Theres no way to unring the bell in our view. Blanche also accused the prosecution of purposely trying to embarrass trump. And trying to enflame the jury following a conversation between the prosecution and Stormy Daniels. Her testimony has now been different after the lunch break. Shorter answers. Less narrative. Lets get right to it. Back with us, nbc news correspondent, Vaughn Hillyard and joining us for the hour, former fbi General Counsel and nyu law professor, andrew weissman, adam pollack and amy parnes. Okay, vaughn, catch us up on whats going inside right this very second. Reporter theyve been going back and forth over that period of time between august of, October Of 2016 when daniels entered into that 130,000 agreement to keep her story silent with cohen. She believed he was a party up until March Of 2018 when she appeared on 60 minutes and publicly detailed the encounter in 2006. It was not until the Wall Street Journal story by the Wall Street Journal in January Of 2018 in which the actual arrangements, the 130,000 payment, the agreement to silence her story two weeks before the election, really truly came out in the public eye. At that point in time, michael cohen, Donald Trumps attorney, was making public statements but because of this agreement, the nondisclosure agreement, daniels is testifying to this jury she was bound from making public statements about it or making denials that were in fact accurate. And so this for her is sort of her chronicling how she got to the point of actually being released from the nda and being able to detail her place in October Of 2016 from not wanting to publicly share her story and getting that 130,000 for the agreement to the point in 2018 of actually detailing her story for the public at large in a very explicit, graphic interview and then ultimately just mere days later, youre hearing from donald trump on his social media account referring to her as horse face. So this is a big period of time this jury is Hearing Testimony from Stormy Daniels over. But its important for the prosecution in presenting their case as to why she was a sympathetic figure and what donald trump knew were Hush Money Payments then ultimately reimbursement to continue to keep her story silent while he was in the white house. To your exact point, peoples 408a is into evidence. It is a social media post. In march of 2023. Heres what it said. I did nothing wrong in the horse face case. I see she showed up in new york today trying to drum up some publicity for herself. I havent seen or spoken to her since i took a picture with her on a golf course in full golfer i cant read what this is. Typo. Including a hat 18 years ago. She knows nothing about me other than her con man lawyer and jailbird lawyer they have schemed up. Never had an affair. Just another false acquisition by sleaze bag witch hunt to which hoffinger asks her has he called you horse face since. She says yes. I was going back to some of the testimony this morning when they were reading in his books. One of the things it says is for many years, ive said if someone screws you, screw them back. When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and violently as you can. This is not a change for donald trump. And its something people knew when they voted for him to be president in 2016. Thats the thing. Everyone knew about everything pretty much that were hearing about today. But you look at what was going on in the race in 2016 at the time. And you look at what they needed to do. They were in a neck and neck race with hillary clinton. I know were dating back like ten years on this here, but and this is happening. And they have the access Hollywood Tape come out and there was chaos inside the campaign. We heard hope hicks talk about it earlier and now youre seeing they needed to do what they needed to do to kind of put the cabosh on this. Thats what were seeing play out. When you take a step back and look at whats happening today where everything is exposed. He didnt want any of this to come out. And you look at it and here she is big as life testifying before the nation. And this is why were here. And i think to your point, even though people knew about it, theres a reminder factor here for jurors. Even for me as some of this case has unfolded, theres just so much that there are details that even having covered it, im like, oh, yeah, i forgot about that. So for jurors, you can imagine what this is like. Yet you look at what happened in 2016 again and for jurors now but for voters. At the time and when Access Hollywood came out, when people knew who donald trump was and yet they voted for him any way. None of this is very, is new. So i wonder when you take a step back and look at whats happening today, not only with the jurors are thinking but what potential voters are thinking. Here we are again with this particular issue becoming relevant fast forward eight years later. We have moved into crossexamination. Now of Stormy Daniels and sure enough, trumps attorney is the one doing the crossexamination this time and her crossexamination starts like this. Good afternoon, miss daniels. My name is Susan Necklace. You and i have never spoken, correct . Correct. Necklace, you rehearsed your testimony here, correct . Daniels, no. Necklace, the prosecutors put you through grueling Prep Sessions with mock crossexaminations. And daniels says yes. Necklace, you pretended to be cross examined. Daniels, um, no. Necklace, mock crossexamination means, theres an objection, the judge overrules. Necklace, is it correct you had mock crossexaminations done . Daniels, i was in correct. I did not know what true court would be like. I was asked questions as they perhaps be asked in court and well wait for the document to finish getting filled in here. Let me bring the question to you, andrew, as youre hearing how this cross is starting. What are your thoughts . Im a big Susan Necklace fan. I think shes a very good defense lawyer. This is a kind of straight out of defense tricks. Where you say were you rehearsed and usually witnesses will say i was prepared. And the reason witnesses tend to resist the word rehearsed is it sounds like a play. It sounds like theres a script. It sounds like its fiction. So Defense Lawyers tend to use the term rehearse because they want to convey that thought. Whereas the judge has already instructed this jury, it is not only proper for witnesses to be prepared by lawyers, its actually the lawyers obligation to prepare witnesses. So you prepare obviously the direct examination and its totally routine to prepare crossexamination. So im a little surprised she went the that. I mean honestly for the jurors, they are not aware of what happens in every case, but that is a standard thing. I just expected her to, theres so much to cross her on. I just didnt expect that to be the lead. Im not sure that this really lands with the jury like is the point as you say, its like a little trick shes trying to hide something from you. Do we think the jurors think they dont prepare their witnesses . I think juries dont necessarily know. Here, theyve already been instructed. They know this is happening. Ill second what andrew said. Im a big fan. Shes an excellent lawyer. Shes very good. And very experienced. Youve got to think shes going to move quickly on from this to the substance, which is go on for a long time. There will be a lot of material to cross examine daniels on. So were watching in realtime as shes asking these questions and one key question she just asked is am i correct that you hate President Trump. Daniels says yes. Necklace, and you want him to go to jail . Daniels, i want him to be held accountable. She repeated, you want him to go to jail, right . And daniels, if hes found guilty, absolutely. So necklace does not appear to be handling Stormy Daniels with kid gloves. Shes asking pretty direct questions right off the bat. Is this how you would approach crossexamination . I think so. This is not a delicate witness. This is not a Bookkeeper Witness or other neutral witness. This is a core figure in this story and a core figure who theyre going to try to upset. Theyre going to try to get under her skin and theyre going to try to cross her on 63 different topics. So, yes, i would expect an aggressive cross. And andrew, they already know, they knew, the defense knew who Stormy Daniels is. They know how she is in interviews. So do you try to match, i dont know, energy for energy if its a more demure witness, you dont want to do to go hard . If its somebody who looks like they can defend herself, its okay to go in tough . With most sympathetic witnesses, you have to be careful. Thats not going to be this witness. She is her own person. But remember, Donald Trumps position is that she is lying. And frankly the state just brought out the tweet where donald trump said, denied everything. Said theyre not hiding, the state isnt hiding the position of the defense. So the defense has to take the position this is a witness who is lying about my client. And so they do have to go hard. Theres ways to do it but as adam said, theres a lot of terrible here. We mentioned also earlier that the prosecution briefly brought up with daniels the fact she lost the Defamation Case that had been against trump and she owes trump money for that reason. Legal fees and necklace just brought that up as well saying you owe him today over half a million dollars. Daniels says he didnt win the case. He won attorneys case. Necklace, he won the case. Daniels says correct. I want to bring in msnbcs chief local correspondent, host of the beat. Your top thoughts now as crossexamination gets underway. Well, its a big day as you and your guests and legal experts have been discussing. I think if we pull back and say what has the prosecution achieved thus far, they are really rebutting this defense and what some jurors may come to see as a trump Conspiracy Theory that none of this happened. That these people didnt interact. That the money was paid just to silence a random person or a person he only had a glancing interaction with. The burden is on the prosecution but the theory that the defense has, which i think its fair to say is more expansive than if they had a different type of client, is that everyones lying but donald trump and everyones making stuff up and this is all out to get him and wrong and everything else. The photo on the screen, the Testimony Today and other Corroboration Cuts against that. So i think as someone whos looking at this like a story as i observe this, whether or not they went, the prosecutor, a little too far, more than they needed to in some of the lurid or sordid details is a question we cant really answer today, but they seemed to move the ball in showing the jury heres a person who is credible. A person who donald trump has been responding to and dealing with for many years and in the details of this story, theyre arguing that it checks out rather than it being some wholly made up, weird, random thing that that person is pushing. Which is the defense theory. I think thats what comes through today. This is a flesh and blood witness and it had jury is going to have to decide whether shes basically telling the truth about something that happened or whether she committed perjury today. Just big picture, ask you to put on your legal historian or historian hat. This is Stormy Daniels. In a courtroom before a jury among the allegations that she has made today, a sexual encounter with a married man. He had only be married for about a year. That she went into great detail about. She talks about being introduced as a Porn Star To A Playboy Play mate of the year at another event. Where the future president was. She talks about and makes an allegation about a Parking Garage encounter that involved threats. This is the former president of the united states. The presumed nominee for the republican nomination sitting 15 feet away from a woman whos making all of these allegations in the midst of a president ial campaign. Can we just stop for a moment and say how extraordinary today is . Well, when you put it like that, chris, i think youre right. I think that we have all been numbed in various ways. When you put it like that and we take in those facts as presented, some of them as mentioned, corroborated, we are in the very unusual and historic period. I do think its fair to observe that people will see this in different ways outside courtroom. The jurys job is to listen to the evidence, decide whos telling the truth and whether it amounts to the crime as presented. But yes, hes also a candidate. The judge himself had to refer to that just yesterday with regard to holding him in contempt again. So theres a reality outside the courtroom and there are people that are more inclined to the republican or trump perspective who will say how is this any different than what happened with ken starr and Monica Lewinsky when there were many complaints about prosecutorial powers to basically go into personal matters. There will be others who view this as one of four different cases. The only one trump hasnt managed to tangle up in delays and knots with help from people in the government and judiciary branch. That this is a serious case that only got this far because it was so bad and not because of the incident, Which Daniels testified to today, but because of what are alleged Business Fraud and campaign crimes after the incident. You dont have to be a lawyer to know the cover up can be worse than the crime. So i think in that way, maybe a test for some outside the courtroom, but inside the courtroom, its significant because a lot of this is corroborated and the jury is now seeing why this is the kind of thing that the nexus, the kind of thing that outside the courtroom in a campaign, via is 16 issue and one today is not going to do that well. Even among independents or conservatives who might give a different republican a shot. So that i think also is the Connective Tissue that they have tried to show. The prosecutor saying heres what she says. This is why it looks bad. And this is why then candidate trump worked with other people they say then and afterward to make sure it never got out or he wouldnt have been president in the first place. Were looking at the document now. Necklace continues to go after daniels for these legal fees that she owes trump for the litigation that Michael Avenatti had moved forward on behalf of daniels a few years ago. Necklace is calling it frivolous litigation and seems to be continuing to go back and forth. In california, it has 10 annual interest. Is this the only Direction Necklace can go with daniels . I think its one of several but i think that it can try to score points with the jury by saying you just heard a lot of stuff. Sounds bad. But heres other stuff that sounds bad. This is kind of a deterioration crossexamination rather than some great single insight. Mr. Avenatti ended up in prison in connection to this and other cases. We just had him on msnbc within the last few weeks. His first prison interview about this case and he both said he expects trump to be convicted while also putting out several theories or attacks and he is not been deemed the most credible witness. Hes also a convict to be clear. But the reason that that comes up here is obviously the cross here is trying to point out that maybe Stormy Daniels has other motivations. They got her to talk about a dislike for the defendant. The question is not of course whether she dislikes him. Shes allowed to. The question is whether she has such dislike or testimony and the prosecutors have tried to show clearly that everything they asked was factual and yes, i think question of avenatti about the legal skirmishes thereafter and about whether or not shes always been truthful. She, like michael cohen, more potential explaining to do which can be drawn out on cross on the trump side than some of these other witnesses where i dont think the Trump Lawyers got far at all. Ari, great to talk to you. We can catch more of msnbcs special coverage and analysis of the trial at 6 00 p. M. On the beat. He was talking about the dislike and the animus that they want to bring out. You started acting in porn to make more money. Correct, dont we all want to make more money. Then she goes into the part about you hate President Trump and you want him to go to jail and daniels essentially says yes. And the fact she has not paid donald trump. She owes him 660,000. And you havent paid a penny of this. Youve chosen to disobey and she said correct. You will never pay President Trump. Correct. While all of this is happening, keeping a close eye on the jury. She reports the jury is very atented watching this Heating Cross carefully. Also, Court Officers are now telling reporters they cant use binoculars. I dont know if youve ever had that situation before. What we didnt know we can only assume was what necklaces demeanor was. Now we know its a very heated cross. Also respect to the two susans who are colleagues who know each other and respect each other. Theyre both doing their job in court. Just remember at the end of the day, the jury is going to be asked not do you like the person. This isnt a question of who do you want to have a drink with and do you think theyre admirable. David pecker is not an admirable person. He, by