Good afternoon, so good to be with you. Im jose diazbalart in for katy tur. This is just the beginning. It has been a historic day inside the manhattan courthouse. Both sides completed their Opening Statements in Donald Trumps criminal Hush Money Trial. The prosecution, Zeroing In OnDonald Trumps alleged attempts to interfere with the 2016 election saying they have receipts that prove the former president , quote, covered up a criminal experience by lying in his new York Business records over and over and over again. Now, the defense meanwhile says that former president simply didnt do anything wrong. Quote, theres nothing wrong with trying to influence an election, todd blanche told jurors, its called democracy. We heard from our first witness in the trial. Trumps long time friend and former ceo of the National Enquirer, david pecker, a man at the center of the alleged scheme to bury claims from women who say they had affairs with donald trump. Well tell you what he said and what his testimony today might prove because remember, while a big part of the defenses job is to poke holes in d. A. Alvin braggs case, lawyers for the state actually have to back up every single thing theyre putting before these jurors. So lets break this all down, and were also going to look into what happens next. Joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. Good to see you outside that courthouse, where you have been all day now. Bring us up to speed on what happened today. Reporter it was a shortened day inside of this courtroom, namely because one juror had a dentist appointment, and passover led the courts to determine it was going to have an earlier afternoon. Those four hours inside of the courtroom did not lack tension, and what you heard in Opening Statements from the prosecution was the intent to tell a story, Beginning In August of 2015, two months after donald trump announced his president , which david pecker met At Trump Tower with Michael Cohen, and donald trump, to find stories that may come out before the 2016 election, salacious ones like the ones of Stormy Daniels, purchased the stories and ensured their silence so that they never got to the public before the 2016 election. And then in 2017, that donald trump knowingly was reimbursing Michael Cohen for that 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. The prosecution made it clear theyre going to have a litany of witnesses from Stormy Daniels to Michael Cohen himself. David pecker, he took the stand for just over 30 minutes. He is expected on the stand tomorrow. On the other hand, the defense laid it out in a different way. Starting out right at the top with the declaration that donald trump committed no crime, and you may hear a salacious story from the likes of Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels who Donald Trumps defense made clear that you should question the credibility of. But instead, they focused on what the actual charges against donald trump are. And they were the falsification of business records. And Donald Trumps attorneys making clear to the jury that donald trump did not commit a crime and this was an issue over a Business Ledger and donald trump, in fact, as the ledger shows was just paying Michael Cohen, not to reimburse Stormy Daniels but for legal services. All of this will lead to tomorrow when david pecker is expected to take a stand again. Notably also the Gag Order Hearing tomorrow morning. The prosecution has asked the judge to punish donald trump for violating the gag order. Notably when donald trump left the courthouse today, what did he do is this he attacked one of the witnesses, Michael Cohen. This will come down to the determination of judge merchan over whether donald trump actually violated the gag order and any consequences that may follow. Vaughn hillyard, thank you so much. Joining us now, former assistant District Attorney for the manhattan d. A. s office and msnbc legal analyst, catherine christian, and legal analyst, danny cevallos. Were going to be talking about david pecker and the other witnesses expected on the case tomorrow. I want to start with the opening remarks today. Both by the prosecution and the defense. Prosecution about 45 minutes, almost to the exact second, 30 seconds into it. The defense was supposed to do 25 minutes, ended up 35 minutes. There were some interruptions. How did you see both sides today . They both did their job. The prosecutor is supposed to be the facts, they gave a complete narrative, chronological. The Opening Statement for the prosecutor is a detailed preview of the evidence. I call it the table of contents, and they did that. They laid it out. It was very straightforward. Not emotional. The lead prosecutor is not an emotional person. I thought they did their job. The defense i have heard some critique. I thought the defense did their job. If they have nothing to prove, where the prosecutor has to connect the dots, the defense, theres no connecting of dots, this is huey. Both sides did their job. The fact that people said there were objections against the defense, that happens. I rarely objected as a prosecutor. I didnt want the jury to think i was trying to hide anything. Clearly if its objectionable, we object. But we shouldnt read into the fact that there was objections during that. Even though it is relatively rare, right . I would say its not rare. Depends on who the Defense Attorney is. If youve tried a lot of cases, its not rare. To me its no big deal. Its something that happens. And danny, how did you see both sides . I agree. And i predicted that these were going to be pretty straightforward openings. The prosecution was doing Opening Statement 101, walking through the facts that they intended to prove. A lot of bad things can happen during Opening Statements. You have to be careful. You never want to make a promise that you will introduce evidence you end up not producing and if youre on the defense, one of the things youll never hear is youll hear from the defendant that because you have no idea if youre going to call the defendant. The defense here does not have the burden. I didnt expect a very long Opening Statement because whey dont want to make any promises. This seems like a case at the end of the day, theyre going to rely heavily on the Burden Of Proof and presumption of innocence. Their strategy appears to be call everybody a lying liar, which is an acceptable defense strategy. Early in the morning, kind of laid out the differences that the jury would be having access to if donald trump testifies. Thats called a sandoval hearing, and he gave a very fair ruling. The prosecutor wanted to cross examine him about that he was found liable for Sexual Assault. The judge said no. Cant prosecute him that he was found liable for business records. He can be cross examined about his honest, two times made false statements against e. Jean carroll, and that he inflated his assets. The judge basically are allowing them, if trump testifies, the prosecutors to cross examine. Things that go to his dishonesty. And how unusual is that aspect, not that it was the former president. Its unusual that defendants testify, but this is a usual order ruling from a fair judge. Danny, lets talk evidence. We know the access Hollywood Tape was barred from being played by jurors. The prosecutor quoted trump today. And referenced one of the 2016 recordings immediate by cohen. Lets play some of that. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david so im going to do that right way. Give it to me. Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding its all the stuff. Because you never know where that company, im all over that. I spoke to allen about it. When it comes time for the financing. Listen, what finance something. Well have to pay pay with cash. No, no, no. How important do you think this specific piece of evidence is . Very important. And like many times when you tape two people, suspects, defendants, who are talking, they often speak in code. This happens all the time. The code is obviously to pak things harder to understand. If anyone to hear it or be taping it as was this case, but code is not something thats insurmountable. Theyll call an agent in Federal Court and say im an expert in code. This is what those mgic words mean. This can be damaging if the people can explain it in a way that the jury can understand whats going on. Theres been a whole lot made of the fact that Michael Cohen is not a credible witness. That may not be as big of a problem for the people if they can corroborate the evidence with documents or someone like david peckers testimony, who i think might emerge as the real star witness for the people. Maybe not so much Michael Cohen, but david becker. Someone outside the system who doesnt have as much baggage as a Michael Cohen. Their stories match up, along with the documents that match the stories. Its not unusual to have recordings, right, especially when you have a criminal case where things could have been budding. You know, but one of the witnesses recorded it on his own, and for his own reasons. That is different and unusual. Thats different. But as danny said, it happens. Particularly if you have a witness is afraid they may be caught one day, and he wants to say this is what happened. You notice in that tape, a good Defense Attorney can cross examine. Cohen says i got this. Their whole selfdefense lakes by donald trump hands off. This was all Michael Cohen. That will play into the defense. Catherine, danny, stay with me. Weve got a lot more to learn from you both of you in this hour. Up next, what more we could hear from david pecker and why the former National Enquirer publisher was the first witness on the stand. What are voters thinking . The impact trumps legal troubles could have on his standing in the polls with the president ial election just around the corner. Rising concerns over protests at columbia city. What the city is prepared to do if things continue to escalate. Were back in 90 seconds. O escae were back in 90 seconds and longlasting gain scent beads. Part of the irresistible scent collection from gain a test or approve a medication. We didnt have to worry about any of those things thanks to the donations. And our family is forever grateful because its completely changed our lives. Try killing bugs the worryfree way. Not the other way. Zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. They work continuously, so you dont have to. Zevo. Peoplefriendly. Bugdeadly. Back with us is catherine christian, and critical Defense Attorney and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos. Lets talk a little bit about, i dont know, lets play games. When were talking about the possibility of donald trump testifying, he has said in the past just recently that he wanted to testify and today they talked about that possibility and what that could mean for the case. Whats the any positive aspect for trump to testify . For centuries now, criminal Defense Attorneys have always been risk averse, and ordinarily, it is just too risky to put your client on the stand. They never know as much as the prosecutors and there are tons of bad things that can happen. After all, once the jury loses faith in a particular witness including your client, and they dont believe him, then youre pretty much sunk. But i happen to think x im sure im in the minority, there is a decent chance that donald trump will testify. Number one, he believes he is smarter than anyone in the room. Number two, criminal Defense Attorneys will tell you their clients in white collar cases, i dont know why, but very particular to white collar cases, they believe they have an explanation for everything. They believe the prosecution is a big misunderstanding and if they can just take the stand, they can clear up all of the misunderstanding. It is a dangerous way of thinking, and arguably its a way of thinking that made them white collar criminal defendants in the first place, so because donald trump has an absolute right to testify and because he may view this as a lost cause anyway, and may use it as a pulpit for a broader audience than the jury, we might see donald trump testify. Part of me is doing this because everybody is betting the other way, and i want to make it interesting. You really think theres a possibility . Lets look at high profile cases recently. Maybe things are changing. In a lot of high profile cases, criminal defendants are actually take the stand. Sometimes they lose, sometimes they win. Sometimes the facts are horrible and it doesnt matter when you take the stand. This is a singular case. Donald trump believes he can overcome anything or he may just think he has absolutely nothing to lose. He has the constitutional right to testify no matter what his attorneys tell him not to do. This is someone who in the past has said hes the expert on expertise. He, you know, is very conscious of the fact, for him, that he knows more than anybody else. Do you think thats a possibility . Its a possibility. It will be determined by how well the prosecutions witnesses are. If the crossexamination of Michael Cohen is a dud, it might be a hail mary. If his lawyers say this is going good for us, why mess it up, so its going to be determined on how well the prosecutors witnesses are on the stand. So, what, danny, are you looking for tomorrow with david pecker. Its going to be his first full day of testimony. Prosecutors often march chronologically through the case, and they are setting the stage. The mere fact that theyre calling him first is they think hes a strong witness. Theyre going to open with a bang and set the stage. Act one, you have these alleged coconspirators getting together, and they would catch and kill stories. The prosecution is going to tell a tale. Something the jury can digest. David pecker, once he gets into the meat of the testimony is going to Start Talking about this arrangement. How it worked, what they would do, who you would call and who in the case of Stormy Daniels, who called who and who talked about what. This is why david pecker may be arguably a more important witness than Michael Cohen. David pecker may have credibility issues as well, but for all the of the attacking Michael Cohens credibility, david pecker is going to introduce not only the documents but how the documents were generated, how the communications went down, how this entire catch and kill scheme was orchestrated and who was behind it. And by the way, he is and was Donald Trumps friend. We may hear about conversations that he had with donald trump. The key for the people here is they have to show Donald Trumps intent. They have the checks. The checks have the signatures on them. They have the documents. They have to defeat the defenses argument, im the head of the corporation, i sign the checks. I see no evil, hear no evil. Thats a good example of what pecker can bring to the conversation as opposed to cohen. He was one of the three men in the meeting when the whole scheme, according to prosecutors, were set up. Catherine christian and danny cevallos, thank you so much. Really great seeing you. I appreciate you. Up next, well rewind back to 2018, when news first broke of an alleged Hush Money Payment to Stormy Daniels. What dump said back then and how his lawyers are using a similar defense today. Ing a similar defense toy. Da with so many choices on booking. Com there are so many tina feys i could be. So i hired body doubles to help me out. Splurgy tina loves a hotel near rodeo drive. Oh tina wild tina booked a farm stay to ride this horse. Glenn close . with millions of possibilities you can book whoever you want to be. Thats my line booking. Com booking. 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