Us. Im ana cabrera along with jose diazbalart reporting from new york with our special coverage. Stormy daniels back on the stand this morning in Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial Facing Additional Cross Examination right now from trumps attorney about her allegation of a sexual encounter with trump and a subsequent coverup. Nbcs Yasmin Vossoughian is outside the courthouse, and here with us for the morning, charles coleman, civil rights attorney and msnbc legal analyst, and teb die owe agone da williams, former Senior Investigative council for the house january 6th commission. Take us inside that courtroom. Whats happening right now . Reporter already pretty contentious to say the least. It seems as if Stormy Daniels is much more prepared this morning than she was tuesday at the start of her testimony, especially when it came to Cross Examination with Susan Necheles. It seemed as if it was as contentious as it was the first goaround. Susan necheles asking repeatedly was this just about money, im paraphrasing here, and Stormy Daniels repeatedly saying, no, no i was not. Stormy daniels wearing a green dress this morning with a black sweater going down to the floor, her hair is down, seeming more relaxed according to to some of our reporters that are inside the courtroom. There is a back and forth going on when it comes to for instance. The lead up to the payout of the 130,000, and Susan Necheles brings up this moment in which it seems as if Stormy Daniels was angry, quote, unquote, furious as Susan Necheles puts it about the fact that the money had not been paid out. The negotiated payout had not been cemented as of yet, and we now know the former president was trying to delay that hoping he would either win and or lose the election, would not have to necessarily pay out this 130,000 toward Stormy Daniels. Susan necheles said werent you furious, werent you angry, werent you calling Keith Davidson names. What are you talking about . Id like to see this evidence. Let me read for you some of what they played for the court, a conversation between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen about this, guys. There are some expletives there, so im going to skip some words. I just didnt want you to get caught off guard, and i wanted to let you know what was going on behind the scenes and i would not be the least bit surprised if you see in the next couple of days that Gina Rodriguezs boyfriend Gina Rodriguez is Stormy Danielss agent at the time, goes out in the media and tells the story that Stormy Daniels in the weeks prior to the election was basically yelling and screaming and calling me a p word, and you can guess what that word is. Michael cohen says can i ask you the question. No, no, hold on a second, i wouldnt be surprised if she comes out and says Stormy Daniels wanted this money more than you can ever imagine. I remember hearing her on the phone saying you blanking Keith Davidson, you better settle this story because if he loses this election and hes going to lose if he loses this election, we lose all leverage in this case, its worth zero, and if that happens im going to sue you because you lost this opportunity. So settle this Blanking Case and then they go on because they bring up the nda, right . The settlement, the 130,000, and the point of which theres an exchange between necheles and Stormy Daniels. Theres a lot to talk about here. Theres a Settlement Agreement between two parties. You said a few things that will be agreed to prior to entering the agreement, there is confidential information relating to the defendant in this case, and daniels says yes. The next paragraph theyre looking at, you say you have been damaged and you were going to have to release claims. I did this, Stormy Daniels says because my attorney suggested that i do. And then they go on. This is the parties agreeing it would be kept confidential, and you refer to it as an nda. Yes, this is the confidentiality agreement, right . Daniels says yes this is getting, guys, were going to see a lot more of this in the Cross Examination. They go on, this is getting at the credibility issues of Stormy Daniels. One thing i will note in some of this Cross Examination that were seeing that i mentioned earlier on is she seems much more prepared. She is droning on less, giving kind of yes or no answers. Listening to the questions from Susan Necheles. Understanding that Susan Necheles might have some moments shes trying to bear out. There are some moments with Susan Necheles plans to bear out, play out for Stormy Daniels that could catch her off guard. She seems more prepared for many of these exchanges going into this. Certainly going to be lots of fireworks today throughout this Cross Examination and then moving on to redirect. Yasmin, stay with us as you continue to read this google document, were going to keep our eyes on it as well. I do want to get your take, charles, on how this Cross Examination today has begun. Expected this is not something that is a surprise to me. I think that Stormy Daniels has been billed for a very long time as being one of the premier witnesses for the prosecution, so you should expect that shes going to garner a significant amount of attention from the defense in terms of attacking her credibility. For viewers who are listening and understanding whats going on its important to understand two things can be true. You can make the case, if you will, that attacks Stormy Daniels credibility from a standpoint of she was attempting to extort donald trump or she was in this for money and it still have no impact on Donald Trumps guilt or innocence with respect to what hes charged with in this case. Understand, donald trump is charged with falsifying Business Records for the purposes of concealing another crime, basically getting to interfering with an election. Whether Stormy Daniels was trying to extort him for money during this process is virtually irrelevant in terms of his actual guilt or innocence, but to the jury it would matter, and it could make her look very bad, and thats what they would like to do. Okay, guys, lets get to real quick whats happening right now. About this credibility piece, right now nechles has questioned Stormy Daniels about some documents she signed that denied ever having an affair with donald trump. She asks, On January 30th this was 2018 theyve entered into evidence a statement that Stormy Daniels signed and On January 30th, you again denied you ever had a sexual relationship with President Trump. Daniels, yes. I am denying this affair because it never happened. I will have no further comment. Daniels, thats what it says. And thats what you signed, right . Daniels, correct. Daniels via Keith Davidson who was her attorney, i never spoke to Michael Cohen directly daniels says. In 2018 President Trump was denying this relationship, right . Daniels, yes. Necheles, and he wanted you to deny it as well, right . Daniels, yes. Necheles, he was already president , right . You understand trump has a brand, yes. You understood his concern about protecting his brand and he daukd taukd about creating an image that was successful, daniels yes. All these denials, temidayo is that going to be a problem for Stormy Daniels the fact that she initially denied having an affair with him . Its not good. If youre a Defense Lawyer what youre looking to do is create complexity and confusion. As charles said, a lot of things pointed out arent relevant to the crime charged. The benefit you have is to say we cant parse this out, and that means you can find beyond a reasonable doubt. Thats the goal here. Its not a target. Its to create the semblance of confusion and tell the jury the prosecutors dont know what happened so how can you know what happened. Thats why you should acquit. Thats the goal here. Bringing up issues that are not directly related to the crime that is alleged, right . Thats what happened when she first took to the stand when we were learning about pajamas and colognes and geographic locations of hotel rooms. So this part of it where theyre going after what specifically she signed onto and, therefore, stated when she one time just before that exchange on the different contracts and statements that she has made, one of them was do you is this your signature . She says i dont remember. She dont remember what you signed, but you remember the cologne. So what is the strategy here and what is more relevant to jurors . I think ultimately if youre thinking about juries, you want to make sure that this witness who is important to the prosecutions case, if youre the defense is not likable and is not credible. So going to yasmins point, it is not a surprise to me that she is essentially better prepared today to testify than she was previously and part of the reason for that is to answer your initial question, she has opened the door to a lot of different questions from the defense on her Cross Examination because of where she went in terms of her answers droning on during her direct. Its not a surprise to me that prosecutors likely sort of said, look, we need to reel you in or her attorney said, listen, lets keep these answers, shorter, sweeter and keep them pithy so she did not expose herself to expanded inquiries from the defense. Now that that door is open, if you are Donald Trumps attorneys, you want to create a situation where you can say to the jury was she lying then when she signed the document, and you know, was closer to where it was that she was going to be and no one knew . Or is she lying now that shes sort of this person who has this much to gain and wants to get money from donald trump. Either way, the point is you want the jury to say i dont know, which is reasonable doubt, which ultimately leads you to the place you need to be. Well, and theres a little bit about her motivation that Susan Necheles is trying to get at with her and trying to get the jury to question, right . And we all know Stormy Daniels story before she took the stand because of the interviews shes given over the last few years, and so i want to pick up with whats happening in this testimony where necheles, Donald Trumps attorney is asking her about giving a 60 minutes interview, and necheles says you wanted to make more money . Daniels, no, thats why 60 minutes free. In that interview you told what happened with President Trump. Daniels, yes, i was not compensated. You got lot os of publicity. Lots of bad publicity. And then there was an objection and the judge sustains it. So necheles, Michael Avenatti was helping you get all this publicity, right . Daniels, he did arrange to get on cnn and the view. Everything else he took for himself. You were going to make lots of money and negotiate a book contract, 800,000. Daniels, yes. In addition to the 130,000, a reference to what she was paid to keep quiet initially. Daniels, i did not receive 130. I also didnt receive the 800,000. My commission was stolen from me. Necheles. That is what you sold it for. The story starts when i am 2 years old. Necheles. Am i correct that the center piece of your book is about your story of supposedly having sex with President Trump . Daniels, sadly, i thought thats what a lot of people would turn to first. But it started with me at 2 years old. Necheles, you believe people would buy the book just for that story . Daniels, i dont know. Necheles, after you wrote the book, you went on tour. Make america horny again. Daniels, i did not name that tour, and i fought it tooth and nail. Temidayo, your take . Thinking about how i think about Cross Examination, the danger here is that someone on the stand can flip from villain to hero if youre too aggressive on Cross Examination, and thats a danger here is that, you know, she had some challenges, Stormy Daniels, when she was on direct examination, but i think if trumps lawyers go after her too aggressively trying to beat her up. Trying to shame her. Trying to attack her in this kind of tone theyre doing now, the jury may start to find her sympathetic, and all of a sudden those credibility points you have raised effectively start to become less what this is about, and i think thats the danger here. If they go down this route, were they really trying to tear Stormy Daniels down as a person, i dont know how they really use that when it comes down to Closing Arguments, which is what this all comes down. What is the argument theyre going to make to the jury about why the elements here have not met. If you stand up and say, ladies and gentlemen, Stormy Daniels wanted to make money off having sex with donald trump, the problem with that is that youre almost implicating, yes, she had sex with donald trump. It supports the prosecutions theme. I just want to continue with something thats going on in the courtroom right now. So after we learn that she went on tour to the Make America Horny again tour, necheles asked, you continued, however, to be at strip clubs on a Strip Club Tour in 2018 and 2019. Daniels, i continued doing my job, yes, dancing at clubs which ive done since 2001. You were selling yourself as someone who hated President Trump and someone who would get President Trump indicted, right . I was not selling myself to anyone. You said and this is again necheles to daniels. You said the white men who used to go to the club were gone, and now its women, gay couples, immigrants, and other associated liberals who despised trump. Did you write that . Is that true . Daniels, the clients at the clubs absolutely changed. Now, to temidayos point, part of the reason Susan Necheles is doing this prosecution, is it would be bad to have a male attorney aggressively cross examining Stormy Daniels in this way. This is all very strategic. It is going she as a female attorney is going to enjoy a certain amount of leeway and a higher threshold for aggressive Cross Examination, which you need for a witness like this that his other attorney simply wouldnt because shes going to draw greater sympathy from the jury earlier on. In terms of the Cross Examination and where this is going, this is a problem that the prosecution has not only with Stormy Daniels but also with Michael Cohen in terms of the amount of information that they have already put out in the public for years because of their public appearances, the various amounts of public interviews in different publications or different radio, tv stations that theyve done. Theres a treasuretrove of information and quotes about this incident that come from all of the prosecutions witnesses, but particularly for Michael Cohen and from Stormy Daniels, not so much from karen mcdougal. These are things they know they are going to have to contend with. Many of those statements for money. Absolutely. Which also sort of again calls into question Stormy Daniels motives. What is it shes doing this for . What is she motivated by and his vitriol towards donald trump is something they will come back to as a theme and say, she was out to get him. She wanted to extort him. They was her moneymaking opportunity. Donald trump was her cash cow. Thats the theme theyre going to sell the jury to discredit Stormy Daniels. The question is how effective its going to be in the long run. Lets go back into the courtroom and this document thats our reporting from the questioning. Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels you participated in making an nbc documentary about yourself, which aired on Television