i know... faster wifi and savings? ...i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? join our community of millions who sensitive skin was transformed by bloom cream, violin, earth with liev schreiber, premiere sunday at nine on cnn close captioning is brought to you by tableau. >> watch, pause and record live tv subscription free start watching tv for free with tableau switching to tableau has really been a money saver without a monthly subscription was amazing. >> quarter today at tableau tv.com good evening. >> thanks for joining us. it went from early this morning, late into the evening and adjust wrapped up first the defense and the prosecution first criminal trial ever of a former president having their final say, jurors will get the case tomorrow. it hadn't prosecutor joshua steinglass until moments go walking them step by step by step through the former president's hush money payment to stormy daniels shortly before the 2016 election and the alleged scheme to hide it from voters. now, he emphasized how much of the case in his telling did not rely solely on the testimony of former fixer, michael cohen, whose fault he acknowledged saying, quote, we didn't pick him up. the witness store as for defense attorney todd blanche, she accused cohen of lying to the jury, calling him, quote, the mvp of liars and the gloat which he said stands for greatest liar of all time. he wrapped up by listing ten justification for reasonable doubt. the final one being michael cohen. blanche also earned a scolding from the judge for saying, quote, you cannot send somebody to prison unquote, based on cohen's word judges make that decision, not juries. the judge will instruct jurors on the relevant points of law tomorrow afterwards, the former president is fate will be in their hands as for him, he went into today complaining online, the prosecution gets the last word complaining during a break this afternoon that the prosecution's closing arguments were boring when see if he'll have anything to say tonight with us. is new york criminal defense attorney arthur aidala, cnn legal analyst, norm eisen, seen in news night. abby phillip, the sources, kaitlan collins, all three were in the court also see didn't senior legal analyst elie honig and cnn's kara scannell outside the courthouse in lower manhattan carolyn, start with you. what was the mood like in these historic and lengthy, lengthy closing arguments the marathon of closing arguments. >> i mean, that the jury's attention was wrapped throughout the day. they had been inside that corbin for more than ten hours. let's name what almost seems like could have been yesterday to donald trump's team, give their closing arguments and then the prosecutor, joshua steinglass, and just finishing moments ago, his closing arguments was lasted almost five hours, four hours, and 41 minutes. they were focused on both of the attorneys as they spoke. i've looked at them multiple times they were all looking directly at the lawyer, looking down at the monitors in front of them when evidence was put up on the screen, the lawyers, both of them went through excerpts of transcripts, some of these texts, messages, the phone logs, all to remind the jury in the prosecution's case that they do have evidence that there is evidence beyond michael cohen and that they should find donald trump guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and then in the defense's case, trying to poke holes in the testimony of cohen, and in some of the other evidence that they have suggesting that if this was really a big conspiracy, why wasn't david pecker involved in the ultimate the payment to stormy daniels so a lot of focus and attention by the jury today, donald trump for his part, had actually turned his chair about 90 degrees at one point to watch his lawyer give the closings and watch the jury as they were taking all of this in during the prosecution's closing arguments, trump was facing forward. he did it really seem to be paying much attention to that occasionally leaning into look at the monitor himself about some of the emails and text messages that were put up. but along de day that really tested the patients people in there, but the jury did seem to be wrapped the sep judge check with them several times to see if they wanted to keep going. and at one point, he asked them publicly in front of us not having an officer good behind the scenes and the jurors nodded their heads in agreement that they wanted to stay. but this now finally coming to an end. just a few moments ago, anderson norm, you were there both for the morning? the session in the afternoon session, what jumped out at you? what were the high highs, low, lows? >> well, it was a long day i thought the jury hung in there. the first thing you look for is the jury continuing to pay attention and they did. it was fascinating to me, the strategy of the defense and the prosecution, anderson, because they were opposite strategies the defense honed in on the three critical issues in this case and said, you can't prove these 34 records were false you can't prove trump intended to defraud with these false records that he knew they weren't not income, that they were reimbursements. and you can't show that he was covering up an election conspiracy. so they used kind of an inductive approach. they organize that evidenced todd blanche, by those three issues the prosecution to the exact opposite, a chronological or a d active approach review, it felt like they reviewed all 200 plus exhibits that they him put into evidence in this case. at times, it was painful. that's when we were watching the jury, as kara said, they hung in, but i thought that was necessary don't as a prosecutor, don't leave anything on the table. if the judge will give you the time, if the jury says, i'll stay till 8:00 argue till 7509, and the weight the overwhelming weight of the evidence that was the prosecution approach. >> i mean, it was striking how different the two closing arguments were because michael cohen loomed over both of them, but in very different ways, todd blanche was trying to basically eviscerate michael cohen and any credibility he had with these jurors repeatedly saying he lied to you and trying to make it personal almost for them. josh steinglass, the prosecutor, took a very different approach and he kind of had this very conversational style. he was almost incredulous at some of the arguments that todd blanche had made. he made no hesitation and turning back to point and todd blanche's direction or pointed donald trump, who almost never referred to as donald trump. he just referred to m is the defendant. the defendant. the defendant repeatedly and he was scuffing almost what todd blanche had said in his closing arguments and he would say, i'll get back to that ridiculous point later or they really want you to believe this, trying to create this idea that whatever todd blanche had said in his closing argument was just not believable for the weather that's the term motorcade leaving, which is notable because trump didn't speak leaving court, which he normally does. but the other thing that they tried to do with michael cohen that stood out to me because i was in there this afternoon as he was in his lengthy closing arguments for the prosecution, as he was saying, this isn't all on michael cohen, the documents that we have here which he referred to as the smoking gun in this case, which is one has the math jotted down on how they would pay michael cohen back, didn't come from michael cohen. it came from jeff mcconney, a trump organization employee who as the prosecution noted, has no ax to grind with donald trump. >> i did think just reflecting back on the morning session where i was in the court the trump team they did present some things that were just beyond belief. i mean, the idea that no one in trump's orbit thought that the national enquirer running negative stories are positive stories about trump would influence the election in any way beyond belief, those point that was leading with becker, that was the whole point of the meeting. i mean, the idea that donald trump just as a person would not believe that. so look, the good news for the defense is that they don't have to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. it's not on them to do that, but it did make me wonder some of those moments where maybe even some cases they were twisting the evidence in ways that did not actually comport with what the evidence actually was, in ways that they asserted things like, for example, they call the access hollywood moment. basically nothing burger in the campaign. again, a ridiculous assertion if you were, you were there, you were a human being and the united states of america, when it occurred, those moments, i think cut against their ability in some crucial ways. will it make or break this case? i don't know what part of the argument that they were trying to make to the to the jury is that michael cohen cannot be believed. michael cohen is the person who is the serial liar, the fabulous. and yet i think the prosecution tried to make a point when they got their turn and closing statements, you cannot also makes statements that are beyond belief and then have the jury want to believe you and disregard everything that michael cohen want to hear from arthur and i am a second, but for those of you who are in the courtroom, it's different when you're inside versus what we on the outside in the morning, we're reading from our folks inside todd blanche's his closing statement felt meandering when you're just reading the text on the outside. we did it play meandering in the room and i'm wondering for the prosecution's closing, did it feel like five hours? >> it felt like more than five hours i'm very restless person, but i thought it was the right thing to do for them to use all that time. blanche is a meander. he is not a linear person. we saw this in his cross-examination of michael cohen, was that strategy? here's just lack of experience and it was a strategy because he wanted to hone in on all the places where there can be reasonable in the order. he thought of the difficulty of bruce. he wanted to go from stronger, less strong to weak as he hit them with the best shot but it did meander at times, the jury does not. i think the jury does not like todd blanche. i think they prefer mo beauvais. they like susan necheles better. i don't think they're fond of your leg by the way, this jury that this is a jury that does not show a lot. >> so that tells me you have been analyzed and smile several times as steinglass was making his way. it did go on at length and there were some dry moments where he was going through the documents, but he also would pepper in these quotes, like the one where he said donald trump didn't pay a porn star or pay a lawyer, but he was paying a porn star and funneling think the money through an attorney when he was talking about he didn't go to the witness store to get michael cohen. he was making the point, this is who donald trump chose to surround himself with. so it was really long, but he had these little leinz and i saw some of the jurors smiling at some of steinglass as lines, which is a big deal because they don't have expressions typically only are there lots here for i definitely going to defer to the people who are in the room because there's no replacement for that. i mean, i'm looking at it like our viewers watching the each individual update come up ordinarily, i would think a five-hour closing is outrageous. it goes against everything i was taught, goes against everything i've ever done. i never gave a closing anywhere near five hours. you lose the jury. it's a terrible idea, but hearing nor form say that the jury, first of all, they were asked, do you want to stay and indicated yes. and that they continued to pay attention. that makes a difference for me if you still have their attention, i don't think it's disastrous to do this. i agree based on what we were able to see, i thought todd blanche's closing did meander. i don't think manuring is a strategy. i think it's a fault. >> you can attack a prosecution case aggressively and effectively in a direct and compelling way. and to me, the whole argument about this had nothing to do with the campaign from six weeks ago in this case started struck me as a stretch and i think it remains a stretch now, under the evidence, i want to drop that, honestly, the whole part about you don't concede it explicitly just just give it the back of the hand. stormy daniels denied this ever happened, right? hope hicks told you it was about the family focus on the documents and connecting trump to the documents. that's where the defense lies. that's where i think blanchette is better moments. >> it had a feel of throwing everything at the wall that might stick okay. >> so i'm going to take a page out of ellie's book i'm going to defer to the people in the courtroom, but i'm sitting here with three national anchors and all three of you know, it's all about editing right? you could go on, i could give you guys all rows. we're going to talk for three hours. you'll figure out something to say. it's all about editing it down and you'll ellie talked about his training. i was blessed to be trained in the brooklyn da's office i remember angela morella. i thought i gave a great summation. he's like shut up, shut up, arthur. i know if you're going on and on, but i was 26 years old, i was 27 years old, i was 28 years old. so i learned and it's honestly it's a similar skill set on television. you can't go on and on, you get this, you get 30 seconds, 15, and then you've got to count down. it's the same thing with the jury. you have to be like, okay, there's a limited amount of time. i get that they're they're looking at them just because they are looking at them. you don't know where their brain is that well, that was a really good burger. i had a memorial de you don't know where they're thinking and where they're lapsing in and out. but abby, when you talk about losing credibility to me, that's the most important part. it's one thing for a jury not to like the lawyer and not to like have kumbaya out with the lawyer, but it's another thing to not believe him or think he or she is trying to sell them a bill of goods that just doesn't make any sense. and the example you use, i do agree with saying that that accident his hollywood thing was a nothing. i mean, i know that summer day sitting at home, it was not a bit of nothing. it was a big deal. yeah. i mean, there were so many moments like that they described here they were trying to poke holes in the recording of donald trump. >> fair enough. but the way that they tried to poke holes in it, i thought also really stretched credibility suggesting that trump didn't say things that you could hear him saying on the call, even describing how the call ended inaccurately by saying that michael cohen, you couldn't hear michael cohen picking up the other call that's not at all what happened. he was recording let's phone received an incoming call which ended the recording. and so to look if you have an iphone you know how that goes and misrepresenting that to the jury, i think does not hurt care. i mean out the side the court. the other thing that one of the things he misrepresented was implying that well, the national enquirer doesn't matter because it's circulation was 350,000 at this time. when in truth the impact of the national enquirer story can be far beyond the number of actual subscribers who pay money to read the national enquirer or look at it even on the checkout stand, it has a ripple effect to other people do reporting based off yeah. >> i mean, one of the things that blanche had said was that the national enquirer had such a low subscriber rate compared to the new york times but then on closing arguments by the prosecution, they said that that was kind of absurd, that everybody who's in a supermarket who checks out at the register there is going to walk past and see the headlines of the national enquirer remember david pecker had testified that he didn't want to get involved with the stormy daniels deal because he didn't want to do story about a porn star because of these record, because his tabloid is on the supermarket shelves and that's some of these supermarkets wouldn't want to see that. so certain only prosecution came back at that point by saying that even though this circulation may be lower than that of the new york times, that doesn't mean that the number of eyeballs that aren't happiness when everyone is checking out at the grocery store, they're still going to see that they tried to correct that part of it. and yeah, it's true if the national enquirer does have a truce story, then that would be something that other national organizations would follow and try to match. >> there was also a testimony during the trial that david pecker didn't even care what was inside the pages of the national enquirer. all he cared about was the front cover because the impact of that checkout line and just people seeing that front cover that for him, was that such a huge priority? kara scannell. thank you. got to take a quick break. john berman joins us. he's been going through the transcripts of tonight's extended closing arguments. we'll talk about what could stand out for the jury. and later, journalist ronan farrow joins us, who's reporting on catch and kill, gave us such an early and clear window into the world. the jurors have been shown in this trial smile you, found it the feeling of findings, psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only so tick to a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. and the chance that clear or almost clear skin it's like the feeling of finding yourself ready for your close-up are finding you don't have to hide your skin just your background. >> once-daily. so tick two was proven better, getting more people clearer skins and the leading pill don't take if you're allergic to so take too serious reactions can occur. so ticked, you can lower your ability to fight infections including tb, serious sections, cancers including lymphoma, muscle problems, and changes in certain labs have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection, liver or kidney problems, high triglycerides or had a vaccine or plan to tick to as a tick to inhibit there tick two as part of the jack donnelly, it's not known as tiktok has the same risks as jak inhibitors find what plaque psoriasis has been hiding. there's only one so tick two. so it's where it by name. so clearly you, so tick to some people would rather crash to slow down there was a golden age. >> motorcycles and took my breath away i'd both his club bottom left-hand this is my family the club is changing what do you want me to do? >> this war mark reuters read your door only beaters june 21 group is designed in my bag like a bunch of groceries, alice cheese, and greece just contemplate freedom. you can take your eyes off the new 2024 jeep wrangler in gladiator there's only one top off this memorial day with 2000 bonus cash allowance. i'm 2024 cheap wrangler, gas-powered models and cheap pled here stop by your local dealer for a test drive and experience open-air freedom today and university of maryland global campus getting a bachelor's degree doesn't have to mean starting from scratch. >> here, you can earn up to 90 undergraduate credits for relevant experience. what will your next success fee my husband and i own a growing beverage company. >> we rely on a e-commerce and digital tools to build our business and launch new products. thanks to american investments in ai, we're using this technology to run our business more efficiently. artificial intelligence is a game changer. but i'm excit