A live report from the Courthouse Steps in a moment. Protesters broke into a building on columbias campus overnight. What they are demanding today and what action the university is threatening in response. Israel puts a new ceasefire proposal on the table. Will hamas take it . Good to be with you. Im katy tur. Andrea mitchell is traveling with Antony Blinken in The Middle East as he tried for a seventh time to get israel and hamas to agree on a hostage deal. Why this one could work in a moment. Here in new york, judge merchan is getting blunt with donald trump. Continue violating the gag order and go to jail, he says. Merchan ruled that nine of Donald Trumps social media posts stepped over the line, fining him 9,000. But also concedes that more needs to be on the table to deter someone of Donald Trumps wealth. Defendant is hereby warned that the court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose incarceration. Judge merchan will consider four more alleged violations thursday. First, there has been more testimony today. A banker is off the stand. Now on the stand, another lesser known witness. First, it was the head of cspans archives. Now a man who produces court documents. Eric trump is in the courtroom today. The first member of the trump family to make an appearance at this Hush Money Trial. He is in the gallery just behind his father. Vaughn hillyard joins me from outside the courthouse and Catherine Christian and former u. S. Attorney chuck rosenberg. Vaughn, a third fact witness. Tell me what you are hearing from the transcripter. Reporter three witnesses and its not lunchtime. After david pecker took three days to himself, the District Attorneys Office is bringing in new witnesses. Two of the names in the last hour we had to quickly search who they were. One was the archivist for cspan videos. He worked for cspan for 37 years. He is out of indiana. The d. A. s Office Brought him in authenticate two Campaign Rally speeches from october of 2016, for donald trump, as well as a Press Conference from january of 2017, shortly before donald trump was sworn in, in which he praised Michael Cohen as a great lawyer. He brought the cspan archivist was able to authenticate that they were real and accurate. Now he there is the regional director of this transcript this Deposition Company thats authenticating the Deposition Video that donald trump took part in as part of the e. Jean carroll trial. That video, the transcript was from october of 2022. This individual, who was thrown in by the District Attorneys Office from texas, is now authenticating that that transcript is accurate and unedited. For the District Attorneys Office, we should expect them to wrap with the witness in short order before they bring on their next witness. Do we have an idea when we will get a more high profile witness, hope hicks or Michael Cohen . Reporter not athis time. We are waiting to see if the District Attorneys Office could allow the defense or the public at large, give them a heading up about potential witnesses here. Thats outstanding. We know that Michael Cohen was spotted at his Attorneys Office just this morning. Theres no indication that he is going to be called soon here. Its just sort of a waiting for the prosecution to bring open up the doors and bring up the next witness to take the stand. Donald trump was found to have violated his gag order, 9,000 in fines, a few more violations considered on thursday. The threat of incarceration. Has there been any reaction from trump world to what judge merchan said and ruled today . Reporter we are waiting to hear from donald trump directly when he hits in from lunch break, when he addresses the hallway cameras. We are waiting to see if judge merchan would rule on those alleged violations. When donald trump walked in this morning, clearly, he was not anticipated it. Then thats when judge merchan found he violated nine of the ten alleged social media posts to have violated his court order. Now, you read in judge merchans order there suggesting that under state New York State orders, that he is not able is not within his discretion to increase the fine amount. Thats why it was just 1,000 per violation. He said that it could lead him, if donald trump were to violate again, to consider possible jail as a consequence for him to ensure that he is at least tempted to not violate the gag order in attacking not only the witnesses but also by discussing openly and publically the jury in this trial. Whats your reaction to this ruling and threat from the judge this morning . It was right we were waiting for it. Its about time. The judge gave himself wiggle room. Everyone who looks at it, he was fined 1,000 apiece, 9,000, saying the next time he will be incarcerated. Thats not what the judge said. He said, if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, incarceration might be necessary if theres more flagrant violations from donald trump. The judge gave himself some wiggle room in case donald trump once again posts something that attacks a witness or a juror. Its a very strong order. Donald trumps lawyers, im sure, are taking it seriously. I dont know whether mr. Trump is. But he should take it seriously. The judge has held it out that incarceration might happen if theres another and if its a willful violation of the order. Chuck, how do you incarcerate a former president who has a secret Service Detail . With difficulty. I mean, logistically, its problematic. Its not impossible. My understanding is that Court Officials and corrections officials have been discussing the possibility and planning for it. I think catherine makes an important point. The judge didnt commit himself to incarceration if theres another violation. The judge indeed left himself some wiggle room. Judges dont order dont issue orders for the fun of it. They issue orders so that they will be abided, they will be followed. If mr. Trump can conform his behavior, then the whole issue becomes moot and nobody is going to jail as a result of contempt. If necessary and appropriate, its possible there are other ways do it. You can find, for instance, that mr. Trump would be confined to his home. In theory, be incarcerated there. Its not something a judge wants to do. Its not something any judge wants to do. My hope is that mr. Trump will conform his behavior, if past is prologue, perhaps it wasnt. Its a political hot potato. A logistic hot potato as well. Vaughn, i asked when we will get a more high profile witness. The Court Transcriber is off the stand. Here we are a more high profile witness. Reporter Keith Davidson is a player in all of this. The questions of what he could publically testify to are going to be so prudent here for the District Attorneys Office in showing this jury here that this was a scheme that was concocted and understood by multiple individuals. Keith davidson was the attorney, a highprofile attorney working for not only Karen Mcdougal in 2016 but also Stormy Daniels. He was the one who allegedly went to Michael Cohen as well as the editor and chief of the National Enquirer in david pecker on behalf of Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels to arrange the payments. He worked with david pecker and the editor for the National Enquirer to secure that 150,000 payment for Karen Mcdougal. In october of 2016, he was the one just two weeks before the 2016 election that worked on that 130,000 Wire Transfer for Michael Cohen to him on behalf of Stormy Daniels. He is the one who was so intrinsically aware of this alleged scheme to the point that he was the one negotiating the selling of the stories of Karen Mcdougal and stormy mcdaniels. In early october, he was the one who allegedly engaged with Michael Cohen and with the National Enquirer that Stormy Daniels was interested in going public with her stormry. At that point in time, the a law firm he owns is his employment, civil litigation, media cases, sexual abuse. Between 2003 and 2017, he says at that time i was involved in media cases and nondisclosure agreements and the like. Describing what a nondisclosure agreement is. Catherine, give me more insight from your legal background into what he will be really focused on here with Keith Davidson. What the prosecution are doing are putting all the pieces together. I wouldnt be surprised, though i have no inside knowledge, that miss daniels might follow her lawyer. You have the banker. This is all corroboration. Corroborating Michael Cohen. You can believe Michael Cohen when he says that he took 130,000 line of credit and he created this llc and then he wired it to mr. Davidson. Why . Because mr. Pharaoh explained how and mr. Davidson explained how. Miss daniels explained how. Its very important to put all of these people to corroborate Michael Cohen. Outline the conspiracy to promote Donald Trumps election by unlawful means which is what the Prosecution Theory is for that additional crime that would elevate the falsifying Business Records to a felony. He is very important. He negotiated with Michael Cohen. Vaughn, going from what catherine mentioned, has there been any sightings of Stormy Daniels today outside of the courthouse . Reporter no, not at this point in time. We have received no word about Stormy Daniels being seen. Shes been public about her documentary that was released on peacock just about a month ago here ahead of this trial. Outside of that, she has had social media posts, but we have not seen her publically outside of the social media posts promoting the documentary and talking about the documentary and talking about tangents of this case. But we have not seen her publicly. She has not conducted any other interviews that were aware of in recent weeks either. She would be a high profile spotting. There are reporters out there looking for her. We will see if she comes in soon or maybe she went through a side door nobody happened to be watching. Chuck, let me ask you one more question about elevating this to the felony. Catherine was mentioning about how Keith Davidson is integral to get this from a falsifying records case to a felony election interference violation. Explain more on that. Sure. Under New York State law, merely keeping false books and records, writing false invoices, making false ledger entries, its a misdemeanor. It has to be in search of some other crime to be a felony. Here what the District Attorney has alleged is that the false records were done in order to conceal or to help commit Campaign Finance violations and tax law violations. To do that, the prosecutors have to show that was the intent. In other words, the goal wasnt just to make false entries in your ledger. It was to cover up some other crime. All of these witnesses, as they come on the stand, those who have spoken to cohen or perhaps better for the prosecutors, those who have spoken to trump, like cohen himself, can help explain to the jury what the goal actually was, not just to make false entries, not just to falsify the books and records, but to do something else, to conceal campaign violations, to commit election fraud. If the government can establish that, then those misdemeanors become felonies. A little bit more from the transcript that were getting directly from the courthouse. This is a google document. Its being updated in real time. Keith davidson acknowledges that between 2015 and 2017, he regularly worked on ndas, as we said a moment ago. He describes it as an agreement through which parties agree not to discuss certain subjects and that on occasion, the subjects of those ndas were the subjects of tabloid media coverage. Davidson says he got immunity through his grand jury testimony, but he did not seek it. Davidson is now explaining that he knows a Talent Manager named Gina Rodriguez who manages Reality Tv Stars and that he has known her over a decade. Theres a lot more here. We will get back to it in a moment. We will be back in 60 seconds with the politics surrounding all of this and any updates from the court as we follow Keith Davidsons testimony. 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With a laundry detergent. gain flings. Seriously good scent. Right now as we have been watching, donald trump is in a courtroom. In an hour, President Biden will head back on the campaign trail. Is going to delaware for an event. As striking as that contrast might seem, not everyone is seeing that contrast. New polling from nbc news demonstrates where you get your news significantly impacts what you think of this election cycle. Among voters who read newspapers and watch National Network news, biden is winning. Among those who dont consume either and dont follow politics, trump is the pick. Joining me now monica alba and back with us is vaughn hillyard. Part of the issue is which group has more people . Are there more people watching tv news and consuming newspapers or more people who arent paying attention . Monica, i want to ask you about President Biden and how he is out there campaigning and what the white house and what the campaign feels about the consumption out there and how they address it. Reporter its so interesting when you do look at this data from our nbc news poll that you just put up there. When you look at the traditional consumption, people who still read newspapers in print, people who watch the evening news shows, people who are watching Cable Programs like this one right now, they heavily lean towards President Biden. Then those people who just really say they dont follow political news at all, and thats not any kind of a traditional News Consumption diet they have, they lean towards former president trump. You see that kind of Campaign Strategy playing out in real time for the Biden Campaign and the reelection effort. They know those voters, they have a sense of how to get to them through that traditional Media Strategy we have seen for decades and we have seen campaigns of both parties pursue. Its about getting to some of those voters that dont live in those more typical places. That is why you see them have a more online and Digital Strategy when it comes to that. The larger approach to this trial overall, for weeks has been not to say anything too specific about it. In the last couple of days or so, we really have seen the president himself lean in more heavily. He was joking about his republican opponent at the white house Correspondents Dinner over the weekend, even talking about and referring to, quote, stormy weather, saying that he has been tied up in the last couple of weeks with something else, even action knowledging those reports of the former president falling asleep in court at times as sleepy don, a nickname that we know is sort of a play on what donald trump has for years called joe biden in terms of