Who will reportedly be the first witness called by the prosecution . Lets talk about the trial this weekend. All weekend long. Twitter was going wild. Also ahead, it appears ukraine will finally get the critical funding it needs after the house passed a package of foreign aid bills which includes more Military Support for israel, as well. The bill now heads to the Senate Despite efforts by Marjorie Taylor greene, who got called out, yes, by the new york post. Kind of sums it up. It does. Good morning. It is monday, april 22nd. Welcome back the morning joe. Former aide to the Bush State Department and white house, elise jordan. From the american presidency at vanderbilt university, historian jon meacham. And financial editor at the financial times, ed luce is with us. Well get to the lead story in one moment, which are Opening Statements in Donald Trumps hush money trial. First, jon meacham, i dont want to ever be melodramatic on things like this, but that saturday vote was one that will be remembered for quite some time. It certainly will be remembered by our european allies who were beginning to question whether america was still in the fight for freedom. I think it was remarkable. I think that i know it may not be popular in a polarized time to say so, but i think the speaker of the house did exactly the right thing. There was a good New York Times piece about how he got there. If you read that piece, you see it was a case where he educated himself. He listened to people who knew more than he did. Did not prejudge it in the end. Its a reminder that, you know, so much of the time, if you actually take the effort to understand the complexities of something that seems simple, you get to a different place. Thats what we want in leadership and in citizenship. Yeah, we will ed luce, as we say here all time, meacham and i, of course, being from the south, protestants from the south, we take conversions anytime, anyplace, anywhere. If you want to go down to the river and pray, you do it, sir. Looks like mike johnson, at least on this one issue, stopped sounding like donald trump and started sounding like Ronald Reagan and dr. Brzezinski and others who have understood the danger of an aggressive russia. Yeah. I think it was not so much a come to jesus moment as a come to bill burns, the director of cia, moment. Clearly, the briefings Speaker Johnson Got were strong and shocking enough for him to realize that he would be on the wrong side of history if he didnt Do The Right Thing. He did do as jon said, he did Do The Right Thing, and he really deserves applause for that, even though it was several months too late. But the price hes going to pay for this is yet to be seen. You know, i do expect there will be some kind of motion to vacate soon. Well, the democrats most likely will support him in that. Well see what happens here. Elise, though, you know, its so fascinaing about these briefings that the speaker received. Made him understand that he really didnt have much of a choice if he wanted to do what was best for america, the best for western europe, the best for the west, the best for freedom. But we hear this from time to time from president s. Whether it was from when bill clinton was going into office, he got the briefing when barack obama was going into office, he was saying a few things on the Campaign Trail that he stopped saying after he had gotten forgive my language here but in the intel community, they call it the oh, shit briefing. Thats what he got. You look at the material before you, and you say those words and understand just how dangerous the world is out there and just what is required by american leaders to keep it safe. Bill burns is a legendary diplomat, and i would have loved to have been in that room for the meeting, as im sure we all would have, to learn and hear what really was his take on the stakes here. I do hope that the Biden Administration is doing whatever they can to push the ukrainians to not only to success, but to start seriously thinking about negotiations and what are going to have to be the concessions they want from putin. What are going to be the concessions theyre willing to make . If, at the end of the day, were funneling billions and billions without any end state in mind or strategy to lead to the end state, that does feed into what to her sides argument was, that there has to be some kind of strategy and some kind of end in sight, instead of just spending money on endless war. Well, i will say, inside the white house, the belief has been we need this money so we can move both sides toward a settlement. Without this money, putin goes wherever he wants to go. With this support, with the United States and europe behind zelenskyys fight, behind ukraines fight, thats the best hope of ending this war. I certainly agree with that assessment. It makes a lot of sense. I do want to say, yes, it was the cia directors briefing and other briefings that mike johnson got that, as we learned during Donald Trumps administration, being told the right thing to do, the responsibility thing to do, doesnt always lead leaders in this page of trump to doing it. Again, very grateful that mike johnson listened and came out, did the right thing. Made his own decision. Made his own decision, put his job on the line. What do we call that . Thats courage. Profile in courage. In this case, thats courage. Applause going up along the ukrainian line. Oh, my god. The russian invaders enraged that america was still there to fight. You know, i will say, the speaker also, ive got to say again, had chairman mccaul behind him, chairman turner, had other republican chairman stressing the importance, not just of pushing back on russia, but pushing back on xi and pushing back on kim jongun and pushing back on iran, and showing that america will be there. Message sent across the world on saturday. Cant overstate it. Well have much more with David Ignatius on this in a moment. Our other huge story this morning starts today. Opening statements set to begin this morning in former president Donald TrumpsCriminal Hush Money Trial. After Jury Selection wrapped up on friday, the 12person jury is made up of seven men and five women, along with six alternates. Later this morning, both the prosecution and the defense are expected to lay out their cases during Opening Statements. According to the New York Times, the Prosecution Plans to frame trumps actions of payments to keep Adult Film ActressStormy Daniels quiet about an alleged affair as election interference. The defense, meanwhile, will seize on three apparent weak points. Witness credibility, the president s culpability, and the cases legal complexity. One of the potential first witnesses expected to testify is david pecker, the former ceo of America Media incorporated, who bought and buried damaging stories about trump. Its called catch and kill. He is alleged to have worked with trump and his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to bury the Stormy Daniels story. Other witnesses expected to testify include Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, former trump aide hope hicks, and former playboy model Karen Mcdougal, who also alleged a sexual relationship with trump. And as former President Trump left court on friday, he continued to insist that he plans to testify in his own defense. Oh, joining us now, former litigator and msnbc Legal Correspondent lisa rubin. Also, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. Sorry about that, we thought wed hear trump. Obviously, weve heard what he has to say a thousand times. Lisa, what do we expect today . One of the first witnesses is david pecker, but do you expect that Opening Statements get finished today or just, technically, what are we looking for in terms of getting accomplished today in court . Mika, a lot of the judicial housekeeping youd expect to be taken care of before the trial really starts has all been brushed off judge merchans plate. Hes decided all the pretrial motions. We have a jury that has been sat. I expect that very soon after 9 30 this morning, we will get to Opening Statements. While neither of the parties has outlined exactly how long they will take, as danny knows better than anyone, an Opening Statement is your opportunity to preview your case for the jury. And while you want to do that in a way that gives them an overview, you also dont want to exhaust them. I expect that neither side will take more than roughly 60 to 70 minutes. That means that we will have time to get to the first witness who, as you noted, is expected to be former chairman of American Media and the National Enquirers david pecker. Where are we on jurors these days . Two had to leave. There were only six spae spares begin with. Do we have only four spares . How many do we have left, and are they sequestered . Can you talk a little bit about how they are being managed, so to speak, during this process, as all this intense scrutiny, and theres so much press surrounding it. Right. The two jurors that we lost were replaced that same day leading to a total of 12 jurors who have been seated. In addition to that, we have six alternates. The jurors, however, are not sequestered, elise. There have been accommodations made to assure their anonymity. However, we dont know, for example, what provisions are being taken to get them to the courthouse for their departure from the courthouse, what the Lunch Provisions are. In federal court in the e. Jean carroll trials, both those juries were not only anonymous, but steps were taken to ensure that, for example, they didnt come directly from their home to the courthouse. They met the u. S. Marshals at an offsite location and then were brought to the courthouse underground so nobody would see their comings and goings. Im hopeful that judge merchan is able to make some similar provisions for the jurors in this case so that they can remain protected throughout the duration of the trial. Heres the thing, i think it could be a problem. Last week, we lost projur two j before the trial began. You lose jurors during a trial. I lost them. They fell asleep. They dont follow the judges orders. But you dont normally lose a juror after the moment theyre selected and between that and the time that the trial actually begins because, ordinarily, nothing happens during that time. But in this case, you have an example where a juror goes home, they start really thinking about their duty and what this is going to entail, they come back and say, you know what, i dont want to do this anymore. By the way, thats also something that happens from time to time. Ive had it in organized crime cases. You have jurors who come up to the judge and say, ill do anything. Please, i do not want to be on this jury. Im afraid. Thats not obviously the same situation here, but you do have jurors who are going to have second thoughts. The question becomes, will six alternates will enough to cover this trial . I hope so. But if what weve seen so far, if thats the rate of loss of jurors, two before we even start the trial, that could be a real problem. That could lead to a mistrial, which in, i think, the defenses view, is a win. Even though it doesnt mean you start the trial again in a year or Something Like that. Normally, the Court Schedules the retrial as soon as they possibly can, but, yeah, Juror Attrition is going to be a real issue in this case. Again, i couldnt agree more with lisa. Opening statements are not going to be all day. Look for an hour from the prosecution and probably less from the defense. Because all theyre doing today is offering a preview. Youll hear this probably many times. The evidence will show that dot, dot, dot. The evidence will show that dot, dot, dot. Its really just a promise to the jurors of what the facts will show. If youre the defense, you do not want to be making a lot of promises. For example, you will not hear the words, youre going to hear from the defendant himself. Because if you make that promise, nobody is going to forget it. So they will say, i expect, the prosecution will try to focus on what theyve already seated the jury on, which is, youll hear from some people that are not that credible. But theyre not credible because theyre Donald Trumps friends. On the defense side, youll probably hear a version of, try to keep an open mind. The evidence is not all in. We dont have the burden. Just sort of the standard fair, but youre not going to see anything as flashy, anything as dramatic, as exciting as were going to see during closing arguments. This is only going to be a preview, and it will not take the entire day at all. Interesting. You know, as danny said, in mob cases, there are jurors that will tell the judge theyre afraid for their safety and want to get off. He said this isnt exactly like that, but, really, it is in many cases, in that a lot of the jurors are fearful of repercussions if theyre in on a jury thats impaneled that rules against donald trump. I mean, because they want their names the judge trying to keep the names from getting out there, but, over time, this is very dangerous and tough. In this trial, everybody is under duress. Donald trumps past statements, even with the gag order, about the judge, the judges daughter, with the jury, everybody is under a great deal of stress and concerned about their safety. I would add that it is donald trump, no matter which way this goes, that you have to keep your eye on. Donald trump right now is enduring something that hes never had to endure in his entire life. He has to be somewhere every day and do what he is told. When he is told to sit down by the judge, he has to sit down. That happened on friday at least once. When he tries to get on his phone, he is told to get off of his phone. He has to be there watching his former friends, david pecker, hope hicks, and two alleged former lovers testifying for or against him. This is not what hes used to. This is a guy, as we look at pictures of donald trump here, this is a guy, jon meacham, that has spent his entire life creating this warped reality. That goes wherever his mind wants it to go. Keeping people around him that allows him to avoid reality. Keeping people around him that does exactly what he wants to do. He was so proud of having a button on his white house desk. He goes, press the button, and somebody brings in diet coke. He loves the complete control and command, and he has his entire life. Now, hes sitting down six, seven, eight hours a day, and at 78 years old. 78 years old, judge telling him what to do, being mocked, getting angry about that. Yeah, this is quite New Territory. New territory for donald trump. And, arguably, no american in history has so warped everyone elses reality, as well, right . I mean, its not simply his imaginative universe. He has imposed his imaginative universe, his grievances, his vision of enemies versus himself on everyone. Were living in this warped reality. One thing about the last couple of weeks and about these images that i think maybe this isnt a particularly popular thing to say, but this is actually a somewhat reassuring set of images. It suggests that there is something more important than one single man and the will of one single man. That is the rule of law. He is submitting himself to the legal processes of the country, and it should remind people, not of his victimhood, but the thomas paine incite, that we dont have a king. In america, the law is king. What were seeing in the new york courthouse, however tawdry the narrative around it is, the facts of the case, that doesnt matter. What matters the law itself is supreme. Its not just about the appetites and ambitions of one person. Lisa, theres more coming in other courtrooms pertaining to donald trump. Also today, a hearing in former President Trumps civil fraud case. Remember that . On friday, new York Attorney general Letitia James asked a judge to void the bond trump secured so he can appeal the decision. James is questioning whether the company that issued the 175 million bond has the funds to back it up. Lisa, whats the mash shes doing here, and is it possible the bond could be voided . If it is voided, what happens . Lets start with if it is voided, what happens . The current bond would stay in place until donald trump posts new security, either by posting 175 million and putting it in escrow with the court himself or finding another bond company. One of the things that Tish James Has said here is that Donald Trumps folks have hid the ball, that they did have an offer from don hinkie, who is the insurer here, to cover all of the bond had it remained at 454 million plus, but they never told the court that. Instead, what they told the court was, we have 30 different Bond Companies we went out to, and none of them would cover the entirety of it. So lets start with today, what judge engoron has to decide, is whether this existing 175 million bond is sufficient. The ags office is saying, no, its not, for a few reasons. One, this isnt a company thats licensed to do business in the state of new york. Two, theyve never issued a surety bond in new york. T