Defense. She was mocking Stormy Daniels. Donald trumps attorneys mock and shame Stormy Daniels. She wants the jury to think Stormy Daniels is a liar and she is crazy and also wants the jurors to judge her for her occupation. And the peoples witness apparently holds her own. And she said if i was going to make this up, i would have made it a much better story. Tonight, The Wild Cross Examination of the woman at the center of the coverup and why trumps denial of the affair hurt his defense. The denial puts the jury in the position to choose who they believe. And the two big rulings that caused the defendant to storm off. Im not supposed to be here. Plus, is a sitting republican senator helping skirt to the judges gag order . This is just a bunch of democrats saying we want to make sure that donald trump cant talk. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, i am chris hayes. Donald trump selection Interference Trial rolled on today. There were some fireworks and there was also a lot of mudslinging. Some of it even came outside the courtroom, not from trump, but from another florida man, senator rick scott. That is him there. A real live senator, missing votes to be there. We will have more on what he said, later in the show. Inside the courtroom as Stormy Daniels finished her second and final day of testimony with three hours of grueling Cross Examination, trumps lawyers put most of their energy into painting her as a liar, a gold digger and worst of all, at least for the defendant, a trump heater. For most of those three hours trump Attorney Susan Necheles grill daniels about every penny she made from strip club tours to tv shows to candles. Yes, candles, that portrayed the former Adult Dome Actress as the patron saint of indictments. At one point she asked, you were selling yourself to people who hate President Trump as someone who would get President Trump indicted, right . To which she replied, i was not selling myself to anyone. I feel duty bound to stop for a moment, because you know who was selling themselves this week . You will never guess. For the first time we are creating a real, physical trump card. Purchase 47 digital cards and we will mail you a beautiful trading card. It is an authentic piece of the suit i wore when i took the now famous mug shot and it was a great suit, believe me, a really good suit. It is all cut up and you will get a piece of it. I will be autographing some of them. A true collectors item. Something to give to your family, to your kids, to your grandchildren. With the purchase of 47 Digital Trading cards you will be invited to join me for a dinner at my beautiful maralago. You have to get 47 cards and the virtual ones and then you get a physical one, which has like a Diced Up Piece of the suit. Like a tiny part that you get to walk around with. That dinner donald trump was talking to purchasers of his Trading Cards was held at mara lago last night on the trials off day, of course. Donald trump is used similar schemes for a sneaker line, trump branded cologne and a bible. I digress. Stormy daniels according to trumps lawyers is the one trying to trade on her brand. They also argued today she was untrustworthy for divulging the story of her affair with trump even after being paid off and signing a nondisclosure agreement. Asking her, even though you agreed you would not discuss this story and you received a lot of money for that agreement, you then decided you wanted to publicly say you had sex with President Trump, right . Daniels answered, no, nobody would ever want to publicly say that. She added, i wanted to publicly defend myself after people attacking me after Michael Cohen told about the story. Trumps attorneys, i should note, failed to mention that by the time daniels did speak out about the affair it had already been reported to the public by the wall street journal. The trump legal team, for pretty obvious reasons, did not get into detail on the sexual encounter, in part because they are still suggesting it never happened. But they did talk a lot about sex work. After listing adult film credits, necheles said to daniels, you have a lot of experience making funny stories about sex, to which daniel responded, wow, thats not how i would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, like what happened to me in the room. Necheles tried again saying, now there is a story you are telling about President Trump. Daniels replied, if that story was untrue, i would have written it to be a lot better. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger walked daniels through the facts on redirect and asked, on balance has your publicly telling the truth about trump been positive or negative for your life . Daniels replied with a single word, negative. After daniels left the stand, jurors heard from two archival witnesses to read evidence into the record including an executive from harpercollins, the company that published the 2008 how to book, think big, make it happen in business and life. She read several excerpts including a telling one. I just cant stomach disloyalty. I put the people who are loyal to me on a high pedestal and take care of them very well. Talking about someone who disappointed him, trump said this woman was very disloyal and now i go out of my way to make her life miserable. He added, my motto is always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back. That is great writing, isnt it . Trumps lawyers moved again for a mistrial, saying Stormy Daniels testimony was so insignificant that the case could not stand. Judge merchan disagreed, saying once again that if the defense did not like it, they should have objected more during the testimony. That did not sit well with the defendant, who could barely wait until he was out of the courtroom to sound off. Im not allowed to because this judge is corrupt. He is a corrupted judge. This judge, what he did and what his ruling was was a disgrace. Everyone saw what happened today. He has a corrupt judge and conflicted. Ive got to get back on the campaign trail. Im not supposed to be here. We are supposed to im so innocent. Campaign trail like dinners at maralago. Judge merchan also refused a request to ease the gag order so he could respond in public to Stormy Daniels testimony. Joining me now, two people at the courthouse today. Msnbc Legal Correspondent lisa rubin and harry litman. Great to have you guys. Three Different Things happening. There is the cross and redirect. There is the sort of hearing about the mistrial, which is interesting and the last witness who got sworn and will be continuing tomorrow. Lets start with Stormy Daniels. We had her on the stand when last i talked to you i think on tuesday. The cross today, how did it go . For who, is the question. I think it went really well for the prosecution and the reason is because while there are very small differences in Stormy Daniels story, look, this is an event that happened in 2006. It is 2024. The fact that Susan Necheles went on for seven pages on whether Stormy Daniels was consistent or not about saying whether or not they had dinner is beside the point. They were nibbling at the margins and increasingly making her more sympathetic for attacking her for things that were either socially regressive for the same kinds of things that their own client does. For example, as you said in the opening, selling himself. Stormy daniels was selling merchandise. Donald trump sells merchandise all the time in addition to his nfts and suits. He is selling gold sneakers. Hes selling bibles. Stormy daniels sells a tshirt that says team stormy on it. What does that mean . That means anybody who hates donald trump, doesnt it . She said no, it means anyone who is basically on my side. The way she tried to shame her and exploit minor inconsistencies in her story over a period of years, i thought backfired on them, and if anything made them seem all the more determined and resolute in the core details of her story. When you were here last you were saying that she is an interesting witness and compelling, but you are not sure what the jury makes of her. Her presentation and her line of work, i think, is going to be fairly new to most people. I dont know. In terms of what she does for a living. You were trying to mentally model what the jury was thinking. What is your thinking about that after watching today . I basically agree with lisa. Necheles lands a few jabs, but she needs a knockout punch. She did not come close. Also as a matter of technique, she did a lot. You showed a couple of questions. Isnt it a fact . Daniels coolly said no, false, et cetera. So that stopped her in her tracks and then this misstep of basically suggesting, well, if you work in adult films you could not possibly be cowed by a 60yearold billionaire looming over you. I think that was a false note that was offensive and in general ive got to say, i thought the Cross Examination must control. You want the jury looking at you. If anything, stormy was controlling the dynamic in the room and you could see who the jury was looking at. Right. They are hitting the ball. You have it. Your controlling where the ball goes. And controlling the pace and everything. And i agree with harry, she was not only a controlling witness, but she was the rare witness who is better on Cross Examination then she was on direct. On direct she meandered. She wanted to tell her truth, which does not fit neatly into merchans rules. That point you made, because you said earlier, i thought that the nuts and defense, which is a famous reference to attacking anita hill. This woman when she came forward with allegations against clarence thomas, she cannot be trusted. That is how he described her. So just to put the context for that, because we played it in the intro. Here is necheles talking about Stormy Daniels. You acted and had sex in 200 movies, right . And there naked men and women having sex including yourself, right . According to you sing a man sitting on a bed and a tshirt and boxer shorts was so upsetting that you got lightheaded and almost fainted, right . Yes, when youre not expecting a man twice your age to be in their underwear, i have seen my husband naked almost every day. If i came out of the bathroom and it was not my husband and it was mr. Trump on the bed, i would probably have the same reaction. That is well said. What did you think of this line of inquiry, which is, you are a porn star, how could you be offended . It was even more offensive. How dare you think you have the right to consent . I came across to me was because of what you do for your line of work you must have a sign around your neck that basically says open to all. Stormy daniels was very clear. I might do that for a living, but i choose when i do it for a living and how and when, right . Not to do it with a 60yearold man who i found repugnant and was looming over me in a way that felt like an imbalance of power i was not into. Just notice when talking about that, necheles is conceding that she has got to make it look like the whole thing is fantasy. They never had sex at all. So when she is asking details about what she said and didnt say, it was very scattershot and you see what happens when you lead with your chin. This was also one more thing, because this i think relates to the hearing, right . Once again, motion to dismiss. They had a motion to dismiss on tuesday, it was denied. The motion to dismiss here was basically this was all prejudicial, outside the bounds. My understanding of that was that part of the defense, part of the ruling by merchan was this stays in, because you said it did not happen. I want to come to that in the second, but first, this i think is from the first day. The line of questioning, which is, you made it up. This was your career over 20 years. You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real, right . Wow, thats not how i would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, like what happened to me in that room. You write these stories. Stormy daniels, no. The sex is real. The Character Names might be deferent, but the sex is very real. Thats why its pornography. Which i thought was a very funny line. And i tell you what was not funny about it . First of all, that happened today. What i got out of it was the phrase, what happened to me. She allowed her, again, to control the narrative and make it this was something dramatic that happened to me, not this thing that i participated in willingly. I thought that was very impactful and the turn of phrase. Just like what happened to me in that room. So when we get to the mistrial, first of all, how does it physically happen . Is that a sidebar . First of all, in an average trial day, two or three things happen. I think today was five or six, so it was eventful and that was one of them. Normally you think an argument at the end of the day will be academic, lowkey. The judge eviscerated them and i think that is why trump was so upset, but the jury left and they had, you know, an hour. Stop right there. That is the perfect place. Stick around, we will talk about what happened when the judge eviscerated them at that hearing, after this break. Dont go anywhere. Im adding downy unstopables to my wash. Now ill be smelling fresh all day long. [sniff] still fresh. 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The jury leaves and the judge dressed down trumps lawyers, who were petitioning for a mistrial based on Stormy Daniels testimony. First they gave their whole spiel and the d. A. Basically said hes not telling the truth, but it was as if the judge memorized the order and had it in his head. He told todd blanche trumps lawyer. Sorry, well, there were two different lawyers. He said i cant trust you based on the record. We are not changing the gag order. When it came to the mistrial he eviscerated their technique. He said you did not object and then on your cross he went over this at length. The big thing is, You Are The One who put this in play, because you started out accusing her of lying in your opening. You did not talk about the records. I think the way he said these messy details, they are what those to motive and you put his motive at issue by denying the whole thing. So, trump, who really has forced them into this position, made them untenable and they are saying all of these messy details are prejudicial and therefore we should have a mistrial. His response is, i think we talked about this the first day. Blanche gets up in opening arguments and appears to deny that any of this happened. So, merchan basically says your denial in opening arguments makes all this relevant. Correct. She needs the details to establish her credibility. Blanche kettering to say this isnt the story she told ami, not the story she told and in terms of these details the person that knows whether they are true or not is your client. Exactly. He is the one who has the motive to pay the hush money. It is why the messy details are, themselves, proof of his motive. Also an interesting twisting of the knife from the d. A. S office. Steinglass says there are other details i dont want to put on the record. Im happy to make a sealed record about salacious details that were deliberately omitted, because we did not have the desire to embarrass the defendant. Can i say it on tv . I guess. Ive never felt a 60year old before and it was gross. That is something she said. Five or six questions, all of these details really about the two or three hours. He cited that as one of his examples. Stormy daniels was 27 years old at the time. She didnt know what a 60year old mans skin felt like and across her out. We could have elicited that and other things put under seal. Time marches on for all of us. Just to be clear on that. The other thing that happened today, i mean, there were a bunch of things you said, but i want to move to Madeleine Westerhout and maybe you can set up who she was. She was trum