization, but instead, we believe that Robert Costellos going to be the last witness. And instead of really contradicting Michael Cohen, he was kinda contradicting the himself at times during his testimony. Well, look, you remember that Michael Cohen indirect was asked about Robert Costello and the reasons that he did not perhaps tell him everything that later came to light. And one of the reasons Michael Cohen basically gave is he didnt trust the guy. And now Robert Costello on the stand the jury saw some of it, not necessarily all of it, but gave them a reason, maybe not to trust him. Oh, i can understand why Michael Cohen may not want to confide in this man whos giving side. To the judge. I mean, sides of the judge elie, i mean, there really werent even words for it. Maybe some four letter words to really describe just how chaotic it was inside that room la. But Robert Costello is about to get back on the stand. Paulas write that he is kinda the sideshow, but hes not going to make or break the case here necessarily. But can you just put everything in context for us . Of what we are expecting today . Yeah. Caitlin, the prosecution has rested and today we are going to hear from probably the last witness in this trial. That is the aforementioned bob costello. Now, Robert Costello is a lawyer. Hes called to The Stand By Donald Trump as a Defense Witness, and he gave advice to Michael Cohen at a crucial moment in 2018 just after Michael Cohens home and office had been searched by the fbi, and it appears the Defense Perspective here is that bob costello undermines Michael Cohens testimony, contradicts among key points. For example, yesterday, costello testified that Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about these payments to Stormy Daniels then he did this on his own. Now, the crossexamination of costello started yesterday. It will resume in a little bit in court resumes, and it seems that the defense is pushing at the point that costello was actually trying to manipulate Michael Cohen to keep him from cooperating against donald trump. And theyve called into question costellos credibility. Of course, costello created the chaotic scene that you talked about. Well see if that continues today. Now, lets take a moment and step back and just take a look at where we are in the trial process. This is the defense case. Costellos probably going to be the last witness. Their theoretically, after that, the prosecution can put on a very brief what we call a rebuttal case. It does not appear the problem thats the is going to do that, then were going to take a week off. The jury is at least the judge is going to have them come back the day after memorial day, whereupon they will here Closing Arguments, they will be given their legal instructions and then they will begin to deliberate. The judge had a tough call. He wanted to keep closing Jury Instructions and deliberation sort of back to back to back. Thats used usually the way it happens. Now, later today after theyre done with the witness, the judge is going to Start Talking to the lawyers about Jury Instructions. This is really important part of the process. This is where the judge gives the jury their instructions on the law, and i just want to hit some highlights here as to what the judge is going to tell them. Hes going to start as must with the indictment itself. And lets just remind ourselves the charges here are falsifying Business Records in the first degree. There are 34 counts of that, one for each check ledger, an invoice, and the judge is going to give the jury what we call the elements, the pieces that make up the crime. Theres really two elements here. The first one is the prosecutors have to prove that donald trump knowingly made or cause a false entry in the Business Records. Now to understand that, we have to remember the way the money flowed. Michael cohen first paid 130,000 to Stormy Daniels and later was reimbursed 420,000 by donald trump and the Trump Organization and the allegation is they falsified those records to try to make them look like legal fees. When in fact, these were hush money payments to Stormy Daniels prosecutors are going to point to the documents largely theyre going to point to the checks, some of which were signed by donald trump. Theyre going to point to the invoices which say the word retainer, and theyre going to argue that right there is the falsification the second and final element of this crime is that it has to have been done with the intent to commit or conceal some other crime. Now, to this moment, the prosecutors have never specifically committed what that other crime is. Theyve mentioned federal Campaign Finance state Campaign Finance, tax fraud, although that really hasnt been developed. So i expect that what were going here from prosecutors today is our theory is this was a Campaign Finance crime. It was actually a payoff meant to affect the election. They tried to hide it by making it look like an attorneys fees. So when this resumes, jake, we got some really important business ahead of us today. Bob costello, well finish his testimony and then later on were going to get into the allimportant Jury Instruction, jake, so bigdye ahead and korde. Big day. Elie honig. Thank you so much. My panels here along with criminal Defense Attorney bill brennan, he represented Donald TrumpsPayroll Corporation and the tax fraud trial. And trump himself in his second impeachment trial. Jamie, were about to see the last few hours of testimony in this case are allowed if not going to see it, were going to get little tidbits of it and sketch Sketch Artists will make their renderings as well. The defense is expected to rest this morning talk about the moment were in because obviously whatever happens whatever the verdict is, this is a moment in history. Well, first of all, lets see if Robert Costello gets through the rest of his testimony today that seemed to me to be a performance for an audience of one donald, donald trump and judge merchan. Theyll knows is a very even tempered softspoken, even when hes angry. The fact that he warned him not once, but twice and said, youll get removed. It was quite a moment. I think what elie just said, big picture is actually the most important thing we wont get to till next week. But the focus of those Jury Instructions, weve heard a lot of times testimony the jury is going to weigh all of that. Hope hicks. Some people weve forgotten david pecker, how that all comes together when the judge gives those very precise durians . Yeah. No. Fascinating. And lets talk about exactly that, that confrontation between the witness, Robert Costello, the Defense Witness, and the judge, juan merchan, because we got the full transcript, as happens, its not like we dont ever get it. We just dont get it in real time castello have been launched and loudly expressing disdain for judge merchan sustaining many of the prosecutions objections in his testimony one and then this happened. Marsha and mr. Costello i would like i want to i would like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, costello, but im sorry. Go ahead. Merchan. I want to discuss proper decorum in my castello, right merchan. Okay, so when theres a witness on the stand, if you dont like my ruling, you dont say jeez. Okay. And then you dont say strike it because im the only one that can strike testimony in the courtroom. Du you understand that costello . I understand roshan. Okay. And then if you dont like my ruling, you dont give me sinai and you dont roll your eyes. Do you understand that . Do you understand that costello . I were standing that i understand what youre saying. Were sean. Okay. Thank you. Lets get the jury back. Are you staring me down right now . Castello know im just wondering how russia unclear the courtroom, please clear the courtroom dana bash dramatic i was holding back also i am classically trained eye, but what do you make of all that . Jamie said that she thinks it was for an audience of one that is a phrase that we have used now for the last, i dont know, seven, almost eight years. Of course, talking about the politics of working with and working for and trying to persuade and reach donald trump. And we have been talking since the beginning of this trial about the fact that, you cant separate the politics outside from whats going on inside and Robert Costello is somebody who has worked hand in glove with Rudy Giuliani. He is somebody who intimately knows both the law and knew better. He knew exactly what he shouldnt be doing even though he did the opposite on that stand and knows the politics and the Inner Workings and the dynamics of trump world. And he was clearly trying to show donald trump that hes, hes on his sayyed. And then he gets it and he understands the frustration that trump has expressed for the judge and he decided im going to do it in a way that you can thats one theory. Its a good theory. I also wonder and i love to just go down the row here and get your guys take on this. I also wonder how many what do you think that he was there about costello, either on his own or perhaps somebody had suggested who knows, to go in there and conveyed to the jury this judge is not fair. This is not a fair judge. And im here too. Illustrate that in a way that the lawyers cant and that the defendant cant. Well, that is odd to have done so given the very fact, remember, Todd Blanche Council really unusual unusual to do so blanche made the comment to the judge as to why he said, your honor, we dont want you its h