Orchestrated a Scheme To Corrupt the 2016 election. Whats next for Speaker Mike Johnson now that the house is passed aid for ukraine. We are days away from Supreme Court arguments on trumps Immunity Claim. This case is National Security. The 11th hour gets underway this monday night. Here we go. Good evening, once again. I am Stephanie Ruhle and we are 197 days away from the election. We are not talking about the election today, Opening Statements got underway in Donald Trumps first criminal trial. The former president was forced to sit in silence as lawyers from the Manhattan District Attorneys Office alleged he and his allies were part of a conspiracy to influence a 2016 election. The goal, negative stories about trump so voters would never see them. Trumps lawyers said he had no involvement in coverups and there was nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. Laura jarrett was in court and has the details. Reporter tonight prosecutors painting a stark portrait of former President Trump and their Opening Statements during his hush money trial. Egg case mr. Trump has argued is designed to derail his campaign. This is done is Election Interference. Reporter prosecutors said its mr. Trump who is guilty of Election Interference by Paying Off Adult Film Star To Silencer before the 2016 election, telling the jury, this case is about a criminal conspiracy to bury a story that couldve cost him the presidency, and then lying in Business Records over and over again to cover it up. The alleged scheme stretches back to 2015, meeting at trump tower between mr. Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen and david the publisher of the National Enquirer. This is where prosecutors say the trio hatched a plot of the tabloid to buy and bury any damaging stories about trump, its known as catch and kill. Prosecutors say it was the release of the access Hollywood Tape that turned the campaign upside down in october 2016. The lead prosecutor reading mr. Trumps most incendiary remarks from that video for the jury today. Arguing the former president was so desperate to contain the damage with female voters, he directed Michael Cohen to pay off Stormy Daniels so she could not go public about a sexual encounter. Its not the hush money itself that he is charge within the trial. Its how thenPresident Trump documented his monthly Reimbursement Payments to Michael Cohen on Company Records as legal expenses. Prosecutors telling the product dashed jury, it was election fraud, pure and simple. Mr. Trump is not facing conspiracy or campaignfinance violations. Something the defense sought to highlight today saying the payments to cohen were for legal expenses, arguing there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. Its called democracy. Not a crime. Former National Enquirer publisher and longtime friend of donald trump david was the first witness called by the prosecution. Testified briefly about what he called using Checkbook Journalism to pay for stories. He is expected to continue his testimony tomorrow. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies having any relationship with Stormy Daniels. We need help here tonight. Lets get smarter with our leadoff panel. A political investigation reporter for the guardian, he has been at the courthouse covering the trial. And a pulitzer prizewinning Investigative Reporter for the New York Times and it covers the trump family and business interest. My old friend, Department Of Justice former acting soliciting general and legal analyst, hugo, you get first dibs because you were in the courtroom today of everything you heard and saw inside and outside, what was your, what stuck out to you. How badly the day went for trump. I think his lawyer struggled. It was notable because the state put on a convincing Opening Statement. In particular what Todd Blanche Ran into his he could not say what does client wanted him to say. The defense did not charge the case so he was last having to say things like, its President Trump. He has earned his title. We should refer to him as President Trump. Who cares . Its a criminal trial and the argument hes making is how to refer to trump . What we call him by name . That was his big moment . He let up with it. Everyone in the courthouse looked around and thought, is a really going with this argument . Eventually segued into saying trump was ignorant of this and could not be held accountable because it was Michael Cohens doing and he never signed off the chest dashed checks. The one argument he did not make was this idea of how voters were not deprived of any information before the 2016 election because they would not have been privy to the trump organizations records in the first place. That never came up. You have been following every step of this since day one. What was your take away . Similar to hugo. I think the trump Opening Statement fell really flat. There were three arguments the Opening Statement made. One, it was not trumps idea but Michael Cohens idea to do all of this. Michael cohen took out a Home Equity Loan of thousands upon thousands of dollars on his home in order to pay off Stormy Daniels. No lawyer does that. The idea that he wouldve done it on his own out of the goodness of his own heart or something, early implausible. You put on the screen before trumps lawyer statement that theres nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. Its called democracy. Thats legally a totally bogus argument because influencing an election is sometimes legal or illegal. If you bribe someone to vote for you, thats illegal even though its influencing the election. Trump is accused of trying to hide the gifts essentially to him and avoid the transparency that the campaignfinance laws require. Thats a crime every day of the week. Third, he says, well, these payments are for purely legal expenses. Legitimate legal expenses. That, i think, is going to be a problem we will hear about the next month as the trial goes forward. As an attorney, the last thing you want to do is overpromise in your Opening Statement and tell the jury, the evidence will show something and then it doesnt turn out to show it. Thats when you blow your credibility. Harry made this point earlier today, who is the witness who will testify that these payments were for legitimate legal expenses. Its unthinkable. I think a poor way to start which is why trump has always been scared of not just the other trials but this trial in particular. David, what do you think . I am struck by how this trial has given us something i didnt think we would ever see. Trump does not use email or create a paper trail that shows what his thinking or what he did. He makes decisions in a room with a small number of loyal is. Family members and people who have been with them forever. Thats why its a hard nut to crack to explain his motivations in a court of law or newspaper story. You had to get one of those few people in that circle with him. Now they have that, Michael Cohen, he has been with jumper every three series of moves trump made while president. He turned him into a witness for the prosecution. We will hear in the courtroom somebody say there were three people in the room but i was one of them. With david we were two of them. I didnt think we would see that, that person turning on trump. When the defense has their witnesses, who is donald trump going to have . This family man who supposedly, according to Donald Trumps team, was protecting his family. None of his Family Members showed up in court to be with him. It was Lawrence Odonnell earlier who said even jeffrey dahmer, his mom and dad, they came to court every day of his trial. If the only people who were in trumps inner circle, the likes of Michael Cohen or david what about his family . They are not in court. Will they be Defense Witnesses . I dont think they are. Donald trump jr. Mightve been involved a little in this transaction as it was the books and covered up. I dont think they were privy to this, and i do not see them calling them to make a case this was something good. What they will rely on is the trump team will rely on the idea that theres a bunch of. Ca but we dont know enough to connect them or say it was trumps intent which you need is a nonlawyer, you need to prove this case. Neal, do you think the jury notices that donald trump is a man standing alone . We see other defendants show up with all sorts of Family Members and support to try to gain sympathy with the jury. Will it impact the jury in any way that nobody has shown up for trump as of yet . I am not sure the spectators will make a huge difference. I think a closely related point which is the witnesses against trump, light people like david and Michael Cohen, these are people trump hired or paid. Yes, trumps strategies Michael Cohen has no strategy. A by to a court, but he is trys criminal. He is the guy trump brought in to start this in the first place. I think the jury at the end of the day will be left with, every person that seems to surround donald trump is a criminal or a liar or scoundrel or all of the above. In a way that will rub off on donald trump. I think that dynamic is definitely going to be at play. Theres a lot of charges here. 34 different counts. Thats a big indictment. 34 is so huge. Superlong double album from taylor swift only as 31 tracks. Its an amazing record by the way. There is a lot going on in this criminal trial and today we started to see the Prosecution Layout the first three key elements that trump paid off the doorman, he paid off one National Enquirer story, now is paying off another with Stormy Daniels. Lets talk about david former publisher, owner of the National Enquirer and a number of other magazines. He has known and been entangled with donald trump for decades. He is the king of new york tabloids and nobody loves to be splashed across those tabloids or have bad stories hidden more than donald trump. The fact that he is the first witness for the prosecution, what did he tell the jury today . And has trump said we know he goes bad on Michael Cohen yesterday. What has he said about david theyve been friends and allies for decades. It was interesting because at trial you start with their most important witness and end with your strongest typically. This gave us a witness of where this is going and it was telling from the Opening Statement from the prosecution that they wanted to link this directly to the election. The whole groundwork leading up to david was trump ended this catch and kill for the campaign. It was to attack political opponents. It was for david and this is clearly where its going. David was asked how we operated and orchestrated the catch and kill schemes. Over 10,000 that editors had to ask him if they could spend that kind of money on sources and try to get stories. He will narrate the entirety of the relationship between trump and him and the National Enquirer and thats why it makes them important. The prosecution is hoping he will be that narrator, neal . Absolutely. I think the aim of the prosecution and its chronologically, you start with david because he is negotiating early with trump even well before his he is president to adopt this catch and kill strategy, Checkbook Journalism is how it was referred to today. Everyone would love to have newspapers in catch and kill situations. If you are a candidate or high official or corporate ceo or whatever, biden would love, im sure, to have someone buying every story about his son and making it so none of them could be published. That is with david did here. I think we will see more from him. He testified for A Nano Second Today because one of the jurors had a dental problem. Its the next day or two that we will see that testimony come out. Former National EnquirerExecutive Editor was on air earlier and i want to share what he said about david he will be the star witness of this case. And, why the prosecution will be relying on him. He can set the table here. Going back to that meeting at trump tower in 2015 two months after donald trump goes down the escalator where they have this meeting comments Michael Cohen and trump and david and where david said he will be the eyes and ears of the campaign. Purchased negative stories of the market and run negative stories about your rivals. Tell us more about this relationship. I remember in 2017 went Donald Trumps daughter and his wife, and the two were disappointed and furious that the likes of Vogue Magazine were not writing Glamour Stories about them in the white house. What did david do . He bought us weekly and turned it into a lifestyle magazine, a platform to showcase the trump family in the white house. Talk how these two men know each other and have been essentially in business for decades. This is an ugly set of journalism. I should emphasize that set the way we do journalism. We dont buy stories to kill them or publish them. Thats the way the National Enquirer worked and how it worked for years. There were instances where the killed negative stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was running for governor. They did it for tiger woods to get a good interview with tiger woods. They buried a story about him. Its been going on a long time and the world trump lived in for years. The new york tabloids. It was a longterm relationship. You can see that david says we will formalize this. Doing it informally and now we will formalize it and i will do it to benefit your campaign because i want the access and power and the stories that i will get out of that. I think my publication and he personally will benefit if you rise so i will find stories of will hurt you and make sure nobody else sees them. Neal, trumps lawyers are denying there was any relationship between donald trump and stephanie clifford, a. K. A. Stormy daniels. How did they do that without donald trump taking the stand . Very hard. The prosecution has to prove that to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution bears the burden, but as long as they introduce testimony that says so, it will be hard to rebut that in the minds of the jury. Its true that donald trump has a Fifth Amendment right, of course, not to have to testify. Whatever thought he mightve had about testifying, i think it was destroyed this morning because the judge known as the sandoval ruling, told mr. Trump that if you do testify, everything is fair game, basically, from the new York Attorney generals civil suit against you and all the things you were found liable there. The lying you engaged in in court when it comes to the gag order. What happened with e. Jean carroll. Although that can come out as part of crossexamination. He will not testify. I suspect they will not spend much time on this claim that there was no relationship because, there are tapes here. Michael cohen audiotape donald trump telling him to go pay off Stormy Daniels. Maybe he just wanted out of the goodness of his heart to give her hundreds of thousands of dollars, but i suspect Something Else was going on and thus it jury was suspected as much. This Gag Order Hearing tomorrow, what do you think is going to come of this . Is the judge really going to send donald trump to jail, whether or not we know if it was a regular old defended, given how hes conducted himself they would, but what will happen here . In a regular defendant, you were me, did what donald trump is doing terrifying so flagrantly this gag order would be looking at a 30 day jail sentence. Jailing trumps heart for this judge to do right now. Particularly, because the jury has been in pendleton this highly consequential case. Thats why the prosecutors instead of asking for about 30 days in jail thats allowed under the law have asked really